Malayalam script
| Malayalam Script മലയാളലിപി | |
|---|---|
 Malayalam Aksharamala (Alphabet Chart) divided into 15 vowels (സ്വരാക്ഷരങ്ങൾ), 36 basic consonants (വ്യഞ്ജനാക്ഷരങ്ങൾ),6 voiceless consonants (ചില്ലക്ഷരങ്ങൾ), 15 vowel diacritics (സ്വരചിഹ്നങ്ങൾ) and 4 subscript consonant forms (ഉപചിഹ്നങ്ങൾ). | |
| Script type | |
Period | c. 13th century – present |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | Malayalam Sanskrit Tulu Jeseri Konkani Paniya Betta Kurumba Ravula and other minor languages |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian
|
Sister systems | Tigalari script Thirke script Dhives Akuru Saurashtra script |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Mlym (347), Malayalam |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Malayalam |
| U+0D00–U+0D7F | |
| Brahmic scripts |
|---|
| The Brahmi script and its descendants |
Malayalam script (Malayāḷa lipi; IPA: [mələjaːɭə lipi] / Malayalam: മലയാളലിപി) is a Brahmic abugida used to write Malayalam, the principal language of Kerala, India, spoken by 45 million people. Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of the official scripts of India.
The Malayalam script resembles Tulu script and Tigalari script, used to write the Tulu language, spoken in coastal Karnataka (Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts) and the northernmost Kasargod district of Kerala. Like many Indic scripts, it is an alphasyllabary (abugida), a writing system that is partially "alphabetic" and partially syllable-based. The modern Malayalam alphabet has 15 vowel letters, 42 consonant letters, and a few other symbols. The Malayalam script is a Vatteluttu alphabet extended with symbols from the Grantha alphabet to represent Indo-Aryan loanwords. The script is also used to write several minority languages such as Paniya, Betta Kurumba, and Ravula. The Malayalam language itself has been historically written in several different scripts.