Editing Malayalam script (section)

{{Short description|Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language}}
{{Distinguish|Jawi script{{!}}Malay script}}
{{Expand Malayalam|മലയാളലിപി|date=April 2023}}
{{use dmy dates |date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox Writing system
| name        = Malayalam script
| languages   = [[Malayalam]]<br />[[Sanskrit]]<br />[[Tulu language|Tulu]]<br />[[Jeseri]]<br />[[Konkani language|Konkani]]<br />[[Paniya]] <br /> [[Betta Kurumba]] <br /> [[Ravula language|Ravula]] and other minor languages
| type        = [[Abugida]]
| time        = {{abbr|c.|Circa}} 830 – present<ref name="Omniglot"/><ref name="Vazhapally Temple">{{Cite web|title=Vazhapally Temple|url=http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|publisher=Vazhappally Sree Mahadeva Temple|access-date=2009-10-31|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109014543/http://www.vazhappallytemple.org/history.html|archive-date=2011-01-09}}</ref>
| fam1        = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian]]
| fam2        = [[Proto-Sinaitic]]
| fam3        = [[Phoenician script|Phoenician]]
| fam4        = [[Aramaic script|Aramaic]]
| fam5        = [[Brahmi script]]
| fam6        = [[Tamil-Brahmi]]
| fam7        = [[Pallava script]]
| fam8        = [[Grantha script]] (with Vattezhuthu influence)
| sisters     = [[Tigalari script]] <br />[[Thirke script]]<br />[[Dhives Akuru]] <br />[[Saurashtra script]]
| unicode     = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0D00.pdf U+0D00–U+0D7F]
| iso15924    = Mlym
| sample      = Malayalam script sample.jpg
| imagesize   = 250px
}}

{{Contains special characters|Indic}}
{{Malayalam transliteration}}
{{brahmic}}

'''Malayalam script''' ({{transliteration|ml|ISO|Malayāḷa lipi}}; {{IPA|ml|mɐlɐjaːɭɐ liβ̞i|IPA}}<ref name="Ref_a"/><ref name="Grammatical Sketch">{{Cite web |url=http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hj3/pub/Malayalam.pdf |title=Malayalam: a Grammatical Sketch and a Text |access-date=2020-12-22 |archive-date=2012-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911225521/http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hj3/pub/Malayalam.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> / {{langx|ml|മലയാളലിപി}}) is a [[Brahmic scripts|Brahmic script]] used commonly to write [[Malayalam]], which is the principal language of [[Kerala]], [[India]], spoken by 45 million people in the world. It 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 the Indian Republic]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/47/04706745/0470674547-196.pdf |title=Chapter 1: Global Religious Populations 1910–2010 |website=media.johnwiley.com.au |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020100448/http://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/47/04706745/0470674547-196.pdf |archive-date=20 October 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Ref_2009">{{Cite book|editor-last=Lewis|editor-first=M. Paul|contribution=Malayalam|title=Ethnologue: Languages of the World|edition=16th|publisher=[[SIL International]]|year=2009|contribution-url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mal|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/|access-date=2009-10-31}}</ref> Malayalam script is also widely used for writing [[Sanskrit]] texts in Kerala.

The Malayalam script bears high similarity with Tulu Script and [[Tigalari script]], which was used for writing the [[Tulu language]], spoken in [[Tulu Nadu|coastal Karnataka]] ([[Dakshina Kannada]] and [[Udupi district|Udupi]] districts) and the northernmost [[Kasargod district]] of Kerala.<ref name="Tulu Unicode 2017">{{cite web |author1=Vaishnavi Murthy K Y |author2=Vinodh Rajan |title= L2/17-378 Preliminary proposal to encode Tigalari script in Unicode |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17378-tigalari.pdf |website=www.unicode.org |access-date=28 June 2018}}</ref> Like many other 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 languages|Indo-Aryan loanwords]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Krishnamurti|first=Bhadriraju|title=The Dravidian Languages|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=85|isbn=9781139435338|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54fV7Lwu3fMC&q=grantha+script}}</ref>
The script is also used to write several minority languages such as [[Paniya language|Paniya]], [[Betta Kurumba language|Betta Kurumba]], and [[Ravula language|Ravula]].<ref name="Ref_">''Ethnologue'' (16th ed.): [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pcg "Paniya"], [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=xub "Kurumba, Betta"], and [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yea "Ravula"].</ref> The Malayalam language itself was historically written in several different scripts.