Malayalam Letter E

It marks Malayalam’s short e vowel. Latin transliteration writes it as e; ഏ marks the longer counterpart.

Malayalam’s early writing used Vatteluttu, an older script for the language. Accounts date the Vazhappally inscription to about 830 CE and the Vazhappally plates to 882–3 CE.

Vatteluttu wrote the local language, while Grantha was used for Sanskrit. Both developed from Brahmi, an earlier South Asian script, along separate paths. As Malayalam writing absorbed Sanskrit words, it drew on both traditions while retaining ways to spell Dravidian sounds; Tigalari is a sister script linked to Grantha.

What is the difference between എ and ഏ?

എ is short; ഏ is long.

In a consonant syllable, െ marks the short vowel and േ the long one. These dependent vowel signs attach to a consonant; എ and ഏ are the independent letters used at a syllable opening.

Older Grantha writing did not mark short and long e the same way. Malayalam spelling added distinct vowel signs in the middle of the 19th century, with a matching contrast for o.

How do I type എ?

Use a Malayalam phonetic IME or InScript layout. Select the standalone vowel, not its dependent sign.

On the enhanced InScript map documented in 2011, Shift+Z types എ; unshifted Z types െ.

Type a consonant before its vowel sign. Malayalam renders െ on the consonant’s left even though it follows that consonant in text order.