Malayalam alphabet

From Wikinfo

The Malayalam alphabet is an Indic script used to write the Malayalam language. Both the language and its writing system are closely related to Tamil, although Malayalam has a larger phoneme inventory.

The alphabet is classified into two categories: swarams (or vowels) and vyanjanams (or consonants).

If you don't have a font that has Malayalam characters and Unicode support, the Malayalam characters in the following tables may not appear correctly.

Malayalam vowels
Letter	Vowel sign	Vowel with [p]		Unicode name	IPA	Note
അ		പ	(pa)	A	a	short 'a'
ആ	ാ	പാ	(pā)	AA	aː	long 'a'
ഇ	ി	പി	(pi)	I	i	short 'i'
ഈ	ീ	പീ	(pī)	II	iː	long 'i'
ഉ	ു	പു	(pu)	U	u	short 'u'
ഊ	ൂ	പൂ	(pu)	UU	uː	long 'u'
ഋ	ൃ	പൃ	(pr̥)	VOCALIC R	rɨ
ഌ				VOCALIC L		obsolete/rarely used
എ	െ	പെ	(pe)	E	e	short 'e'
ഏ	േ	പേ	(pē)	E	eː	long 'e'
ഐ	ൈ	പൈ	(pai)	AI	ai
ഒ	ൊ	പൊ	(po)	O	o	short 'o'
ഓ	ോ	പോ	(pō)	OO	oː	long 'o'
ഔ	ൌ	പൌ	(pau)	AU	au

Malayalam consonants
Malayalam	Unicode Name	Transliteration	IPA
ക	KA	k	k
ഖ	KHA	kh	k^h
ഗ	GA	g	g
ഘ	GHA	gh	g^ɦ
ങ	NGA	n̄ or ng	ŋ
ച	CA	c	tʃ
ഛ	CHA	ch	tʃ^h
ജ	JA	j	dʒ
ഝ	JHA	jh	dʒ^ɦ
ഞ	NYA	ñ or ny	ɲ
ട	TTA	ṭ or tt	ʈ
ഠ	TTHA	ṭh or tth	ʈ^h
ഡ	DDA	ḍ or dd	ɖ
ഢ	DDHA	ḍh or ddh	ɖ^ɦ
ഞ	NNA	ṇ or nn	ɳ
ത	TA	t	t̪
ഥ	THA	th	t̪^h
ദ	DA	d	d̪
ധ	DHA	d	d̪^ɦ
ന	NA	n	n̪
പ	PA	p	p
ഫ	PHA	ph	p^h
ബ	BA	b	b
ഭ	BHA	bh	b^ɦ
മ	MA	m	m
യ	YA	y	j
ര	RA	r	r̪
റ	RRA	ṟ or rr	r
ല	LA	l	l
ള	LLA	ḷ or ll	ɭ
ഴ	LLLA	ḻ or lll	ɹ
വ	VA	v	ʋ
ശ	SHA	ś or sh	ɕ
ഷ	SSA	ṣ or ss	ʃ
സ	SA	s	s
ഹ	HA	h	ɦ

There is no distinction of case, i.e. no uppercase and lowercase letters. Diacritics, or vowel signs, are used to associate a vowel to a consonant. When no diacritic is used, the vowel sound 'a' is assumed. To specifically denote the

absence of a vowel, a chandrakkala ് (also called virama) is used.

Other Malayalam symbols
Symbol	Name	Function
്	virama or chandrakkala	denotes the absence of a vowel
ം	anusvaaram	nasalizes the preceding vowel
ഃ	visargam	adds voiceless breath after vowel (like h)