Script - Malayalam
Malayalam is a script used primarily to write the Malayalam language, spoken by over 35 million people in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. It is an abugida, where each consonant inherently carries a vowel sound that can be altered with diacritic marks, and it derives from the ancient Grantha script, which itself evolved from Brahmi. The script features rounded, circular letters that are well suited for writing on palm leaves, as straight lines would tear the material, and it includes distinct characters for vowels, consonants, and conjunct clusters. Malayalam also has its own numerals and is written left to right, lacking case distinctions, and its modern form was standardized in the 19th century, incorporating additional characters to represent sounds from other languages like Sanskrit and English.