REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF
UNITED NATIONS ROMANIZATION SYSTEMS FOR GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Compiled by the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems
Version 2.2, January 2003

Malayalam

The United Nations recommended system was approved in 1972 (II/11) and amended in 1977 (III/12), based on a report prepared by D. N. Sharma. The tables and their corrections were published in volume II of the conference reports (Second United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. London, 10-31 May 1972. Vol. II. Technical papers. United Nations. New York 1974, pp. 149-150; Third United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. Athens, 17 August - 7 September 1977. Vol. II, Technical papers, pp. 393 etc.).

There is no evidence of the use of the system either in India or in international cartographic products.

Malayalam (Malayāḷam) uses an alphasyllabic script whereby each character represents a syllable rather than one sound. Vowels and diphthongs are marked in two ways: as independent characters (used syllable-initially) and in an abbreviated form, to denote vowels after consonants. The romanization table is unambiguous but now outdated because since the 1970's a new orthography has been introduced and the use of many character combinations and ligatures has been simplified. Nevertheless the user of the romanization table would have to recognize many ligatures not given in the original table. The system is mostly reversible but there exist some ambiguities in the romanization of vowels (independent vs. abbreviated characters) and consonants (ligatures vs. character sequences), particularly in the case of older orthography.

Romanization

The romanization system below is based on the new orthography, with notes where appropriate on the older spelling. The table of ligatures has been added.

I. Independent vowel characters

1	അ	a
2	ആ	ā
3	ഇ	i
4	ഈ	ī
5	ഉ	u
6	ഊ	ū
7	ഋ	ṛ
8	എ	ĕ
9	ഏ	e
10	ഐ	ai
11	ഒ	ŏ
12	ഓ	o
13	ഔ	au

II. Abbreviated vowel characters (ട stands for any consonant character)

1	ട	a
2	ടാ	ā
3	ടി	i
4	ടീ	ī
5	ടു	uA
6	ടൂ	ūB
7	ടൃ	ṛC
8	ടെ	ĕ
9	ടേ	e
10	ടൈ	ai
11	ടൊ	ŏ
12	ടോ	o
13	ടൗ	auD

• ^A For traditional script forms ഖു khu, മു mu, etc., and exceptions in the older spelling കു ku (ക്കു kku, ങ്കു ṅku), ഗു gu, ഛു chhu, ജു ju, ണു ṇu, തു tu, നു nu (ന്നു nnu), ഭു bhu, രു ru, ശു shu, ഹു hu, see the PDF version of the document.
• ^B For traditional script forms ഖൂ khū, മൂ mū , etc., and exceptions in the older spelling കൂ kū, ഗൂ gū, ഛൂ chhū, ജൂ jū, ണൂ ṇū, തൂ tū, നൂ nū, ഭൂ bhū, രൂ rū, ശൂ shū, ഹൂ hū, see the PDF version of the document.
• ^C Traditionally written in conjunction with the consonant character: കൃ kṛ (for the glyph see the PDF version of the document).
• ^D In the older spelling: ൌ.

III. Other symbols (ട stands for any consonant character)

1	ടം	ṁ
2	ടഃ	ḥ
3	ട്‌	(A)

• ^A Indicates absence of the inherent short [a] vowel, e.g. ക്‌ k , സ്‌ s. For special forms of consonants with that symbol ണ്‍ ṇ, ന്‍ n, ര്‍ r, ല്‍ l, ള്‍ ḷ see the PDF version of the document.

IV. Consonant characters

1	ക	ka
2	ഖ	kha
3	ഗ	ga
4	ഘ	gha
5	ങ	ṅa
6	ച	cha
7	ഛ	chha
8	ജ	ja
9	ഝ	jha
10	ഞ	ña
11	ട	ṭa
12	ഠ	ṭha
13	ഡ	ḍa
14	ഢ	ḍha
15	ണ	ṇa
16	ത	ta
17	ഥ	tha
18	ദ	da
19	ധ	dha
20	ന	na
21	പ	pa
22	ഫ	pha
23	ബ	ba
24	ഭ	bha
25	മ	ma
26	യ	ya
27	ര	ra
28	ല	la
29	വ	va
30	ശ	sha
31	ഷ	ṣha
32	സ	sa
33	ഹ	ha
34	ക്ഷ	kṣha
35	ള	ḷa
36	ഴ	ḻa
37	റ	ṟaA

^A Special ligature: റ്റ ṭ̈.

V. Ligatures

Adscript forms of some consonants

		Example
	r-	ര്ഗ്ഗ rgga (for variations see the PDF version)
	-r	ക്ര kra (for older style see the PDF version)
	-y	ത്യ tya
	-v	സ്വ sva

Other ligatures (the list is not complete)

ക്ക	ക്ട	ക്ത	ക്ഷ	ക്ല	ഗ്ഗ	ഗ്ദ	ഗ്ദ്ധ	ഗ്ന	ഗ്മ	ഗ്ല	ങ്ക
kka	kṭa	kta	kṣha	kla	gga	gda	gddha*	gna	gma	gla	ṅka
ങ്ങ	ച്ച	ച്ഛ	ജ്ജ	ജ്ഞ	ഞ്ച	ഞ്ഛ	ഞ്ജ	ഞ്ഞ	ട്ട	ഡ്ഡ	ണ്ട
ṅṅa	chcha	chchha	jja	jña	ñcha	ñchha*	ñja*	ñña	ṭṭa	ḍḍa	ṇṭa
ണ്ഠ	ണ്ഡ	ണ്ണ	ണ്മ	ത്ത	ത്ഥ	ത്ന	ത്ഭ	ത്മ	ത്സ	ദ്ദ	ദ്ധ
ṇṭha*	ṇḍa	ṇṇa	ṇma	tta	ttha	tna*	tbha	tma	tsa	dda	ddha
ന്ത	ന്ഥ	ന്ദ	ന്ധ	ന്ന	ന്മ	ന്റ	പ്ത	പ്ന	പ്പ	പ്ല	പ്സ
nta	ntha	nda	ndha	nna	nma	nṟa	pta*	pna*	ppa	pla	psa*
ബ്ദ	ബ്ധ	ബ്ബ	ബ്ല	മ്ന	മ്പ	മ്മ	മ്ല	യ്ക	യ്ക്ക	യ്ത	യ്ത്ത
bda	bdha	bba	bla	mna*	mpa	mma	mla	yka*	ykka	yta*	ytta*
യ്പ	യ്മ	യ്യ	ല്ക	ല്ക്ക	ല്പ	ല്മ	ല്ല	വ്വ	ശ്ച	ശ്ല	ശ്ശ
ypa*	yma*	yya	lka*	lkka*	lpa	lma*	lla	vva	shcha	shla	shsha
ഷ്ക	ഷ്ട	ഷ്ഠ	ഷ്ണ	ഷ്പ	ഷ്ഫ	ഷ്മ	സ്ക	സ്റ്റ	സ്ത	സ്ഥ	സ്ന
ṣhka*	ṣhṭa	ṣhṭha*	ṣhṇa*	ṣhpa*	ṣhpha*	ṣhma*	ska*	sṭ̈a	sta*	stha	sna*
സ്പ	സ്ഫ	സ്മ	സ്ല	സ്സ	ഹ്ന	ഹ്മ	ഹ്ല	ള്ള	ഴ്ക	ഴ്ച	ഴ്ത്ത
spa*	spha*	sma*	sla	ssa	hna	hma	hla	ḷḷa	ḻka*	ḻcha*	ḻtta*
ഴ്മ	ഴ്പ
ḻma*	ḻpa*

Many of the ligatures, especially those marked with the asterisk are thought to be obsolete since the introduction of the new spelling and have been replaced by a combination of two consonant characters, the first of which bears the ്‌ diacritic, e.g. പ്‌ന pna. However, the usage of ligatures in different sources varies greatly.

Other systems of romanization

For differences between the UN system and the ISO transliteration standard ISO 15919: 2001 see the section on the romanization of Hindi.

The State of Kerala seems to use a regular pattern for rendering their geographical names. At least the following correspondences may be noted:

	UN	State of Kerala
	ḻ	= zh
	sh	= s
	t	= th
	ṭ	= t or d