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Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language

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Malayalam

Malayalam is a Dravidian language with about 38 million speakers spoken mainly in the south west of India,
particularly in Kerala, the Laccadive Islands and neighboring states, and also in Bahrain, Fiji, Israel, Malaysia,
Qatar, Singapore, UAE and the UK.
Malayalam was first written with the Vatteluttu alphabet (
Vaeutt), which means 'round writing'
and developed from the Brahmi script. The oldest known written text in Malayalam is known as the Vazhappalli
or Vazhappally inscription, is in the Vatteluttu alphabet and dates from about 830 AD.
A version of the Grantha alphabet originally used in the Chola kingdom was brought to the southwest of India
in the 8th or 9th century and was adapted to write the Malayalam and Tulu languages. By the early 13th century
it is thought that a systemised Malayalam alphabet had emerged. Some changes were made to the alphabet
over the following centuries, and by the middle of the 19th century the Malayalam alphabet had attained its
current form.
As a result of the difficulties of printing Malayalam, a simplified or reformed version of the script was
introduced during the 1970s and 1980s. The main change involved writing consonants and diacritics
separately rather than as complex characters. These changes are not applied consistently so the modern
script is often a mixture of traditional and simplified letters.
Malayalam is also regularly written with a version of the Arabic script by Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia,
and occasionally by Muslims in Kerala.

Notable features
Type of writing system: syllabic alphabet in which all consonants have an inherent vowel. Diacritics,
which can appear above, below, before or after a consonant, are used to change the inherent vowel.
When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
When certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used which combine the
essential parts of each letter.
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines.
Used to write: Malayalam (), a Dravidian language with about 38 million speakers spoken
mainly in the south west of India.

Malayalam alphabet ()
Vowels (

svaram)

Vowel diacritics with ka

Note
When combined with vowel diacritics some consonants change shape. This doesn't happen in the simplified
version of the script (in blue)
Consonants (

www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm

vyanjanam)

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Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language

A chillu or chillaksharam represents pure consonants independently, without help of a virama. Unlike a
consonant represented by an ordinary consonant letter, these consonants are never followed by an inherent
vowel.
A selection of conjunct consonants

Numerals (

akkan
n
alla)

The simplified versions are shown in blue.

Sample text

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Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language

Transliteration
Manuyarellvarum tulyvakan
n
aum antassum svtantryatttumki janiccavar. Anynyam
bhrtrubvattoe perumuvna manuyannu vivkabuddhiyum manakiyum siddhamyirikkunnat.
A recording of this text by Vijay Prabhu
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience
and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Malayalam | Malayalam phrases | Tower of Babel in Malayalam | Malayalam learning
materials

Links
Information Malayalam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/vipin/www/mal.html
http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org
Online Malayalam lessons
http://www.learn-malayalam.com
http://websitefor.info/learn/malayalam/
http://www.entemalayalam.org
http://www.kpmalayalam.com
http://malayalamteacher.com
Malayalam phrases
http://www.jaimalayalam.com/vegam_vegam_malayalam.htm
http://www.languageshome.com/English-Malayalam.htm
Online Malayalam dictionaries
http://www.prokerala.com/general/dictionary/
http://www.mashithantu.com/dictionary/
http://www.dictionary.tamilcube.com/malayalam-dictionary.aspx
http://malayalam.changathi.com/Dictionary.aspx
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/gundert/
http://www.shabdkosh.com/ml/
http://olam.in
Malayalam fonts
http://varamozhi.sourceforge.net
http://www.clickeralam.org/product.html
The Bible in Malayalam (Unicode)
http://216.156.35.218/Default.asp
Online Malayalam news
http://www.mathrubhumi.com
http://www.malayalamanorama.com
Online Malayalam transliterator
http://www.writeka.com

Dravidian languages
Badaga, Brahui, Gondi, Jatapu, Kannada, Kodava, Kolam, Konda, Koya, Kurukh, Malayalam, Mukha Dora,
Savara, Sunuwar, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Yerukula

Syllabic alphabets / abugidas

Ahom, Badaga, Balinese, Batak, Baybayin (Tagalog), Bengali, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Chakma, Cham,
Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dhives Akuru, Ethiopic, Evla Akuru, Fraser, Gondi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gupta,
Gurmukhi, Hanuno'o, Javanese, Jenticha, Kaithi, Kannada, Kharosthi, Khmer, Khojki, Kulitan, Lanna, Lao,
Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Malayalam, Manpuri, Modi, Mongolian Horizontal Square Script, New Tai
Lue, Oriya, Pahawh Hmong, Pallava, Phags-pa, Ranjana, Redjang, Shan, Sharda, Siddham, Sindhi, Sinhala,
Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Telugu, Thai,
Tibetan, Tikamuli, Tocharian, Tolong Siki, Tulu, Varang Kshiti

Copyright 1998-2013 Simon Ager

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