Arabi Malayalam script (

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

: അറബി-മലയാളം, Arabi Malayalam: عَرَبِ مَلَیٰاۻَمْ), also known as Ponnani script, is a writing system — a variant form of the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

with special orthographic features — for writing

Arabi Malayalam Arabi Malayalam (also called Mappila Malayalam and Moplah Malayalam) is the traditional Dravidian languages, Dravidian language of the Mappila, Mappila Muslim community. It is spoken by several thousand people, predominantly in the Malabar ...

, a

Dravidian language The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. The most commonly spoken Dravidian languages are (i ...

in southern India. Though the script originated and developed in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, today it is predominantly used in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

by the migrant Muslim community. Until the 20th century, the script was widely taught to all Muslims in the primary education madrasahs of Kerala.Menon. T. Madhava. "A Handbook of Kerala, Volume 2", International School of Dravidian Linguistics, 2002. pp. 491-493. Arabi-Malayalam is currently used in some of the primary education madrasahs of

and

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep () is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands divided into three island subgroups: the Amindivi Islands in the north, the Laccadive Islands (separated from Amindivi roughly by the 11th parallel north), and th ...

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 Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. The letters such as , , , , , , , were not available in the Arabic alphabets. The characters which stand for , , , () are respectively in Arabi Malayalam.

Vowels

:Notes # Alternatively, historically, the following diacritic has been used for representing Malayalam letters and (romanized as e and ē) and that is , (Similar to orthographic conventions in Arabi-Tamil.

Consonants

Similar to Urdu orthography, Arabi Malayalam alphabet includes digraphs meant to represent

aspirated consonant In phonetics, aspiration is a strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with t ...

s. These are formed by following a letter with the letter ''he'' (). 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 (r̥), and when geminated with the shaddah diacritic, its corresponding elongated form (r̥̄). # When the Malayalam letter is geminated (usually in the form റ+റ, possibly in the form ൻ + റ, but also in scholarly documents by ), in Arabi Malayalam, it is written with the letter . # This letter is also used for representing the semi-vowel (l̥), and when geminated with the shaddah diacritic, its corresponding elongated form (l̥̄).

Usage

Most of the

Mappila Songs Mappila songs (or ''Mappila Paattu'') are a folklore Muslim song genre rendered to lyrics, within a melodic framework (Ishal), in Arabi Malayalam by the Mappilas of the Malabar (Northern Kerala), Malabar region in Kerala, India. Mappila songs ha ...

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.Miller, Roland. E., "Mappila" in "The Encyclopedia of Islam". Volume VI. E. J. Brill, Leiden. 1987. pp. 458-56. The first Arabi Malayalam scripted novel, ''Chahar Dervesh'', Malayalam translation of a Persian work, was published in 1883.Sharafudeen, S. "Muslims of Kerala: a Modern Approach, "Kerala Historical Society, 2003. pp. 152 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 Vikramaditya (Sanskrit: विक्रमादित्य IAST: ') was a legendary king as mentioned in ancient Indian literature, featuring in traditional stories including those in ''Baital Pachisi, Vetala Panchavimshati'' and ''Singhasan ...

- into Arabi Malayalam."Malayalam Literary Survey", Volume 16 (1) -17 (4), Kēraḷa Sāhitya Akkādami, 1994. pp. 88 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 Ponnani () is a Nagar Palika (Municipality), municipality in Ponnani Taluk, Malappuram District, in the state of Kerala, India. It serves as the administrative center of the Taluk and Block Panchayat of the same name. It is situated at the est ...

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 ISO 15919 is an international standard for the romanization of Indic scripts. Published in 2001, it is part of a series of romanization standards by the International Organization for Standardization. Overview Relation to other systems ...

References

External links

{{Arabic script Arabi Malayalam Islamic culture Arabic alphabets Arabic alphabets for South Asian languages