Malayalam Au Length Mark

Use Malayalam input; place the sign after its consonant.

The key depends on the layout. Windows Malayalam Phonetic turns Latin transliteration into Malayalam suggestions; Windows Malayalam INSCRIPT uses a fixed layout. In Malar Malayalam InScript 1.1, press q for the sign.

Why does the Malayalam au sign have two spellings?

Modern Malayalam uses one part; traditional spelling uses two.

Malayalam's script history includes Vatteḻuttu, an older script used for Malayalam, and Arya, a local form of the South Indian Grantha script tradition later used for literary Malayalam. Literary Malayalam increasingly used Arya around the 1500s. The Vāḻapaḷḷi plates, dated 882–3 CE, are among the oldest surviving written examples of Malayalam.

The traditional au spelling joined two pieces, which were awkward for metal type and typewriters. Its one-part simplification began before a wider script reform was institutionalized in 1971. Modern Malayalam uses the one-part sign; the two-part spelling can be retained when reproducing traditional text.

What does the Malayalam au mark do?

It adds the au vowel to the consonant before it.

In കൗ, the consonant ക takes its following vowel from ൗ. This vowel is transcribed as au in Latin letters, roughly like the vowel glide in 'cow'. If it begins a syllable, Malayalam uses the independent vowel letter ഔ. Traditional spelling may write the same dependent vowel in two parts, as in കൌ.