2) Consonants always have an inherent a-sound, unless they are marked with a different dependent vowel or “cut off” with the special sign that looks like small crescent, for example ത് ല്, or other marker.
When a vowel occurs in the middle of a word, you must use its dependent vowel form. 1) If a vowel begins a word, you must use its initial vowel form. That means there are three tricky parts about learning the Malayalam script for English readers. There are four types of letters or syllables in Malayalam: initial vowels, consonants, dependent vowels added to consonants, and combining consonants for conjunct sounds. With some hard work, you can learn the script within a week and never look back. It works a little differently and requires some memorization, but the script is phonetic, meaning that you say it as you write it (mostly!), and syllabic, meaning that it’s based on an alphabet and the syllables you can make with an alphabet. Malayalam has been written in several scripts, including Brahmi, Vatteluttu, Grantha, and modern Malayalam scripts beginning in roughly the ninth century CE.įor English speakers, the Malayalam writing system, or script, may look intimidating.
All writing systems in India are based on the Brahmi script, the first evidence of which is the group of inscriptions by King Ashoka in the third century BCE.
