Malayalam returns partially to old script

Thiruvananthapuram: The recommendation of an expert committee to take on the script of the Malayalam language has been approved by the high-level committee presided over by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The uniform script orientation and style book were recognised by the committee. The new script will incorporate certain old forms of the characters.

The Malayalam script was last revamped in 1971. Before this, the diacritics were written by connecting the letters. But later these signs got split from the letters.

The expert committee has recently recommended using diacritics by connecting the characters except for the vowels.

To introduce the reforms in the script, the fonts have to be reorganised and added to the computer. It has been decided to experiment with this at the government level and Chief Secretary VP Joy was entrusted with the charge.

Minister Saji Cheriyan, Chief Secretary Dr VP Joy, the unofficial members of the high-level committee, including Dr Naduvattom Gopalakrishnan, Sunil P Ilayidom, Prof AG Oleena attended the meeting.

The reformed script has not been used for the textbooks of the coming academic year as the books were already published. Though the expert committee had suggested including the Malayalam alphabets in the textbooks, it can be executed only for the next year.

The committee of language experts that recommended the reforms in the Malayalam script was presided by the Chief Secretary. The order of the final decision of the high-level committee will be released soon to initiate further procedures in this regard.