| Chillu letters wrongly encoded | Chillu characters (ൻ ർ ൽ ൾ ൺ) are pure vowel-less word-final consonants. Unicode has them both as atomic characters and as a sequence with ZWJ — the wrong encoding breaks search and display and can change the reading. | We set chillu characters in correct Unicode encoding and check search and rendering behaviour in the finished PDF. |
| Old vs reformed orthography | The traditional script stacks ligatures; the reformed spelling (post-1971) often sets vowel signs separately. Older certificates use ligatures that a modern OCR or an untrained reader resolves wrongly. | Translators who master both orthographies read the source correctly and render it in a consistent, modern spelling. |
| Long compounds split wrongly | A single Malayalam word can encode a whole German phrase. Break it at the wrong point and you split the compound in a meaning-changing way. | Native speakers analyse the word formation as a whole and unpack compounds while preserving the meaning. |
| Missing verb agreement overlooked | The Malayalam verb marks neither person nor number nor gender of the subject — only tense and aspect. The subject reference follows from context and must be reconstructed explicitly in German. | The native translator restores subject, number and gender unambiguously from the context — no guessed reference. |
| Retroflex & geminate sounds in names | Malayalam distinguishes retroflex from dental sounds (ട/ത) and has meaning-bearing double consonants. English and German have neither, so name romanisation loses them. | Names are transferred by a fixed scheme (ISO 15919 or the passport spelling) and checked against the source. |
| Colloquial forms in an official text (diglossia) | Written and spoken Malayalam differ in forms and word choice. An official text in everyday language reads as inappropriate. | Official, academic and legal texts are written in the standard written language. |
| Vowel signs & chandrakkala misplaced | Vowel signs sit around the consonant; the virama "chandrakkala" (്) forms conjuncts. A shifted sign changes the syllable. | Vowel signs and chandrakkala are set correctly and the character stacking is checked in the PDF. |
| Passport spelling of names diverging | Names from Kerala are romanised very inconsistently (e.g. "Biju", "Kunjumon", "Kutty"). If the translation departs from the passport spelling, the office rejects it. | We match the name spelling to the passport and note any divergence in the translator's remark. |
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