Malayalam was first believed to be written in the Tamil-Brahmi script. Over time, the modern Malayalam letter evolved from Grantha and Vattezhuthu alphabet, both of which independently evolved from the Tamil-Brahmi script.
At present, Malayalam is the official language of the Indian state of Kerala, union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry, and it is also commonly spoken in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Malayalam alphabets are broken down into Vowels and Consonant letters. In addition, numerals in Malayalam are also written in Malayalam script.
Below is the breakdown of Vowels, Consonants and Numerals in Malayalam.
Malayalam vowel, also called Swaraksharanghal (സ്വരാക്ഷരങ്ങൾ), can be classified into independent and dependent vowel.
Independent vowel is used at the beginning of a syllable, whereas dependent vowel is used when the vowel follows a consonant.
Consonant in Malayalam are also called vyanjanam (വ്യഞ്ജനം). There are 42 consonant letters in Malayalam.
Malayalam has its own numeric symbols to denote numbers and fractions. At present, however, either Hindu or Latin numeral systems are commonly used.
There are 56 letters in Malayalam script. Out of them, 14 are vowel letters and remaining 42 letters are consonants.
Thunchan Ramanujan Ezhuthchan, is regarded as the father of the Modern Malayalam language. He was a 16th century Poet, translator and linguist born at Trikkantiyur, at the town of Tirur, in Vettathunadu.
In Malayalam, there are 14 vowel and 42 consonant letters.
The modern Malayalam alphabet, however, has 15 vowel letters. There are also several consonant-consonant ligatures. To give you an example, the consonant “ka” (ക) will turn (ക്ക) when tied up with “ka” to double the sound.
Malayalam language has a complex spoken and written grammar. Besides, it differs a lot from English and other languages. Due to this Malayalam is considered as one of the toughest languages to learn.
Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karnataka.
Malayalam is spoken by over 34 million people around the world. In the Indian states of Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, it is spoken by 33 million native speakers as a first language and another 1 million use it as a second language.
