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https://github.com/fazzaan/font-malavedan-abugida

The first-ever font for the abugida conscript of the Malavedan tribe in Kerala.
https://github.com/fazzaan/font-malavedan-abugida

chathippani conscript font font-design fontdesign graphic-design malavedan neography

Last synced: 4 months ago
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The first-ever font for the abugida conscript of the Malavedan tribe in Kerala.

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README 

          
# Malavedan Script Font



This is the first font ever made of the recently-constructed script for the endangered Malavedan language _ChathiPaani_, a Dravidian language of Kerala and Tamil Nadu that is closely related to Malayalam.  



This font project was requested by a person of the Malavedan tribe who reached out to me on Reddit.  



_Image shows font at version 0.950. Download from [Releases page](https://github.com/fazzaan/font-malavedan-abugida/releases)._ 



  click to expand to view font image



image



[View the keyboard layout](https://github.com/fazzaan/font-malavedan-abugida/tree/main/Keyboard%20layouts/QWERTY%20v1) (choose latest version number)  



[Watch a short video demonstrating how to type some letters](https://github.com/fazzaan/font-malavedan-abugida/blob/main/Keyboard%20layouts/QWERTY%20v1/Typing%20method%20examples%20-%20R%2C%20Long%20vowel%2C%20Vowel%20modifiers.mp4) (downloads because github doesn't have a video player)  



I'd say you can read more at the following links, but there's really not much information online.  

Notably, none of these pages seem to mention the _Chathi_ subgroup or language.  



  Click to see links

  

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malavedan_language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malavedan_language)  

* [https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mjr/](https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mjr/)

* [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12952775](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12952775)  

* [https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mala1463](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mala1463)

* [https://globalrecordings.net/en/language/13414](https://globalrecordings.net/en/language/13414)

* [https://anythingtranslate.com/translators/malavedan-malayalam-script-translator/](https://anythingtranslate.com/translators/malavedan-malayalam-script-translator/) (I have no idea how this works or if it's remotely correct)

* [https://dbpedia.org/page/Malavedan_language](https://dbpedia.org/page/Malavedan_language)

* [https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/dlsa-adopts-tribal-settlement/article69382094.ece](https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/dlsa-adopts-tribal-settlement/article69382094.ece) 



## About Malavedan script



The script's symbols in the font are (will be) bound to their own unicode range (the [PUA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Use_Areas)) and directly to the Latin (English) QWERTY layout.  



This Malavedan (_Malai Vedan_, IPA: [mɐlɐʋeːɖɐn]) script is an abugida, with visual and structural similarities to the Malayalam script.  



This Malavedan script uses 17 diacritics in total:  

* to mark 11 vowels (in addition to the inherent a)  

* a circle, for a nasal coda, perhaps similar to the anusvara of Devanagari

* a dot above, I think to mark if a letter takes syllable-final sound  

* a u above, for the removal of the inherent a, perhaps similar to the halant of Devanagari  

* a ring above, to join two consonants directly together (stronger than the 'anusvara')

* a breve below, to add an /ɹ/-like sound to the consonant

* a dot below, to indicate the corresponding letters of Malayalam that aren't present in Malavedan pronunciation  



From the tribe member who requested this font:  

> "This is for the Malavedan tribe. The name of our language is _ChathiPaani_. Chathi denotes our tribe and Paani means _language_ or _word_. Very few people are using this language in this time, the rest of them are using Malayalam."  



___



# To Do

- [x] ~~create [typing method](https://github.com/fazzaan/font-malavedan-abugida/tree/main/Keyboard%20layouts)~~  

- [x] ~~add numbers~~

- [x] ~~add basic punctuation and symbols~~

- [ ] attach glyphs to sensible unicode range in PUA  

- [ ] build basic website to host fonts, text and dictionary of Malavedan language (put in separate github repository)  

- [ ] create conversion script to convert between QWERTY encoding and PUA encoding (and future dedicated unicode range when it's been accepted by the Unicode Consortium)

- [ ] draft submission proposal for the Unicode Consortium for Malavedan