Arabi Malayalam script
Arabic script adapted for Malayalam
- 3 min read
- 3 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Orthography, Kerala and Singapore
Arabi-Malayalam is currently used in most of the primary education madrasahs of Kerala and Lakshadweep by Mappila Muslims.
Letters
There were many complications to write Malayalam, a Dravidian language, using letters covering Arabic, a Semitic language. Only 28 letters were available from Arabic orthography to render over 53 phonemes of Malayalam. It was overcome by following the pattern of creating additional letters established for Persian. The letters such as pa, gha, kha, ṅa, ña, ḻa, ga, ca were not available in the Arabic alphabets. The characters which stand for ḻa, ca, pa, ga (ഴ, ച, പ, ഗ) are گ ,پ ,چ ,ژ respectively in Arabi Malayalam.
Vowels
- Notes
- Alternatively, historically, the following diacritic has been used for representing Malayalam letters എ and ഏ (romanized as e and ē) and that is اࣣ / ◌ࣣ, اࣣیـ / ◌ࣣیـ / ◌ࣣی (Similar to orthographic conventions in Arabi-Tamil.
Consonants
Similar to Urdu orthography, Arabi Malayalam alphabet includes digraphs meant to represent aspirated consonants. These are formed by following a letter with the letter he (ھ). While in Urdu, there are two separate letters he, Gol he as an independent letter, and Do-chashmi he as part of aspirated consonant digraphs, this distinction is not necessarily made in Arabi-Malayalam.
- Notes
- This letter is also used for representing the semi-vowel ഋ, ൃ (r̥), and when geminated with the shaddah diacritic, its corresponding elongated form ൠ, ൄ (r̥̄).
- When the Malayalam letter റ is geminated (usually in the form റ+റ, possibly in the form ൻ + റ, but also in scholarly documents by റ്റ, ഺ), in Arabi Malayalam, it is written with the letter ڔّ.
- This letter is also used for representing the semi-vowel ഌ, ൢ (l̥), and when geminated with the shaddah diacritic, its corresponding elongated form ൡ, ൣ (l̥̄).
Sign in to keep reading
2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Usage
Most of the Mappila Songs were written, for the first time, in Arabi-Malayalam script. The earliest known such work is the Muhyidheen Mala, written in 1607.
Many literary works written in Arabi Malayalam still have not been transliterated to the Malayalam script, and some estimates put the number at almost 90 percent. These works, romantic ballads, folk tales and battle songs, contain some of the impressive literary achievements by Mappilas over the centuries.
The first Arabi Malayalam scripted novel, Chahar Dervesh, Malayalam translation of a Persian work, was published in 1883. Intellectuals such as Moyinkutty Vaidyar translated, and then transliterated significant number of works in Sanskrit - such as Ashtanga Hridaya, Amarakosa, Pancatantra and even the legends about the Hindu king Vikramaditya - into Arabi Malayalam. Sanskrit medical texts - such as Upakarasara, Yogarambha and Mahasara - were also translated, and then transliterated into Arabi-Malayalam by scholars like Abdurahiman Musaliar of Ponnani Putiyakattu. Arabi Malayalam script periodicals made remarkable contributions to the reform movement amongst the Mappilas in the early 20th century.
Sample Texts
Below are several sample texts in Arabi Malayalam orthography, in standard Malayalam Script, and transliterated into Latin as per ISO 15919.