Malayalam Script Pdf
Malayalam-speaking area is written in a. Malayalam text used in this article is transliterated into the Latin script according to the standard. Malayalam (; മലയാളം, Malayāḷam ) is a spoken in, predominantly in the state of. It is one of the 22 of India and was designated as a in 2013. It was developed to the current form mainly by the influence of the poet in the 16th century. Malayalam has status in the state of and in the union territories of and. It belongs to the and is spoken by some 38 million people.
Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states of and; with significant numbers of speakers in the, and districts of, and of. Malayalam serves as a on certain islands, including the -dominated. The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars. One view holds that Malayalam and Modern Tamil are offshoots of and separated from it sometime after c. 7th century CE.
Abstract— This paper presents a novel approach to recognize. Grantha, an ancient script in South India and converting it to. Malayalam, a prevalent language in South India using online character recognition mechanism. The motivation behind this work owes its credit to (i) developing a mechanism to recognize. To get a list of code charts for a character, enter its code in the search box at the top. To access a chart for a given block, click on its entry in the.
A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of 'Proto-Dravidian' in the prehistoric era. The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the, and later the, which derived from it. [ ] The current is based on the Vatteluttu script, which was extended with letters to adopt loanwords. With a total of 52 letters, the Malayalam script has the largest number of letters among the orthographies. The oldest literary work in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated from between the 9th and 11th centuries.
The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam, written by in 1785. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Etymology [ ] The word Malayalam originated from the words malai or mala, meaning 'hill,' and elam, meaning region'; Malayalam thus translates directly as 'hill region.'
The term originally referred to the land of the, and only later became the name of its language. The language Malayalam is alternatively called Alealum, Malayalani, Malayali, Malean, Maliyad, and Mallealle. Historically, the term used by Malayalam speakers for the language itself was Malayanma or Malayayma, meaning the language of the nation Malayalam; the word Malayanma is now occasionally used for earlier stages of Malayalam. The name Malayalam was first used for the language in the mid-19th century. [ ] Evolution [ ] The generally held view is that Malayalam was the western coastal dialect of Tamil and separated from Tamil sometime between the 9th and 13th centuries. Some scholars however believe that both Tamil and Malayalam developed during the prehistoric period from a common ancestor, 'Proto-Tamil-Dravidian', and that the notion of Malayalam being a 'daughter' of Tamil is misplaced. This is based on the fact that Malayalam and several Dravidian languages on the western coast have common features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of Tamil., in his book ' A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages', opines that Malayalam branched from Classical Tamil and over time gained a large amount of vocabulary and lost the personal terminations of verbs.
As the language of scholarship and administration, Old-Tamil, which was written in and the Vatteluttu alphabet later, greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. The Malayalam script began to diverge from the Tamil-Brahmi script in the 8th and 9th centuries CE.
And by the end of the 13th century a written form of the language emerged which was unique from the Tamil-Brahmi script that was used to write Tamil. This section does not any. Unsourced material may be challenged and. (July 2012) () Variations in patterns, vocabulary, and distribution of grammatical and elements are observable along the parameters of region, religion, community, occupation, social stratum, style and register. Dialects of Malayalam are distinguishable at regional and social levels, including occupational and also communal differences. The salient features of many varieties of tribal speech (e.g., the speech of Muthuvans, Malayarayas, Malai Ulladas, Kanikkars, Kadars, Paliyars, Kurumas, and Vedas) and those of the various dialects,,, (Nasrani), Latin Christians, Muslims, fishermen and many of the occupational terms common to different sections of Malayalees have been identified.
[ ] According to the Dravidian Encyclopedia, the regional of Malayalam can be divided into thirteen dialect areas. They are as follows: South Travancore Central Travancore West Vempanad North Travancore Kochi-Thrissur South Malabar South Eastern Palghat North Western Palghat Central Malabar Wayanad Kasaragod Lakshadweep According to Ethnologue, the dialects are: Malabar, Nagari-Malayalam, South Kerala, Central Kerala, North Kerala, Kayavar,,,, Pulaya, Nasrani, and. The community dialects are: Namboodiri, Nair,, Pulaya, and Nasrani.
Whereas both the Namboothiri and Nair dialects have a common nature, the is among the most divergent of dialects, differing considerably from literary Malayalam. As regards the geographical dialects of Malayalam, surveys conducted so far by the Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala restricted the focus of attention during a given study on one specific caste so as to avoid mixing up of more than one variable such as communal and geographical factors. Thus for examples, the survey of the dialect of Malayalam, results of which have been published by the Department in 1974, has brought to light the existence of twelve major dialect areas for Malayalam, although the isoglosses are found to crisscross in many instances.
Sub-dialect regions, which could be marked off, were found to be thirty. This number is reported to tally approximately with the number of principalities that existed during the pre-British period in. In a few instances at least, as in the case of Venad, Karappuram, Nileswaram and Kumbala, the known boundaries of old principalities are found to coincide with those of certain dialects or sub-dialects that retain their individuality even today. This seems to reveal the significance of political divisions in Kerala in bringing about dialect difference. [ ] Divergence among dialects of Malayalam embrace almost all aspects of language such as phonetics, phonology, grammar and vocabulary.
Differences between any two given dialects can be quantified in terms of the presence or absence of specific units at each level of the language. To cite a single example of language variation along the geographical parameter, it may be noted that there are as many as seventy seven different expressions employed by the and spread over various geographical points just to refer to a single item, namely, the flower bunch of coconut. 'Kola' is the expression attested in most of the panchayats in the, and districts of, whereas 'kolachil' occurs most predominantly in and and 'klannil' in and. 'Kozhinnul' and 'kulannilu' are the forms most common in and respectively. In addition to these forms most widely spread among the areas specified above, there are dozens of other forms such as 'kotumpu' (Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram), 'katirpu' (), krali (), pattachi, gnannil (), 'pochata' () etc. Referring to the same item. It may be noted at this point that labels such as 'Brahmin Dialect' and 'Syrian Caste Dialect' refer to overall patterns constituted by the sub-dialects spoken by the subcastes or sub-groups of each such caste.
The most outstanding features of the major communal dialects of Malayalam are summarized below: • Lexical items with phonological features reminiscent of Sanskrit (e.g., viddhi, meaning 'fool'), bhosku ('lie'), musku ('impudence'), dustu ('impurity'), and eebhyan and sumbhan (both meaning 'good-for-nothing fellow') abound in this dialect. • The dialect of the educated stratum among the resembles the dialect in many respects.
The amount of influence, however, is found to be steadily decreasing as one descends along the parameter of education. • One of the striking features differentiating the Nair dialect from the dialect is the phonetic quality of the word-final: an enunciative vowel unusually transcribed as 'U'. In the Nair dialect it is a mid-central unrounded vowel whereas in the Ezhava dialect it is often heard as a lower high back unrounded vowel. • The Syrian Christian dialect of Malayalam is quite close to the dialect, especially in. The speech of the educated section among Syrian Christians and that of those who are close to the church are peculiar in having a number of assimilated as well as unassimilated from and.
The few loan words which have found their way into the Christian dialect are assimilated in many cases through the process of de-aspiration. • The Latin Christian dialect of Malayalam is close to the fishermen dialect. It is also influenced by, and.
[ ] • The Muslim dialect shows maximum divergence from the literary Standard Dialect of Malayalam. It is very much influenced by and rather than by Sanskrit or by English. The retroflex continuant zha of the literary dialect is realised in the Muslim dialect as the palatal ya.
External influences and loanwoards [ ] Malayalam has incorporated many elements from other languages over the years, the most notable of these being and later, English. Malayalam can also be divided in terms of the evolution. During relatively older times, Malayalam used to be almost indistinguishable from Sanskrit and Tamil, a mix of both. The Father of Modern Malayalam, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan was the one who reformed the language, making Malayalam a bit more, though not much, self reliant. He performed this great task laid before him by adopting a few words from each of the languages, Sanskrit and Tamil.
According to who compiled the authoritative Malayalam lexicon, the other principal languages whose vocabulary was incorporated over the ages were,,,,,,, and. Many medieval texts were written in an admixture of and early Malayalam, called. The influence of was very prominent in formal Malayalam used in literature. Malayalam has a substantially high amount of Sanskrit loan words but are seldom used.
Loan words and influences also from, and abound in the, as well as,, and in the dialects, while and Persian elements predominate in the dialects. The Muslim dialect known as is used in the Malabar region of Kerala. Another Muslim dialect called is used in the extreme northern part of Kerala and the southern part of Karnataka. For a comprehensive list of loan words, see. Geographic distribution and population [ ]. See also: and Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India (from Thuckalay to Talapady).According to the Indian census of 2011, there were 32,299,239 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.74% of the total population of the state.
There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in, 957,705 (2.7%) in, and 406,358 (1.2%) in. The number of Malayalam speakers in is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2011. Of the total 34,713,130 Malayalam speakers in India in 2011, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan.
As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in (Madras),,, (Bombay), and. A large number of Malayalis have also emigrated to the, the United States, and Europe.
There were 179,860 speakers of Malayalam in the United States, according to the 2000 census, with the highest concentrations in and. There were 7,093 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2006. The 2001 reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mainly in.
The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers. 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 in.
There is also a considerable Malayali population in the regions, especially in and. Recently a Keralite is elected as mayor in Loughten town of England. Phonology [ ] For the consonants and vowels, the (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbol is given, followed by the Malayalam character and the transliteration.
A public notice board written using. The Malayalam language possesses official recognition in the state of, and the union territories of and Historically, several scripts were used to write Malayalam. Among these were the Vatteluttu, and scripts. But it was the, another variation, which gave rise to the modern. It is syllabic in the sense that the sequence of graphic elements means that syllables have to be read as units, though in this system the elements representing individual vowels and consonants are for the most part readily identifiable. In the 1960s Malayalam dispensed with many special letters representing less frequent conjunct consonants and combinations of the vowel /u/ with different consonants. Malayalam script consists of a total of 578 characters.
The script contains 52 letters including 16 vowels and 36 consonants, which forms 576 syllabic characters, and contains two additional diacritic characters named and. The earlier style of writing has been superseded by a new style as of 1981. This new script reduces the different letters for typesetting from 900 to fewer than 90. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers. In 1999 a group named 'Rachana Akshara Vedi' produced a set of free containing the entire character repertoire of more than 900. This was announced and released along with a in the same year at, the capital of.
In 2004, the fonts were released under the license by of the at the in Kochi, Kerala. Malayalam has been written in other scripts like, and. Was used by (also known as Nasranis) until the 19th century. Arabic scripts particularly were taught in in Kerala and the. Literature [ ].
Kerala Sahitya Akademy at The earliest written record resembling Malayalam is the Vazhappalli inscription (ca. The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition: Malayalam Nada, Tamil Nada and Sanskrit Nada.
• Classical songs known as • of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam. Manipravalam Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar wrote Manipravalam poetry in the 14th century. • The folk song rich in native elements to the late 20th century betrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of Pattu and Manipravalam, respectively, are Ramacharitam and Vaishikatantram, both from the 12th century. [ ] The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautalyam (12th century) on 's. By (known as the father of the Malayalam language) who was born in, one of the most important works in Malayalam literature.
[ ] written in the 14th century is amongst the oldest literary works in Malayalam language. By the end of the 18th century some of the from Kerala started writing in Malayalam but mostly travelogues, dictionaries and religious books. (1778), written by is considered to be the first travelogue in an Indian language. Early period [ ].
Malayalam letters on old coin The earliest known poem in Malayalam,, dated to the 12th to 14th century CE, was completed before the introduction of the Sanskrit alphabet. It shows the same phase of the language as in and Sasanas (dated to mid‑8th century A.D.). But the period of the earliest available literary document cannot be the sole criterion used to determine the antiquity of a language.
In its early literature, Malayalam has songs, Pattu, for various subjects and occasions, such as harvesting, love songs, heroes, gods, etc. A form of writing called Campu emerged from the 14th century onwards. It mixed poetry with prose and used a vocabulary strongly influenced by Sanskrit, with themes from epics and Puranas. Cover page of Nasranikal okkekkum ariyendunna samkshepavedartham which is the first book to be printed in Malayalam in 1772. Rama-charitam, which was composed in the 14th century A.D., may be said to have inaugurated just as Naniah's did for. The fact is that dialectical and local peculiarities had already developed and stamped themselves in local songs and ballads.
But these linguistic variations were at last gathered together and made to give a coloring to a sustained literary work, the Rama-charitam, thereby giving the new language a justification and a new lease on life. The Malayalam language, with the introduction of a new type of devotional literature, underwent a metamorphosis, both in form and content, and it is generally held that modernity in Malayalam language and literature commenced at this period. This change was brought about by Thunchathu (16th century) who is known as the father of modern Malayalam. Till this time Malayalam indicated two different courses of development depending on its relationship with either.
The earliest literary work in Malayalam now available is a prose commentary on Chanakya's, ascribed to the 13th century. The poetical works called Vaisikatantram are also believed to belong to the early 14th century. These works come under a special category known as, literally the combination of two languages, the language of and Sanskrit. A and rhetoric in this hybrid style was written sometime in the 14th century in Sanskrit and the work, called the Lilatikalam, is the main source of information for a student of literary and linguistic history. According to this book, the and Pattu styles of literary compositions were in vogue during this period. 'Pattu' means 'song' and more or less represents the pure Malayalam school of poetry. From the definition of the Pattu style given in the Lilatikalam, it can be surmised that the language of Kerala during this period was more or less in line with Tamil, but this has misled many people to believe incorrectly that Malayalam was itself Tamil during this period and before.
The latest research shows that Malayalam as a separate spoken language in Kerala began showing independent lines of development from its parental tongue Proto-Tamil-Malayalam (which is not modern Tamil), preserving the features of the earliest tongue, which only in due course gave birth to the literary form of Tamil, namely Sen Tamil and Malayalam, the spoken form of which is prevalent in. However, till the 13th century there is no hard evidence to show that the language of Kerala had a literary tradition except in folk songs. The literary tradition consisted of three early Manipravalam Champus, a few and innumerable amorous compositions on the courtesans of, which throb with literary beauty and poetical fancies, combined with a relishing touch of realism about them with regard to the then social conditions. Many works in the form of commentaries upon Puranic episodes form the bulk of the classical works in Malayalam. The Pattu (a devoted to define this pattern is termed a pattu) school also has major works like the (12th century), and the (14th century) by a set of poets belonging to one family called the Kannassas. Some of them like Ramacharitam have a close resemblance to the Tamil language during this period.
This is to be attributed to the influence of Tamil works on native poets belonging to areas that lie close to the Tamil country. It was during the 16th and 17th centuries that later Champu kavyas were written. Their specialty was that they contained both Sanskritic and indigenous elements of poetry to an equal degree, and in that manner were unique. Unnayi Varyar, whose Nalacharitan Attakkatha is popular even today, was the most prominent poet of the 18th century among not only the Kathakali writers, but also among the classical poets of Kerala. He is often referred to as the of Kerala. Although is a dance drama and its literary form should more or less be modeled after the drama, there is nothing more in common between an Attakkatha and Sanskrit drama. That is to say, the principles of dramaturgy to be observed in writing a particular type of Sanskrit drama are completely ignored by an author of Attakkatha.
Delineation of a particular is an inevitable feature with Sanskrit drama, whereas in an Attakkatha all the predominant rasas are given full treatment, and consequently the theme of an Attakkatha often loses its integrity and artistic unity when viewed as a literary work. Any Attakkatha fulfills its objective if it affords a variety of scenes depicting different types of characters, and each scene would have its own hero with the rasa associated with that character. When that hero is portrayed he is given utmost importance, to the utter neglect of the main sentiment ( rasa) of the theme in general. However, the purpose of Attakkatha is not to present a theme with a well-knit emotional plot as its central point, but to present all approved types of characters already set to suit the technique of the art of. The major literary output of the century was in the form of local plays composed for the art of, the dance dramas of Kerala also known as Attakkatha. It seems the Gitagovinda of Jayadeva provided a model for this type of literary composition.
The verses in Sanskrit narrate the story and the dialogue is composed in imitation of songs in the Gitagovinda, set to music in appropriate in the classical style. Besides the Raja of Kottarakkara and Unnayi Varyar referred to above, nearly a hundred plays were composed during this century by poets belonging to all categories and subscribing to all standards, such as Irayimman Tampi and Ashvati Raja, to mention just two. Devotional literature in Malayalam found its heyday during the early phase of this period. Ezhuthachan referred to above gave emphasis to the cult. The Jnanappana by Puntanam Nambudiri is a unique work in the branch of philosophical poetry. Written in simple language, it is a sincere approach to the philosophy of. It took nearly two centuries for a salutary blending of the scholarly Sanskrit and popular styles to bring Malayalam prose to its present form, enriched in its vocabulary by Sanskrit but at the same time flexible, pliable and effective as to popular parlance.
As regards literature, the leading figures were and Vidwan Koithampuran, both poets of the royal court. Their works abound in a beautiful and happy blending of music and poetry.
The former is surely the most musical poet of Kerala and his beautiful lullaby commencing with the line Omana Thinkalkidavo has earned him an everlasting name. But the prime reason why he is held in such high esteem in Malayalam is the contribution he has made to Kathakali literature by his three works, namely the Dakshayagam, the Kichakavadham and the Uttara-svayamvaram. The latter's work Ravana Vijayam has made him immortal in literature. Impact of European scholars [ ] The first printed book in Kerala was Doctrina Christam, written by in. It was transliterated and translated into Malayalam, and printed by the Portuguese in 1578. In the 16th and 17th centuries, was the first to substitute for the Tamil Vatteluttu alphabet.
Ezhuthachan, regarded as the father of the modern Malayalam language, undertook an elaborate translation of the ancient Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata into Malayalam. His and Mahabharata are still read with religious reverence by the Malayalam-speaking Hindu community. Kunchan Nambiar, the founder of Tullal, was a prolific literary figure of the 18th century. The British printed by Graham Shaw in 1779 was still in the form of a Tamil-English Dictionary.
The of Kerala started to learn the Tulu-Grantha Bhasha of Nambudiris under the British Tutelage. Wrote the first Malayalam travelogue called in 1789. The educational activities of the missionaries belonging to the Basel Mission deserve special mention., (1814 – 1893), a German missionary and scholar of exceptional linguistic talents, played a distinguishable role in the development of Malayalam literature. His major works are Keralolpathi (1843), Pazhancholmala (1845), Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam (1851), Paathamala (1860) the first Malayalam school text book, Kerala pazhama (1868), the first Malayalam dictionary (1872), Malayalarajyam (1879) - Geography of Kerala, Rajya Samacharam (1847 June) the first Malayalam news paper, Paschimodayam (1879) - Magazine. Backbreaker Pc Editors.
He lived in for around 20 years. He learned the language from well established local teachers Ooracheri Gurukkanmar from Chokli, a village near and consulted them in works. He also translated the Bible into Malayalam. In 1821, the (CMS) at in association with the started a seminary at in 1819 and started printing books in Malayalam when Benjamin Bailey, an priest, made the first Malayalam types. In addition, he contributed to standardizing the prose. From, Germany, started the first Malayalam newspaper, Rajya Samacaram in 1847.
It was printed. Malayalam and were increasingly studied by Christians of and. By the end of the 19th century Malayalam replaced as language of in the Syrian Christian churches. Thanks to the efforts of kings like and to the assistance given by him to the Church Mission and London Mission Societies, a number of schools were started. 1850–1904 [ ]. This section does not any. Unsourced material may be challenged and.
(July 2012) () The establishment of the Madras University in 1857 marks an important event in the cultural history of. It is from here that a generation of scholars well versed in and with the capacity to enrich their own language by adopting Western literary trends came into being. Was the first branch to receive an impetus by its contact with English. Though there was no shortage of prose in Malayalam, it was not along Western lines.
It was left to the farsighted policy of the (1861 to 1880) to start a scheme for the preparation of textbooks for use by schools in the state. Kerala Varma V, a scholar in Sanskrit, Malayalam and English was appointed Chairman of the Committee formed to prepare textbooks. He wrote several books suited for various standards. The growth of journalism, too, helped in the development of prose. Initiated by missionaries for the purpose of religious propaganda, journalism was taken up by local scholars who started newspapers and journals for literary and political activities., (1861-1914) from was the author of first Malayalam short story, Vasanavikriti. After him innumerable world class literature works by was born in Malayalam. With his work in 1887, marks the origin of prose fiction in Malayalam.
Other talented writers were, the author of, a great, in 1889 and another called Sarada. Also there was, who wrote the historical novel Marthandavarma in 1890 as well as works like Dharmaraja, and. Shakuntala writes to Dushyanta.
The poetry was translated by as In poetry there were two main trends, one represented by and the other. The latter's poetry was modeled on the old style abounding in Sanskrit words and terms, but it had a charm of its own when adapted to express new ideas in that masterly way characteristic of himself. His translation of 's in 1882 marks an important event in the history of Malayalam drama and poetry. Also Kerala Varma's Mayura-sandesam is a Sandesakavya (messenger poem) written after the manner of Kalidasa's Meghadutam.
Though it cannot be compared with the original, it was still one of the most popularly acclaimed poems in Malayalam. One of the notable features of the early decades of the 20th century was the great interest taken by writers in translating works from Sanskrit and English into Malayalam. Kalidasa's Meghaduta and Kumarasambhava by A. Raja Raja Varma and the Raghuvamsa by K.
Menon must be mentioned. One of the most successful of the later translators was C. Subramaniam Potti who set a good model by his translation of the Durgesanandini of Bankim Chandra from an English version of it. Twentieth century [ ].
Malayalam language in mobile phone Prose [ ] It is interesting to note that a number of novels were translated during this period. Potti, mentioned above, also brought out the Lake of Palms of R. Dutt under the title Thala Pushkarani, Kapalakundala by V.
Thampi and Visha Vruksham by T. Kalyani Amma were also translations of novels by Bankimochandra Chatterji.
Among the original novels written at that time only a few are worth mentioning, such as Bhootha Rayar by Appan Thampuran, Keraleswaran by Raman Nambeesan and by K. Although a large number of social novels were produced during this period, only a few are remembered, such as Snehalatha by Kannan Menon, Hemalatha by T. Download Aleksandra Radovic Cuvaj Moje Srce. Velu Pillai and Kambola-balika by N. Krishna Pillai.
But by far the most inspiring work of that time was Aphante Makal by M. Namboodiri, who directed his literary talents towards the abolition of old worn-out customs and manners which had for years been the bane of the community. Short stories came into being. With the advent of E. Krishna Pillai, certain marks of novelty became noticeable in the short story.
His Keleesoudham proved his capacity to write with considerable emotional appeal. Was a pioneer in prose dramas. He had a particular knack for writing dramas in a lighter vein. His Kurupillakalari of 1909 marks the appearance of the first original Malayalam prose drama. It is a satirical drama intended to ridicule the official classes who started imitating Western fashion and etiquette. There were other authors, less well-known, who wrote in this vein.
[ ] Under the guidance of A. Balakrishna Pillai, a progressive school of authors appeared in almost all branches of literature, such as the novel, the short story, the drama, and criticism.
This section does not any. Unsourced material may be challenged and. (July 2012) () Kumaran Asan's celebrated poem, Veena Poovu ( The Fallen Flower) depicts in a symbolic manner the tragedy of human life in a moving and thought-provoking manner. Vallathol's Bandhanasthanaya Aniruddhan, which demonstrates an exceptionally brilliant power of imagination and deep emotional faculties, depicts a situation from the Puranic story of Usha and Aniruddha. Iyer was another veteran who joined the new school. He wrote a series of poems like Oru Mazhathulli in which he excelled as a romantic poet.
The three more or less contemporary poets, and considerably enriched Malayalam poetry. Some of their works reflect social and political movements of that time. Asan wrote about in Kerala; Ullor's writings reflect his deep devotion and admiration for the great moral and spiritual values, which he believed were the real assets of ancient social life of India. They were known as the trio of Malayalam poetry. After them there were others like K. Nair and who contributed to the growth of poetry.
See also [ ].
Developing OpenType Fonts for Malayalam Script Introduction Microsoft Typography September 2008 Please note: This document reflects the changes made in 2005 recommendations for Indic-script OpenType font and shaping-engine implementations. While Indic fonts made according to the earlier recommendations will still function properly in the new versions of Uniscribe, font developers may choose to update their fonts, particularly if they wish to avoid certain limitations of the earlier implementation. This document presents information that will help font developers create or support OpenType fonts for the Malayalam script covered by the Unicode Standard. The Malayalam script is used to write the Malayalam language spoken in the Kerala state of South India. While the shapes of the letters resemble the Tamil script, Malayalam has a full set of consonant conjuncts. Contents • • • • Introduction This document targets developers implementing Indic shaping behavior compatible with Microsoft OpenType specification for Indic scripts. It contains information about terminology, font features and behavior of the Indic shaping engine in regards to the Malayalam script.
While it does not contain instructions for creating Malayalam fonts, it will help font developers understand how the Indic shaping engine processes Indic text. In addition, registered features of the Malayalam script are defined and illustrated with examples. The new Indic shaping engine allows for variations in typographic conventions, giving a font developer control over shaping by the choice of designation of glyphs to certain OpenType features. For example, the location where the reph and pre-pended matra are re-ordered within a syllable cluster is affected by the presence of a half form.
See illustrations below. In this specification, font developers will learn how to encode complex script features in their fonts, choose character sets, organize font information and use existing tools to produce Malayalam fonts. Registered features of Malayalam script are defined and illustrated, encodings are listed and templates are included for compiling Malayalam layout tables for OpenType fonts.
In the example below using the Devanagari script, (Ra + halant + Da+ halant + Ma + I-matra), Ra + halant will form the reph, but how the Da is classified will determine the position of the reph as well as the location of the pre-pended matra. Glossary The following terms are useful for understanding the layout features and script rules discussed in this document.
Above-base form of consonants - A variant form of a consonant that appears above the base glyph. Akhand ligatures - Required consonant ligatures that may appear anywhere in the syllable, and may or may not involve the base glyph. Akhand ligatures have the highest priority and are formed first; some languages include them in their alphabets. Malayalam has several Akhand ligatures. Base glyph - The only consonant or consonant conjunct in the syllable that is written in its 'full' (nominal) form.
In Malayalam, the last consonant of the syllable (except for syllables ending with letter 'Ra') usually forms the base glyph. In 'degenerate' syllables that have no vowel (last letter of a word), the last consonant in halant form serves as the base consonant and is mapped as the base glyph.
Layout operations are defined in terms of a base glyph, not a base character, since the base can often be a ligature. Below-base form of consonants – The below-base form comes after the consonant(s) that form the base glyph.
(Malayalam consonant La) Below-base forms are represented by the non-spacing mark glyph. Chandrakala (Virama) - The character used after a consonant to 'strip' it of the inherent vowel. This is also known Halant.
Chillaksaram – Consonants that appear in the final position of a syllable and merge with Halant (Virama) are known as Chillaksaram in Malayalam. Cluster – A group of characters that form an integral unit in Indic scripts, often times a syllable. Consonant - Each represents a single consonant sound. Consonants may exist in different contextual forms and have an inherent vowel (usually, the short vowel 'a'). For example, 'Ka' and 'Ta', rather than just 'K' or 'T.'
Consonant conjuncts (aka “conjuncts”) - Ligatures of two or more consonants. Consonant conjuncts may have both full and half forms, or only full forms. Halant (Virama) - The character used after a consonant to 'strip' it of its inherent vowel. This is known as chandrakala in Malayalam.
NOTE: A syllable containing halant characters may be shaped with no visible halant signs by using different consonant forms or conjuncts instead. Halant form of consonants - The form produced by adding the halant (virama) to the nominal shape. The Halant form is used in syllables that have no vowel or as the half form when no distinct shape for the half form exists.
Half form of consonants (pre-base form) - A variant form of consonants which appear to the left of the base consonant, if they do not participate in a ligature. Consonants in their half form precede the ones forming the base glyph. Some Indic scripts, like Devanagari have distinctly shaped half forms for most of the consonants. If not distinct shape exists, the full form will display with an explicit Virama (same shape as the halant form).
Matra (Dependent Vowel) - Used to represent a vowel sound that is not inherent to the consonant. Dependent vowels are referred to as 'matras' in Sanskrit. They are always depicted in combination with a single consonant, or with a consonant cluster. The greatest variation among different Indian scripts is found in the rules for attaching dependent vowels to base characters. New shaping behavior - Shaping behavior defined in this version of the Indic OpenType Font Specification.
Information in this document relates primarily to the new implementation model. Old behavior may be mentioned in comments about compatibility. Nukta - A combining character that alters the way a preceding consonant (or matra) is pronounced. Old shaping behavior - Shaping behavior defined in previous versions of the Indic OpenType Font Specification.
OpenType layout engine – Library responsible for executing OpenType layout features in a font. In the Microsoft text formatting stack, it is named OTLS (OpenType layout services). OpenType tag – 4-byte identifier for script, language system or feature in the font. Post-base form of consonants – A variant form of a consonant that appears to the right of the base glyph. A consonant that takes a post-base form is preceded by the consonant(s) forming the base glyph plus a halant (virama). Post-base forms are usually spacing glyphs. Pre-base form of consonants - A variant form of a consonant that appears to the left of the base glyph.
Note that most pre-base consonant forms are logically as well as visually before the base consonant. Half forms are examples of this kind of pre-base form. In some scripts, though, a pre-base Ra may logically follow the base consonant (that is, it follows it phonetically and in the character sequence of the text), even though it is presented visually before the base. The shaping engine detects such cases dynamically using the feature and re-orders the pre-base-form glyph as needed. Reph – The above-base form of the letter 'Ra' that is used in Devanagari when 'Ra' is the first consonant in the syllable and is not the base consonant.
Shaping Engine – Code responsible for shaping input, classified to a particular script. Split Matra - A matra that is decomposed into pieces for rendering. Usually the different pieces appear in different positions relative to the base. For instance, part of the matra may be placed at the beginning of the cluster and another part at the end of the cluster.
Syllable - A single unit of Indic text processing. Shaping of Indic text is performed independently for each syllable. Process of identifying boundaries of each syllable is described below. Vattu - A below-base form of a consonant. Example in Devanagari script 1.
Pre-base form 2. The base consonant 3. Above-base form ( reph) 4. Post-base (matra) 5.
Below-base form ( vattu/rakaar) Shaping Engine. • • • • • • • The Indic shaping engine processes Malayalam text in stages. The stages are: • Analyze the text sequence; breaking it into syllable clusters • Reorder the characters as necessary • Apply OpenType GSUB font features to get the correct glyph shape • Apply OpenType GPOS features to position glyphs or marks The descriptions which follow will help font developers understand the rationale for the Malayalam feature encoding model and help application developers better understand how layout clients can divide responsibilities with operating system functions. Analyze the text Character properties The shaping engine divides the text into syllable clusters and identifies character properties. Character properties are used in parsing syllables and identifying its parts, in determining proper character or glyph reordering and in OpenType feature application.
Properties for each character are divided into two types: static properties and dynamic properties. Static properties define basic characteristics that do not change from font to font: character type (consonant, matra, vedic sign, etc.) or type of matra reordering. They differ from script to script, but can't be controlled by font developer. Dynamic properties are font dependent and are retrieved by the shaping engine as the font is loaded.
These properties affect shaping and reordering behavior. *Note: in old shaping-engine implementations, all consonant properties were static: consonants were assumed to have particular conjoining forms. In the new implementation model, consonant conjoining behavior is a dynamic property.
Retrieving dynamic character properties from Indic fonts Fonts define dynamic properties for consonants through implementing standard features. Consonant types (and corresponding feature tags) that the shaping engine reads from the font are: • Reph • Half forms • Pre-base-reordering forms of Ra/Rra • Below-base forms • Post-base forms Each of the features above is applied together with feature to input sequences consisting of two characters: for and, features are applied to Consonant + Halant combinations; for, and, features are applied to Halant + Consonant combinations. This is done for each consonant. If these two glyphs form a ligature, with no additional glyphs in context, this means the consonant has the corresponding form. For instance, if a substitution occurs when the and features are applied to a sequence Da + Halant, then Da is classified as having a half form. Note that a font may be implemented to re-order a Ra to pre-base position only in certain syllables and display it as a below-base or post-base form otherwise.
This means that the Pre-base-form classification is not mutually exclusive with either Below-base-form or Post-base-form classifications. However, all classifications are determined as described above using context-free substitutions. Font-dependent character classification only defines consonant types. Reordering positions, however, are fixed for each character class. *Note: for fonts that support the old implementation, all features are applied to Consonant + Halant sequences.
Indic input processing The following steps should be repeated while there are characters left in the input sequence. All shaping operations are done on a syllable-by-syllable basis, independent from other characters. Find next syllable in the input Engine should find the character sequence matching one of the patterns below.