Vowel – Vowels of Malayalam -Any of the set: [അആഇഈഉഊഋഎഏഐഒഓഔഔഅം]VowelSign – Vowel signs. – Any of the set [ാിീുൃെേൊോൗൂൈ]Consonant – Consonants – Any of the set [കഖഗഘങചഛജഝഞടഠഡഢണതഥദധനപഫബഭമയരലവശഷസഹളഴറ]Virama – The sign ്.Visarga The sign ഃAnuswara – The vowel sign of അം.ie ം. This share some properties of Chillu.Chillu – Pure consonants, without any vowels. Chillus are any of ൻ, ർ, ൽ, ൾ, ൺ, ൿ, ൔ, ൕ, ൖ. The last 4 chillus are rarely used or archaic. But we can consider them for our modeling. Due to historic encoding reasons, Chillus can also appear as base Consonant+Virama+ZWJ form. That means, ൻ = ന + ് + ZWJ. Chillus never appear in the begininning of word, but is not relevant for a syllable analyser.Signs A term used to address various signs that modify a Consonant. Any of VowelSign, Virama, Anuswara, Visarga.Conjunct:Refer the formal definition of this we discussed in previous blog post. We defined it as A Consonant combined with another Conjunct or Consonant using Virama. Example: സ+ ് + ത => സ്ത , സ്ത + ് + ര = സ്ത്ര. ദ്ധ + ് ര = ദ്ധ്ര, ദ്ധ്ര + ് + യ = ദ്ധ്ര്യ. But we need an advanced version. That definition did not support DotReph (ൎ) which combines with a consonant or conjunct to form Conjunct. To support DotReph as well, we will redefine Conjunct as HalfConsonant Conjunct / ConsonantDotReph The sign (ൎ). It combines with other consonants as in this example: ൎ + യ -> ൎയ in ഭാൎയHalfConsonant: A Consonant followed by Virama Example: പ്, ര്, മ് etc. Or a DotRephVowel. Vowels are often found at the begininning of the word. Example: അമ്മ. But for the specific case of Syllables, we can relax this rule of being in the start of word and generally state that a vowel is syllable. Note that vowel appearing as vowel sign is not what we are considering here. Vowel signs has its own properties.Chillu letter is a syllable.Consonant without any Signs is a syllable. For example, in the word തറ, both ത and റ are Syllables.Consonant or Conjunct with Signs is a syllable. Here the Signs can be repeated more than once, but not freely. This syllable has the following characteristics:Signs can be Virama only if it is the last items of a given word. For example. അത് has അ, ത് as syllables, but അത്ഭുതം has അ, ത്ഭു, തം as syllables.Signs can occur 2 times in folllowing cases:(a) First Sign is ു and Second is Virama This combination is also called Samvruthokaram. Example: തു് in അതു്. (b) First Sign is a VowelSign and Second is Anuswara. Examples: താം, തീം, തോം, തും etc.ZWNJ marks a syllable boundary. A ZWNJ inserted between two blocks of text inserts a ligature as well as syllable boundary. For example: തമിഴ്നാട്, the ZWNJ inserted after ഴ് and before നാ prevents possible ഴ്ന Conjunct and hence also makes a point that the pronounciation should break at that point. It is a bit wierd to say a ZWNJ forms a syllable since it is just a seperator. But while analysing a series of letters from begininning to end, it is technically okey to consider ZWNJ as a syllable block.signs. For example, it does not allow a VowelSign, virama or anuswara after a visarga. If that happens, the parser will fail to parse a word. It permits a virama after a VowelSign, but that is only for Samvruthokaram(vowel sign = ു ).virama comes in between a word, it has the nature of consonant combining.Signs is also enforced. For example, you cannot have a virama and then VowelSign ു even though the reverse order is permitted.