MALAYALAM SCRIPT

The 'Malayalam script' is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. From the Brahmi script, the Grantha script emerged as one of the earliest Southern scripts. It further evolved into the Malayalam script. The Malayalam script covers all the symbols of Sanskrit as well as special Dravidian letters. The alphabet is classified into two categories: swarams (or vowels) and vyanjanams (or consonants).

Contents

Vowels

Consonants

Other symbols

Digits

Malayalam in Unicode

See also

External links

Vowels

Letter	Vowel sign	Vowel with [p]		Unicode name	IPA	Remarks
അ		പ	(pa)	A	a	short 'a'
ആ	ാ	പാ	(pā)	AA	aː	long 'a'
ഇ	ി	പി	(pi)	I	i	short 'i'
ഈ	ീ	പീ	(pī)	II	iː	long 'i'
ഉ	ു	പു	(pu)	U	u	short 'u'
ഊ	ൂ	പൂ	(pu)	UU	uː	long 'u'
ഋ	ൃ	പൃ	(pr)	VOCALIC R	r<
ൠ	ൃ	പൃ	(pr)	LONG VOCALIC R		Obsolete/rarely used
ഌ				VOCALIC L		obsolete/rarely used
ൡ				LONG VOCALIC L		obsolete/rarely used
എ	െ	പെ	(pe)	E	e	short 'e'
ഏ	േ	പേ	(pē)	E	eː	long 'e'
ഐ	ൈ	പൈ	(pai)	AI	ai
ഒ	ൊ	പൊ	(po)	O	o	short 'o'
ഓ	ോ	പോ	(pō)	OO	oː	long 'o'
ഔ	ൌ	പൌ	(pau)	AU	au
അ.
അ:

Consonants

Malayalam	Unicode name	Transliteration	IPA
ക	KA	k	k
ഖ	KHA	kh	kh
ഗ	GA	g	g
ഘ	GHA	gh
ങ	NGA	n or ng	ŋ
ച	CHA	ch
ഛ	CHHA	chh
ജ	JA	j
ഝ	JHA	jh
ഞ	NJA	ñ or nj
ട	TTA	or tt
ഠ	TTHA	or tth
ഡ	DDA	or dd
ഢ	DDHA	or ddh
ണ	NNA	or nn
ത	THA	th	t
ഥ	THHA	thh	th
ദ	DA	d	d

Malayalam	Unicode name	Transliteration	IPA
ധ	DHA	d
ന	NA	n	n
പ	PA	p	p
ഫ	PHA	ph
ബ	BA	b	b
ഭ	BHA	bh
മ	MA	m	m
യ	YA	y	j
ര	RA	r	r
ല	LA	l	l
വ	VA	v
ശ	SSA	or s
ഷ	SHA	sś or sh
സ	SA	s	s
ഹ	HA	h
ള	LLA	or ll
ഴ	ZHA	or zh
റ	RRA	or rr	r

There is no distinction of case, i.e. no uppercase and lowercase letters. Diacritics, or vowel signs, are used to associate a vowel to a consonant. When no diacritic is used, the vowel sound 'a' is assumed. To denote the absence of a vowel specifically, a ''chandrakkala'' (also called ''virama'') is used.

Other symbols

Symbol	Name	Function
്	virama or ''chandrakkala''	denotes the absence of a vowel
ം	anusvaaram	nasalizes the preceding vowel
ഃ	visargam	adds voiceless breath after vowel (like h)

In addition to these symbols, there are many more symbols to indicate ligatures of the various consonants with each other.

Digits

Malayalam digits are written as follows:

Malayalam	Indo-Arabic
൦	0
൧	1
൨	2
൩	3
൪	4
൫	5
൬	6
൭	7
൮	8
൯	9

Malayalam in Unicode

The Unicode range for Malayalam is U+0D00 ... U+0D7F.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

D00

ഀ

ഁ

ം

ഃ

ഄ

അ

ആ

ഇ

ഈ

ഉ

ഊ

ഋ

ഌ

഍

എ

ഏ

D10

ഐ

഑

ഒ

ഓ

ഔ

ക

ഖ

ഗ

ഘ

ങ

ച

ഛ

ജ

ഝ

ഞ

ട

D20

ഠ

ഡ

ഢ

ണ

ത

ഥ

ദ

ധ

ന

ഩ

പ

ഫ

ബ

ഭ

മ

യ

D30

ര

റ

ല

ള

ഴ

വ

ശ

ഷ

സ

ഹ

ഺ

഻

഼

ഽ

ാ

ി

D40

ീ

ു

ൂ

ൃ

ൄ

൅

െ

േ

ൈ

൉

ൊ

ോ

ൌ

്

ൎ

൏

D50

൐

൑

൒

൓

ൔ

ൕ

ൖ

ൗ

൘

൙

൚

൛

൜

൝

൞

ൟ

D60

ൠ

ൡ

ൢ

ൣ

൤

൥

൦

൧

൨

൩

൪

൫

൬

൭

൮

൯

D70

൰

൱

൲

൳

൴

൵

൶

൷

൸

൹

ൺ

ൻ

ർ

ൽ

ൾ

ൿ

See also

★ List of alphabets

★ Grantha script

External links

★ Website including resources for learning Malayalam script

★ Unicode Code Chart for Malayalam (PDF Format)

★ Malayalam Unicode fonts

★ Indian Language Converter Web-based tool to transliterate from Romanised English to Unicode Malayalam

★ 'moodle' in Malayalam Virtual Learning Environment