Malayalam Letter U

It marks Malayalam's short u sound.

The independent Malayalam u begins a syllable; after a consonant, dependent sign ു adds the same vowel. Say it briefly, like the u in Spanish luna.

The Vazhappally plates (882–3 CE) preserve an early Malayalam record in Vatteluttu, an older rounded script. Malayalam also drew on Grantha, a script used for Sanskrit, to write Sanskrit loanwords. A 1971 reform unified older consonant-specific u signs for print; by 2018, traditional and reformed shapes appeared in handwriting and public lettering.