Editing Malayalam script (section)

==Unicode==
Malayalam script was added to the [[Unicode]] Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.

===Block===
{{Main|Malayalam (Unicode block)}}
The Unicode block for Malayalam is U+0D00–U+0D7F:

{{Unicode chart Malayalam}}

===Chillus in Unicode===
For example, ''avan'' {{lang|ml|അവൻ}} ("he") is written as ''a'' {{lang|ml|അ}} + ''va'' {{lang|ml|വ}} + ''chillu-n'' {{lang|ml|ൻ}}, where ''chillu-n'' represents the ''n'' sound without a vowel. In other Indic scripts, the same word would be possibly written as ''a'' + ''va'' + ''na'' + virama. However, in Malayalam script, that sequence represents a different word, ''avanŭ'' {{lang|ml|അവന്‌}} ("to him"), and is not interchangeable with ''avan''.<ref name="Johny2005">{{Cite web|last=Johny|first=Cibu C.|title=Unicode Public Review Issue #66: Encoding of Chillu Forms in Malayalam|url=http://varamozhi.sourceforge.net/chillu/issue66.htm|year=2005|access-date=2009-09-16}} See also [https://www.unicode.org/~emuller/iwg/p28/05085-pri66-fdbk-cibu.pdf L2/05-085] (PDF).</ref> This is because in modern Malayalam script, the sign for a virama also works as the sign for a [[#Half-u|vowel ''ŭ'']] at the end of a word, and is not able to cleanly "kill" the inherent vowel in this case.<ref name="N3126">{{Cite web|last=Muller|first=Eric|title=Malayalam cillaksarams|work=JTC1/SC2/WG2 N3126 L2/06-207|url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/N3126.pdf|year=2006|access-date=2009-09-10}}</ref>

To differentiate a pure consonant (''chillu'') and a consonant with ''ŭ'', [[zero-width joiner]] (ZWJ) and [[zero-width non-joiner]] (ZWNJ) were used before Unicode 5.1.<ref name="TUS50"/> However, this system was problematic. Among other things, glyph variants specified by ZWJ or ZWNJ are supposed to be non-semantic, whereas a ''chillu'' (expressed as letter + virama + ZWJ) and the same consonant followed by a ''ŭ'' (expressed as letter + virama + ZWNJ) are often [[Semantics|semantically]] different. After a long debate,<ref name="N3126"/><ref name="S">{{Cite web|last1=Chitrajakumar|first1=R.|last2=Gangadharan|first2=N.|name-list-style=amp|title=Chandrakkala. Samvruthokaram. Chillaksharam.|work=L2/05-210|url=https://www.unicode.org/~emuller/iwg/p28/05210-malayalam.pdf|year=2005|access-date=2009-09-10}}</ref> Nine ''chillu letters'' now have their own [[code point]]s since Unicode 9.0 (though only 5 of them are used in modern Malayalam), though applications should also be prepared to handle data in the representation specified in Unicode 5.0.<ref name="Unicode5.1.0">{{Cite web|publisher=Unicode, Inc|title=Malayalam Chillu Characters|work=Unicode 5.1.0|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.1.0/#Malayalam_Chillu_Characters|year=2008|access-date=2009-09-10}}</ref> This means, fonts should display chillus in both sequences; while an input method should output standard chillus.

The ligature ''nṯa'' {{lang|ml|ന്റ}} is very common and supported by most Malayalam fonts in one way or another, but exactly how it should be encoded was not clear in Unicode 5.0 and earlier, and two incompatible implementations are currently in use.<ref name="Ref_2005">{{Cite web|title=Encoding of Chillu Forms in Malayalam|work=Public Review Issue #66]|url=https://www.unicode.org/review/pr-66.html|publisher=Unicode, Inc|year=2005|access-date=2009-09-24}}</ref> In Unicode 5.1 (2008), the sequence to represent it was explicitly redefined as ''chillu-n'' + virama + ''ṟa'' ({{lang|ml|ൻ്റ|}}).<ref name="Unicode5.1.0"/> {{lang|ml|ന്റ}} ligature is often considered to be the correct form to represent n̠d̠ as {{lang|ml|ൻറ}} can also represent n̠r̠ but in many computers it is only shown with {{lang|ml|ൻ}} + {{lang|ml| ്}} + {{lang|ml|റ}} even though a chandrakkala cannot be after a chillu letter, other computers show it with {{lang|ml|ന}} + {{lang|ml| ്}} + {{lang|ml|റ}}. Some computers display {{lang|ml|ൻ്റ}} ({{lang|ml|ൻ}} + {{lang|ml| ്}} + {{lang|ml|റ}}) and {{lang|ml|ന്റ}} ({{lang|ml|ന}} + {{lang|ml| ്}} + {{lang|ml|റ}}) differently.