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Vatteluttu
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Vatteluttu

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Also known as Vattezhuthu, Vatteluttu script, Vatteluttu alphabet

Vatteluttu (, ' and , ', ), also transliterated as Vattezhuthu, was an alphasyllabic or syllabic writing system of south India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) and Sri Lanka formerly employed for writing the Tamil and Malayalam languages. The script is a sister system of the Pallava-Chola alphabet. The script was patronized by the Pallava, Pandya and Chera rulers of southern India.

Key facts

Writing system.name
Vatteluttu
Writing system.type
Abugida
Writing system.languages
Tamil Malayalam
Writing system.sample
Shukla Vatteluttu.svg
Writing system.imagesize
220px
Writing system.caption
Vatteluttu in modern Vatteluttu typeface
Writing system.fam1
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Writing system.fam2
Proto-Sinaitic
Writing system.fam3
Pheonician
Writing system.fam4
Aramaic
Writing system.fam5
Brahmi
Writing system.fam6
Tamil-Brahmi
Writing system.sisters
Pallava-Chola Script
Writing system.children
Koleluttu (script) Malayayma/Malayanma
Writing system.direction
left-to-right

via Wikipedia infobox

~8 min read

Encyclopedic overview

12 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Alternate names
  • History
  • Early {{lang|ta-Latn|Vatteluttu}}
  • {{lang|ta-Latn|Vatteluttu}} in the middle phase
  • Replacement in the Tamil country
  • Legacy
  • Letters
  • Unicode
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Vatteluttu (, ' and , ', ), also transliterated as Vattezhuthu, was an alphasyllabic or syllabic writing system of south India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) and Sri Lanka formerly employed for writing the Tamil and Malayalam languages. The script is a sister system of the Pallava-Chola alphabet. The script was patronized by the Pallava, Pandya and Chera rulers of southern India.

belonged to the "southern group" of Brahmi derivatives (Southern Brahmi, generally associated with Dravidian languages of south India). The script was used in inscriptions and manuscripts of south India for centuries. It is closely related to the Tamil script (although it is more cursive than the Tamil script, with letters with a single curvilinear stroke). The direction of writing in is from left to right. It notably omits the virama vowel muting device.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Vatteluttu” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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