Malayalam script: Difference between revisions
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|<big>{{lang|ml|ള}}</big> '''{{Unicode|ḷa}}'''<br>{{IPAslink|ɭ|ɭa}}{{ref label|1|H|H}} <tt>LLA</tt><br>''hard la'' |
|<big>{{lang|ml|ള}}</big> '''{{Unicode|ḷa}}'''<br>{{IPAslink|ɭ|ɭa}}{{ref label|1|H|H}} <tt>LLA</tt><br>''hard la'' |
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|style="background:#fef"|<big>{{lang|ml|ക്ഷ}}</big> '''{{Unicode|kṣa}}'''{{ref label|1|I|I}}<br>{{IPA|/kʂa/}}<br> |
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|<big>{{lang|ml|ഴ}}</big> '''{{Unicode|ḻa}}'''<br>{{IPAslink|ɻ|ɻa}}{{ref label|1|J|J}} <tt>LLLA</tt><br>''zha'' |
|<big>{{lang|ml|ഴ}}</big> '''{{Unicode|ḻa}}'''<br>{{IPAslink|ɻ|ɻa}}{{ref label|1|J|J}} <tt>LLLA</tt><br>''zha'' |
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|<big>{{lang|ml|റ}}</big> {{ref label|1|K|K}} '''{{Unicode|ṟa, ṯa}}'''<br>{{IPA|/ra, ta/}} <tt>RRA</tt><br>(hard ra) |
|<big>{{lang|ml|റ}}</big> {{ref label|1|K|K}} '''{{Unicode|ṟa, ṯa}}'''<br>{{IPA|/ra, ta/}} <tt>RRA</tt><br>(hard ra) |
Revision as of 04:47, 5 November 2012
Malayalam script | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Script type | |
Time period | c. 830–present[1][2] |
Direction | Left-to-right ![]() |
Languages | Malayalam |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Tamil script Sinhala script |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Mlym (347), Malayalam |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Malayalam |
U+0D00–U+0D7F | |
Brahmic scripts |
---|
The Brahmi script and its descendants |
The Malayalam script (Malayalam: മലയാളലിപി, [Malayāḷalipi] Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized transliteration standard: iso 15919 (help), IPA: [mɐləjaːɭɐ lɪβɪ] ) is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language—which is the principal language of the Indian state of Kerala, spoken by 52 million people in the world.[3] Like many other Indic scripts, it is an abugida, or a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and partially syllable-based. The modern Malayalam alphabet has 13 vowel letters, 36 consonant letters, and a few other symbols. The Konkani language in Kerala is also sometimes written in the Malayalam script,[4] though relatively rarely. The script is also used to write several minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula.[5] The Malayalam language itself was historically written in several different scripts. Even today it is sometimes written in Arabi Malayalam, a variant form of the Arabic script, mainly by Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia.[1]
Overview
Characteristics
The basic characters can be classified as follows:
- Vowels (സ്വരം, svaram)
- Independent vowel letters
- Dependent vowel signs
- Consonant letters (വ്യഞ്ജനം, vyañjanam)
An independent vowel letter is used as the first letter of a word that begins with a vowel. A consonant letter, despite its name, does not represent a pure consonant, but represents a consonant + a short vowel /a/ by default. For example, ക is the first consonant letter of the Malayalam alphabet, which represents /ka/, not a simple /k/. A vowel sign is a diacritic attached to a consonant letter to indicate that the consonant is followed by a vowel other than /a/. If the following vowel is /a/, no vowel sign is needed. The phoneme /a/ that follows a consonant by default is called an inherent vowel. In Malayalam, its phonetic value is unrounded [ɐ],[6] or [ə] as an allophone. To denote a pure consonant sound not followed by a vowel, a special diacritic virama is used to cancel the inherent vowel. The following are examples where a consonant letter is used with or without a diacritic.
- കി ki = ക ka + ി vowel sign i
- കു ku = ക ka + ു vowel sign u
- കൈ kai = ക ka + ൈ vowel sign ai
- ക് k = ക ka + ് virama
- ക ka = consonant letter ക ka itself, with no vowel sign
Malayalam alphabet is unicase, or does not have a case distinction. It is written from left to right, but certain vowel signs are attached to the left (the opposite direction) of a consonant letter that it logically follows. In the word കേരളം (Kēraḷam), the vowel sign േ (ē) visually appears in the leftmost position, though the vowel ē logically follows the consonant k.
History
The Malayalam language was first written in Vatteluttu, an ancient script for Tamil. However, modern Malayalam script evolved from Grantha, a script originally used to write Sanskrit. Both Vatteluttu and Grantha evolved from Brahmi, but independently.
Vattezhuthu
Vattezhuthu (Malayalam: വട്ടെഴുത്ത്, Vaṭṭeḻuttŭ, “round writing”) is a script that had evolved from Tamil-Brahmi, and was once used extensively in the southern part of present-day Tamil Nadu and in Kerala.
Malayalam was first written in Vatteluttu. The Vazhappalli inscription issued by Rajasekhara Varman is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE.[1][2] In the Tamil country, the modern Tamil script had supplanted Vatteluttu by the 15th century, but in the Malabar region, Vatteluttu remained in general use up to the 17th century,[7] or the 18th century.[8] A variant form of this script, Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in the Kochi area and in the Malabar area.[9] Another variant form, Malayanma, was used in the south of Thiruvananthapuram.[9]
Grantha
![Image: scripts comparison](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Grantha_Tulu_Malayalam1.png/150px-Grantha_Tulu_Malayalam1.png)
According to Arthur Coke Burnell, one form of the Grantha script, originally used in the Chola kingdom, was imported into the southwest coast of India in the 8th or 9th century, which was then modified in course of time in this secluded area, where communication with the east coast was very limited.[10] This script was used by both the Malayali and Tuluva people, but was originally only applied to write Sanskrit. The Tulu form and Malayalam form of this alphabet were identical up to about 1600, and are sometimes collectively called the Tulu-Malayalam alphabet.[10][11] In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu (ആര്യ എഴുത്ത്, Ārya eḻuttŭ),[12] meaning “Arya writing” (Sanskrit is Indo-Aryan language while Malayalam is a Dravidian language).
Vatteluttu was in general use, but was not suitable for literature where many Sanskrit words were used. Like Tamil-Brahmi, it was originally used to write Tamil, and as such, did not have letters for voiced or aspirated consonants used in Sanskrit but not used in Tamil. For this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha script were sometimes mixed, as in Manipravalam. One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, Vaishikatantram (വൈശികതന്ത്രം, Vaiśikatantram), dates back to the 12th century,[13][14] where the earliest form of the Malayalam script was used, which seems to have been systematized to some extent by the first half of the 13th century.[1][8]
Thunchath Ezhuthachan, a poet from around the 17th century, used Arya-eluttu to write his Malayalam poems based on Classical Sanskrit literature.[10] For a few letters missing in Arya-eluttu (ḷa, ḻa, ṟa), he used Vatteluttu. His works became unprecedentedly popular to the point that the Malayali people eventually started to call him the father of the Malayalam language, which also popularized Arya-eluttu as a script to write Malayalam. However, Grantha was imperfect as it was as an alphabet to write a Dravidian language, not having distinctions between e and ē, and between o and ō. The Malayalam script as it is today was perfected in the middle of the 19th century when Hermann Gundert invented the new vowel signs to distinguish them.[10]
By the 19th century, old scripts like Kolezhuthu had been supplanted by Arya-eluttu—that is, the current Malayalam script. Nowadays, it is widely used in the press of the Malayali population in Kerala.[15]
The resemblance between the Malayalam script and the Tulu script is obvious. Some authors believe that the Tulu script is older and the Malayalam script evolved from it or was influenced by it,[16][17] though the oldest written Tulu document available, Tulu Mahabharato, is from around 1500,[18] relatively new compared to the history of the Malayalam writing system.
Orthography reform
In 1969–1971 and in 1981, the Government of Kerala reformed the orthography of Malayalam.[19][20] In the traditional orthography, certain consonants followed by u, ū, or r̥ are represented by special glyphs (consonant-vowel ligatures), where the corresponding basic consonant letter is transformed irregularly. For example:
This kind of irregular glyph was simplified in the new orthography, where a vowel sign is always a separate symbol, never fused with the preceding letter:
Also, most of traditional consonant-consonant ligatures, especially less common ones only used to write words of Sanskrit origin, were split into non-ligated forms. For example:
The new orthography, puthiya lipi (Malayalam: പുതിയ ലിപി, putiya lipi), is now used commonly, but has not completely replaced the traditional system, pazhaya lipi (പഴയ ലിപി, paḻaya lipi)[dubious – discuss].[21]
Malayalam letters
Vowels
Vowel letters and vowel signs
The following tables show the independent vowel letters and the corresponding dependent vowel signs (diacritics) of the Malayalam script, with romanizations in ISO 15919, transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and Unicode CHARACTER NAMES, abbreviated for simplicity (VS = VOWEL SIGN, VOC = VOCALIC).
Short | Long | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Independent | Dependent | Indep. | Dependent | |||
Vowel sign | Example | Vowel sign | Example | |||
a | അ a /a/ A |
(none) | പ pa /pa/ PA |
ആ ā /aː/ AA |
ാ VS AA |
പാ pā /paː/ PA + VS AA |
i | ഇ i /i/ I |
ി VS I |
പി pi /pi/ PA + VS I |
ഈ ī /iː/ II |
ീ VS II |
പീ pī /piː/ PA + VS II |
u | ഉ u /u/ U |
ു VS U |
പു pu /pu/ PA + VS U |
ഊ ū /uː/ UU |
ൂ VS UU |
പൂ pū /puː/ PA + VS UU |
r̥ | ഋ r̥ /rɨ/ VOC R |
ൃ VS VOC R |
പൃ pr̥ /prɨ/ PA + VS VOC R |
ൠ r̥̄ /rɨː/ VOC RR |
ൄ VS VOC RR |
പൄ pr̥̄ /prɨː/ PA + VS VOC RR |
l̥ | ഌ l̥ /lɨ/ VOC L |
ൢ VS VOC L |
പൢ pl̥ /plɨ/ PA + VS VOC L |
ൡ l̥̄ /lɨː/ VOC LL |
ൣ VS VOC LL |
പൣ pl̥̄ /plɨː/ PA + VS VOC LL |
e | എ e /e/ E |
െ VS E |
പെ pe /pe/ PA + VS E |
ഏ ē /eː/ EE |
േ VS EE |
പേ pē /peː/ PA + VS EE |
o | ഒ o /o/ O |
ൊ VS O |
പൊ po /po/ PA + VS O |
ഓ ō /oː/ OO |
ോ VS OO |
പോ pō /poː/ PA + VS OO |
![Image: school sign](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Kerala_Sangeetha_Nadaka_Academy_Trimmed.jpg/204px-Kerala_Sangeetha_Nadaka_Academy_Trimmed.jpg)
r̥, r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄, used to write Sanskrit words, are treated as vowels. They are phonetically not vowels in Malayalam or in Classical Sanskrit, but originally they were (see Proto-Indo-European language and Vedic Sanskrit). The letters and signs for r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ are very rare, and are not considered as part of the modern orthography.[22]
The vowel signs ā, i, ī are placed to the right of a consonant letter to which it is attached. The vowel signs e, ē, ai are placed to the left of a consonant letter. The vowel signs o and ō consist of two parts: the first part goes to the left of a consonant letter and the second part goes to the right of it. In the reformed orthography, the vowel signs u, ū, r̥ are simply placed to the right of the consonant letter, while they often make consonant-vowel ligatures in the traditional orthography.
Independent | Dependent | ||
---|---|---|---|
Vowel sign | Example | ||
ai | ഐ ai /ai̯/ AI |
ൈ VOWEL SIGN AI |
പൈ pai /pai̯/ PA + VOWEL SIGN AI |
au | ഔ au /au̯/ AU |
ൌ (archaic) VOWEL SIGN AU |
പൌ pau /pau̯/ PA + VOWEL SIGN AU |
ൗ (modern) AU LENGTH MARK |
പൗ pau /pau̯/ PA + AU LENGTH MARK |
It is important to note the vowel duration as it can be used to differentiate words that would otherwise be the same. For example, /kalam/ means "earthenware pot" while /kaalam/ means "time" or "season".[23]
Anusvaram
aṁ | അം aṁ /am/ A + ANUSVARA |
ം ṁ /m/ ANUSVARA |
പം paṁ /pam/ PA + ANUSVARA |
---|
An anusvaram (അനുസ്വാരം, anusvāram), or an anusvara, originally denoted the nasalization where the preceding vowel was changed into a nasalized vowel, and hence is traditionally treated as a kind of vowel sign. In Malayalam, however, it simply represents a consonant /m/ after a vowel, though this /m/ may be assimilated to another nasal consonant. It is a special consonant, different from a consonant represented by a “normal” consonant letter in that it is never followed by an inherent vowel or another vowel. In general, an anusvara at the end of a word is transliterated as ṁ in ISO 15919, but a Malayalam anusvara at the end of a word is transliterated as m without a dot.
Visargam
aḥ | അഃ aḥ /ah/ A + VISARGA |
ഃ ḥ /h/ VISARGA |
പഃ paḥ /pah/ PA + VISARGA |
---|
A visargam (വിസർഗം, visargam), or a visarga, represents a consonant /h/ after a vowel, and is transliterated as ḥ. Like an anusvara, it is a special symbol, and this /h/ is never followed by an inherent vowel or another vowel.
Consonants
Basic consonant letters
The following tables show the basic consonant letters of the Malayalam script, with romanizations in ISO 15919, transcriptions in IPA, and Unicode CHARACTER NAMES. The character names used in the report of the Government of Kerala committee (2001) are shown in lowercase italics when different from Unicode character names.[22] Those alternative names are based on the traditional romanization used by the Malayali people. For example, tha in “Thiruvananthapuram” is neither ISO tha nor Unicode THA, but tha in this sense (ത). The ISCII (IS 13194:1991) character names are given in parentheses when different from the above.
Voiceless | Voiced | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unaspirated | Aspirated | Unaspirated | Aspirated | Nasal | |
Velar | ക ka /ka/ KA |
ഖ kha /kʰa/ KHA |
ഗ ga /ɡa/ GA |
ഘ gha /ɡʱa/ GHA |
ങ ṅa /ŋa/ NGA |
Palatal or Postalveolar |
ച ca /t͡ʃa/ CA cha |
ഛ cha /t͡ʃʰa/ CHA chha |
ജ ja /d͡ʒa/ JA |
ഝ jha /d͡ʒʱa/ JHA |
ഞ ña /ɲa/ NYA nha (nja) |
Retroflex | ട ṭa /ʈa/ TTA ta (hard ta) |
ഠ ṭha /ʈʰa/ TTHA tta (hard tha) |
ഡ ḍa /ɖa/ DDA hard da |
ഢ ḍha /ɖʱa/ DDHA hard dda (hard dha) |
ണ ṇa /ɳa/ NNA hard na |
Dental | ത ta /t̪a/ TA tha (soft ta) |
ഥ tha /t̪ʰa/ THA ttha (soft tha) |
ദ da /d̪a/ DA soft da |
ധ dha /d̪ʱa/ DHA soft dda (soft dha) |
ന na /n̪a, na/[A] NA soft na |
Labial | പ pa /pa/ PA |
ഫ pha /pʰa/ PHA |
ബ ba /ba/ BA |
ഭ bha /bʱa/ BHA |
മ ma /ma/ MA |
The consonants /ʈ, ɖ, ɳ/ are retroflex. In Malayalm, they are produced by touching the underside of the tip of the tongue to the front part of the hard palate (apico-palatal).
യ ya /ja/[A] YA |
ര ra /ɾa/[B] RA |
ല la /la/[C] LA |
വ va /ʋa/[D] VA |
ശ śa /ɕa/[E] SHA soft sha (sha) |
ഷ ṣa /ʂa/[F] SSA sha (hard sha) |
സ sa /sa/[G] SA |
ഹ ha /ɦa/ HA |
ള ḷa /ɭa/[H] LLA hard la |
ഴ ḻa /ɻa/[J] LLLA zha |
റ [K] ṟa, ṯa /ra, ta/ RRA (hard ra) |
![]() /na/ NNNA |
![]() /ta/ TTTA |
- A Dental nasal or alveolar nasal, depending on the word.
- B Alveolar tap.
- C The tip of the tongue almost touches the teeth ([l̪]), forward than the English l.
- D [ʋʷ].
- E [ʃʷ].
- F Voiceless apico-palatal approximant [ʂ̺̠˕].[24]
- G Dental sibilant fricative [s̪].
- H Apico-palatal [ɭ̺̠].
- I This glyph is a ligature (KA + VIRAMA + SSA), but is sometimes listed as a basic unit. Often pronounced /ʈ͡ʂa/.
- J Voiced apico-palatal approximant [ʐ̺̠˕].[24] This consonant is usually described as /ɻ/, but also can be approximated by /ɹ/.[25]
- K (1) Repetition of this letter (റ + റ) often represents a geminated voiceless alveolar plosive, /tːa/; (2) chillu-n + this letter (ൻ + റ) often represents /nda/; (3) otherwise alveolar trill (apical) /ra/. Optionally, (1) may be transliterated as ṯṯa instead of ṟṟa, (2) as nṯa (not nḏa) instead of nṟa.
- L Corresponds to Tamil ṉa ன. Used rarely in scholarly texts to represent the alveolar nasal, as opposed to the dental nasal.[26] In ordinary texts both are represented by na ന.
- M Used rarely in scholarly texts to represent the voiceless alveolar plosive, as opposed to the voiceless dental plosive represented by ta ത. In ordinary texts this sound is represented by ṟa റ.[26]
Chillus
A chillu, or a chillaksharam (ചില്ലക്ഷരം, cillakṣaram), is a special consonant letter that represents a pure consonant independently, without help of a virama. Unlike a consonant represented by an ordinary consonant letter, this consonant is never followed by an inherent vowel. Anusvara and visarga fit this definition but are not usually included. ISCII and Unicode 5.0 treat a chillu as a glyph variant of a normal (“base”) consonant letter.[27] In Unicode 5.1 and later, however, chillu letters are treated as independent characters, encoded atomically.[28]
There are at least six known chillu letters. Chillu-k is rare. The other five are quite common.
Letter | Unicode name | Base | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
ൺ | CHILLU NN | ṇa ണ | |
ൻ | CHILLU N | na ന | |
ർ | CHILLU RR | ra ര | Historically from ra, not from ṟa (RRA) റ. |
ൽ | CHILLU L | la ല | Historically from ta ത. |
ൾ | CHILLU LL | ḷa ള | Historically from śa ശ |
ൿ | CHILLU K | ka ക |
Chandrakkala
As virama
Chandrakkala ് (ചന്ദ്രക്കല, candrakkala) is a diacritic attached to a consonant letter to show that the consonant is not followed by an inherent vowel or any other vowel (for example, ക ka → ക് k). This kind of diacritic is common in Indic scripts, generically called virama in Sanskrit, or halant in Hindi.
Half-u
At the end of a word, the same symbol sometimes represents a very short vowel, known as “half-u”, or samvruthokaram (സംവൃതോകാരം, saṁvr̥tōkāram). The exact pronunciation of this vowel varies from dialect to dialect, but it is approximately [ə][29] or [ɨ], and transliterated as ŭ (for example, ന na → ന് nŭ). Optionally, a vowel sign u is inserted, as in നു് (= ന + ു + ്). According to one author, this alternative form is historically more correct, though the simplified form without a vowel sign u is common nowadays.[30] This means that the same spelling ന് may represent either n or nŭ depending on the context. Generally, it is nŭ at the end of a word, and n elsewhere; നു് always represents nŭ.
Ligatures
Consonant ligatures
Like in other Indic scripts, a virama is used in the Malayalam script to cancel—or “kill”—the inherent vowel of a consonant letter and represent a consonant without a vowel, so-called a “dead” consonant. For example,
- ന is a consonant letter na,
- ് is a virama; therefore,
- ന് (na + virama) represents a dead consonant n.
If this n ന് is further followed by another consonant letter, for example, ma മ, the result may look like ന്മ, which represents nma as na + virama + ma. In this case, two elements n ന് and ma മ are simply placed one by one, side by side. Alternatively, nma can be also written as a ligature ന്മ.
Generally, when a dead consonant letter C1 and another consonant letter C2 are conjoined, the result may be either:
- A fully conjoined ligature of C1+C2;
- Half-conjoined—
- C1-conjoining: a modified form (half form) of C1 attached to the original form (full form) of C2
- C2-conjoining: a modified form of C2 attached to the full form of C1; or
- Non-ligated: full forms of C1 and C2 with a visible virama.[31]
If the result is fully or half-conjoined, the (conceptual) virama which made C1 dead becomes invisible, only logically existing in a character encoding scheme such as Unicode. If the result is non-ligated, a virama is visible, attached to C1. The glyphs for nma has a visible virama if not ligated (ന്മ), but if ligated, the virama disappears (ന്മ). Usually the difference between those forms is superficial and both are semantically identical, just like the meaning of the English word palaeography does not change even if it is spelled palæography, with the ligature æ.
Common consonant ligatures
Several consonant-consonant ligatures are used commonly even in the new orthography.
kka | ṅka | ṅṅa | cca | ñca | ñña | ṭṭa | ṇṭa | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Non-ligated | ക്ക | ങ്ക | ങ്ങ | ച്ച | ഞ്ച | ഞ്ഞ | ട്ട | ണ്ട |
Ligated | ക്ക | ങ്ക | ങ്ങ | ച്ച | ഞ്ച | ഞ്ഞ | ട്ട | ണ്ട |
ṇṇa | tta | nta | nna | ppa | mpa | mma | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Non-ligated | ണ്ണ | ത്ത | ന്ത | ന്ന | പ്പ | മ്പ | മ്മ |
Ligated | ണ്ണ | ത്ത | ന്ത | ന്ന | പ്പ | മ്പ | മ്മ |
The ligature mpa മ്പ was historically derived from npa ന്പ. The ligatures cca, bba, yya, and vva are special in that a doubled consonant is denoted by a triangle sign below a consonant letter.
cca | bba | yya | vva | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Non-ligated | ച്ച | ബ്ബ | യ്യ | വ്വ |
Ligated | ച്ച | ബ്ബ | യ്യ | വ്വ |
Consonant + ya, va, la, ra
(1) The consonant letter ya is generally C2-conjoining after a consonant in both orthographies. For example,
- k ക് + ya യ = kya ക്യ
- p പ് + ya യ = pya പ്യ
In kya ക്യ, a variant form of ya () is placed after the full form of ka ക, just like ki കി is written ka ക followed by the vowel sign i ി. In other words, the variant form of ya (
) used after a consonant letter can be considered as a diacritic. Since it is placed after the base character, it is sometimes referred to as a post-base form. An exception is yya യ്യ (see above).
(2) Similarly, va after a consonant takes a post-base form:
- k ക് + va വ = kva ക്വ
- p പ് + va വ = pva പ്വ
An exception is vva വ്വ (see above).
(3) The consonant letter la after a consonant traditionally takes a below-base form. These forms are used also in the new orthography, though some fonts do not support them.
(4) A consonant letter ra after a consonant usually takes a pre-base form in the reformed orthography, while this combination makes a fully conjoined ligature in the traditional orthography.
nṯa and ṯṯa
The ligature nṯa is written as n ന് + ṟa റ and pronounced /nda/. The ligature ṯṯa is written as ṟ റ് + ṟa റ.
nṯa | ṯṯa | |
---|---|---|
Non-ligated | ന്റ | റ്റ |
Ligated | ![]() |
റ്റ |
Digraph | ൻറ | ററ |
In those two ligatures, a small ṟa റ is written below the first letter (chillu-n if it is a dead n). Alternatively, the letter ṟa is sometimes written to the right of the first letter, making a digraph (just like ωι used instead of ῳ in Greek). The spelling ൻറ is therefore read either nṟa (two separate letters) or nṯa (digraph) depending on the word. Similarly, ററ is read either ṟaṟa or ṯṯa.[28]
Dot reph
In the traditional orthography, a dead consonant r before a consonant sometimes takes an above-base form, known as a dot reph, which looks like a short vertical line or a dot. Generally, a chillu-r is used instead of a dot reph in the reformed orthography.
Consonant-vowel ligatures
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Other symbols
Praslesham | ഽ | Corresponds to Devanagari avagraha, used when a Sanskrit phrase containing an avagraha is written in Malayalam script. The symbol indicates the elision of the word-initial vowel a after a word that ends in ā, ē, or ō, and is transliterated as an apostrophe (’), or sometimes as a colon + an apostrophe (:’). (Malayalam: പ്രശ്ലേഷം, praślēṣam) |
---|---|---|
Malayalam date mark | ൹ | Used in an abbreviation of a date. |
Danda | । | Archaic punctuation marks. |
Double danda | ॥ |
Malayalam numbers and fractions are written as follows. These are archaic and no more commonly used. Note that there is a confusion about the glyph of Malayalam digit zero. The correct form is oval-shaped, but occasionally the glyph for ¼ ൳ is erroneously shown as the glyph for 0.
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 100 | 1000 | ¼ | ½ | ¾ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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൧ | ൨ | ൩ | ൪ | ൫ | ൬ | ൭ | ൮ | ൯ | ൰ | ൱ | ൲ | ൳ | ൴ | ൵ |
Unicode
Malayalam script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
Block
The Unicode block for Malayalam is U+0D00–U+0D7F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.
Malayalam[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+0D0x | ഀ | ഁ | ം | ഃ | ഄ | അ | ആ | ഇ | ഈ | ഉ | ഊ | ഋ | ഌ | എ | ഏ | |
U+0D1x | ഐ | ഒ | ഓ | ഔ | ക | ഖ | ഗ | ഘ | ങ | ച | ഛ | ജ | ഝ | ഞ | ട | |
U+0D2x | ഠ | ഡ | ഢ | ണ | ത | ഥ | ദ | ധ | ന | ഩ | പ | ഫ | ബ | ഭ | മ | യ |
U+0D3x | ര | റ | ല | ള | ഴ | വ | ശ | ഷ | സ | ഹ | ഺ | ഻ | ഼ | ഽ | ാ | ി |
U+0D4x | ീ | ു | ൂ | ൃ | ൄ | െ | േ | ൈ | ൊ | ോ | ൌ | ് | ൎ | ൏ | ||
U+0D5x | ൔ | ൕ | ൖ | ൗ | ൘ | ൙ | ൚ | ൛ | ൜ | ൝ | ൞ | ൟ | ||||
U+0D6x | ൠ | ൡ | ൢ | ൣ | ൦ | ൧ | ൨ | ൩ | ൪ | ൫ | ൬ | ൭ | ൮ | ൯ | ||
U+0D7x | ൰ | ൱ | ൲ | ൳ | ൴ | ൵ | ൶ | ൷ | ൸ | ൹ | ൺ | ൻ | ർ | ൽ | ൾ | ൿ |
Notes |
Chillus in Unicode
For example, avan അവൻ (“he”) is written as a അ + va വ + chillu-n ൻ, where chillu-n represents the n sound without a vowel. In other Indic scripts, the same word would be possibly written as a + va + na + virama. However, in Malayalam script, that sequence represents a different word, avanŭ അവന് (“to him”), and is not interchangeable with avan.[32] This is because in modern Malayalam script, the sign for a virama also works as the sign for a vowel ŭ at the end of a word, and is not able to cleanly “kill” the inherent vowel in this case.[29]
To differentiate a pure consonant (chillu) and a consonant with ŭ, zero-width joiner (ZWJ) and zero-width non-joiner (ZWNJ) were used before Unicode 5.1.[27] However, this system was problematic. Among other things, glyph variants specified by ZWJ or ZWNJ are supposed to be non-semantic, whereas a chillu (expressed as letter + virama + ZWJ) and the same consonant followed by a ŭ (expressed as letter + virama + ZWNJ) are often semantically different. After a long debate,[30][29] six chillus now have their own code points starting from Unicode 5.1, though applications should also be prepared to handle data in the representation specified in Unicode 5.0.[28] This means, fonts should display chillus in both sequences; while an input method should output standard chillus.
The ligature nṯa is very common and supported by most Malayalam fonts in one way or another, but exactly how it should be encoded was not clear in Unicode 5.0 and earlier, and two incompatible implementations are currently in use.[33] In Unicode 5.1 (2008), the sequence to represent it was explicitly redefined as chillu-n + virama + ṟa (ൻ്റ),[28] but is not supported yet (as of 2011), by any popular operating systems, fonts or input methods.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d Ager, Simon (1998). "Malayalam alphabet, pronunciation and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ a b "Vazhapally Temple". Vazhappally Sree Mahadeva Temple. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- ^ Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). "Malayalam". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16th ed.). SIL International. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Lo, Lawrence. "Ancient Scripts: Malayalam". Retrieved 2009-12-09.
—According to ISO 639-3 and Ethnologue, Konkani (knn) and Goan Konkani (gom) are two dialects. The above source says that the Malayalam script is sometimes used to write the Konkani language in Kerala. - ^ Ethnologue (16th ed.): "Paniya", "Kurumba, Betta", and "Ravula".
- ^ Canepari (2005), pp. 396, 140.
- ^ Burnell (1874), p. 39.
- ^ a b "The Script". Malayalam Resource Centre. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
- ^ a b "Alphabets". Government of Kerala. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
- ^ a b c d Burnell (1874), p. 35.
- ^ "Grantha alphabet". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
- ^ "EPIGRAPHY - Inscriptions in Grantha Script". Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
- ^ Nampoothiri, N. M. (1999), "Cultural Traditions in Medieval Kerala" (PDF) in Cherian, P. J., Perspecives on Kerala History: The Second Millennium, Kerala Council for Historical Research, ISBN 81-85499-35-7, retrieved 2009-11-20.
- ^ "Development of Literature". Malayalam Resource Centre. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
- ^ Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich. A Grammar of the Malayalam Language in Historical Treatment. Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1996.
- ^ Kekunnaya, K. Padmanabha; Joshy, M. Prabhakara (1999–2000). "The Tulu Script". Retrieved 2009-10-28.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=
ignored (|name-list-style=
suggested) (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ "SEI: Unicode Scripts Research". Script Encoding Initiative (Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley). 2007. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
- ^ "Tulu Academy yet to realise its goal". The Hindu. The Hindu Group. November 13, 2004. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
- ^ "Malayalam Script—Adoption of New Script for Use" (PDF). Government of Kerala. 1971. Retrieved 2009-10-25.
- ^ "Script reform". Malayalam Resource Centre. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
- ^ John, Vijay. "The Concept of ലിപി[[Category:Articles containing Malayalam-language text]] (Lipi)". Learn Malayalam Online!. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
{{cite web}}
: URL–wikilink conflict (help) - ^ a b "Report of the Committee on Malayalam Character Encoding and Keyboard Layout Standardisation". Kerala Gazette. 46 (2023). Government of Kerala. December 18, 2001. Retrieved 2009-10-08.[dead link] See also the May 2001 version (PDF).
- ^ Asher, R. E. Malayalam. Ed. T. C. Kumari 1934-. London ; New York : Routledge, 1997.
- ^ a b Canepari (2005), pp. 397, 185.
- ^ Mohanan (1996), p.421.
- ^ a b Everson, Michael (2007). "Proposal to add two characters for Malayalam to the BMP of the UCS" (PDF). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3494. Retrieved 2009-09-09.
- ^ a b "South Asian Scripts-I" (PDF). The Unicode Standard 5.0 — Electronic Edition. Unicode, Inc. 1991–2007. pp. 42–44. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
- ^ a b c d "Malayalam Chillu Characters". Unicode 5.1.0. Unicode, Inc. 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
- ^ a b c Muller, Eric (2006). "Malayalam cillaksarams" (PDF). JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3126 L2/06-207. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
- ^ a b Chitrajakumar, R.; Gangadharan, N. (2005). "Chandrakkala. Samvruthokaram. Chillaksharam" (PDF). L2/05-210. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=
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suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|separator=
ignored (help) - ^ Constable, Peter (2004). "Clarification of the Use of Zero Width Joiner in Indic Scripts" (PDF). Public Review Issue #37. Unicode, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
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: External link in
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- ^ Johny, Cibu C. (2005). "Unicode Public Review Issue #66: Encoding of Chillu Forms in Malayalam". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|separator=
ignored (help) See also L2/05-085 (PDF). - ^ "Encoding of Chillu Forms in Malayalam". Public Review Issue #66. Unicode, Inc. 2005. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
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References
- Mohanan, K. P. (1996). "Malayalam Writing". In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press.
{{cite book}}
: Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=
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suggested) (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) - Burnell, Arthur Coke (1874). Elements of South-Indian Palæography from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. Trübner & Co.
- Canepari, Luciano (2005). "19.29 Malayalam". A Handbook of Phonetics. LINCOM. ISBN 3-89586-480-3.