The Malayalam Alphabet

First let’s go over the basics. Malayalam is written and read from left to write like English. Malayalam is also written in a Brahmi script which is native to India. To be able to read and write in Malayalam, I need to be able to identify and write each character in the Malayalam alphabet. This is no easy task. Malayalam has over double the number of vowels that English has. At 15 vowels and 42 consonants, it has so many characters. On top of this Malayalam has short and long forms for these and special characters for certain vowel or consonant combinations. Today I will cover what I have learned about the Malayalam alphabet from completing a Malayalam Alphabet workbook written in English. Link will be provided below.

Vowels are crucial building blocks of languages. Vowels are sounds that can be clearly produced without you having to obstruct or constrict. Both Malayalam and English represent their consonants in their written languages with unique characters. However, with vowels, the “a” sound is not represented with a vowel character unless it stands alone without a consonant. Consonants are assumed to have an “a” sound attached at the end naturally. A special character needs to be added to indicate a consonant ends without an “a” or with a different vowel.

The next thing you need to know is the complete and short forms of vowels. Vowels are always written in their full form when they stand alone. However, when combined with consonants to form syllabus, there is a shorter form that is used. The exception to this rule is the “a” sound because as stated before it automatically assumed to be at the end of every consonant.

Consonants are also needed to form words in a language. If you must obstruct or constrict any part of your vocal tract to produce a sound, then it is a consonant. Consonants also have interesting rules. Consonants have both a base form and a stressed form. In English, consonants also can have a stressed form; however, they are not represented in writing. You are simply expected to know which consonants or syllables are stressed. Take the word photographer. Is the “to” sound or the “gra” sound the stressed syllable. English speakers will know it’s the second one but someone who is just learning the language has no way of knowing until someone corrects them. Malayalam has special characters for each stressed consonant in a syllable.

If multiple consonants are used together in a syllable, the consonants are combined into single character. These unique characters for each combination allow readers to clearly identify syllables. This is very different from English where readers may get stuck looking at a word wondering how to split it into syllables and pronounce it. One thing to keep in mind is that the “a” sound at the end of each consonant still exists. A “half-moon” mark can be used to indicate that the preceding consonant stands without a vowel. There also four consonants that have a special short form.

The final set of characters to remember are consonants at the end of a syllable or word without a vowel. There are two different forms for these six consonants. One form signifies that it does not contain an “a” sound and the other signifies that there is not vowel at all. This may seem confusing for English speakers since we are used to words ending in consonants. In Malayalam, most words end in a vowel and only 6/42 consonants can be used to end a word.