One of the oldest examples of the Manipravalam literature, Vaishikatantram (, Vaiikatantram ), dates back to the 12th century, 14 15 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. 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.įor this reason, Vatteluttu and the Grantha alphabet were sometimes mixed, as in the Manipravalam. In Malabar, this writing system was termed Arya-eluttu (, rya eutt ), 13 meaning Arya writing (Sanskrit is Indo-Aryan language while Malayalam is a Dravidian language ). While Malayalam script was extended and modified to write vernacular language Malayalam, the Tigalari was written for Sanskrit only.
The Vazhappally inscription issued by Rajashekhara Varman is the earliest example, dating from about 830 CE.Ī variant form of this script, Kolezhuthu, was used until about the 19th century mainly in the Kochi area and in the Malabar area.Īnother variant form, Malayanma, was used in the south of Thiruvananthapuram. The script is also used to write several minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula. The Malayalam script is a Vatteluttu alphabet extended with symbols from the Grantha alphabet to represent Indo-Aryan loanwords. However, the modern Malayalam script evolved from the Grantha alphabet, which was originally used to write Sanskrit.īoth Vatteluttu and Grantha evolved from the Tamil-Brahmi, but independently. The modern Malayalam alphabet has 15 vowel letters, 42 consonant letters, and a few other symbols. In the word ( Kraam ), the vowel sign ( ) visually appears in the leftmost position, though the vowel logically follows the consonant k. 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. The following are examples where a consonant letter is used with or without a diacritic. To denote a pure consonant sound not followed by a vowel, a special diacritic virama is used to cancel the inherent vowel. The Malayalam language itself was historically written in several different scripts.Ī consonant letter, despite its name, does not represent a pure consonant, but represents a consonant a short vowel a by default.įor example, is the first consonant letter of the Malayalam alphabet, which represents ka, not a simple k.Ī vowel sign is a diacritic attached to a consonant letter to indicate that the consonant is followed by a vowel other than a. The modern Malayalam alphabet has 15 vowel letters, 42 consonant letters, and a few other symbols. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an alphasyllabary ( abugida ), a writing system that is partially alphabetic and partially syllable-based.
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