Sinhala script

Name	Sinhala
Type	Abugida
Time	c. 700–present
Languages	Sinhala
Fam1	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
Fam2	Phoenician alphabet
Fam3	Aramaic alphabet
Fam4	Brāhmī
Fam5	Southern branch
Sisters	Telugu script Kannada script Malayalam scriptTamil scriptTulu script
Children	Dhives Akuru
Unicode	U+0D80–U+0DFF
Iso15924	Sinh

The Sinhala script is an abugida script used in Sri Lanka to write the official language Sinhala and also sometimes the liturgical languages Pali and Sanskrit. Being a member of the Brahmic family of scripts, the Sinhala script can trace its ancestry back more than 2000 years.

Characteristics

The alphabet is written from left to right. The Sinhala writing system can be called an abugida, as each consonant has an inherent vowel (), which can be changed with the different vowel signs (see image on left).

Most of the Sinhala letters are curlicues; straight lines are almost completely absent from the alphabet. This is because Sinhala used to be written on dried palm leaves, which would split along the veins on writing straight lines. This was undesirable, and therefore, the round shapes were preferred.

The core set of letters forms the alphabet (Pure Sinhala, ශුද්ධ සිංහල), which is a subset of the alphabet (Mixed Sinhala, මිශ්‍ර සිංහල). This 'pure' alphabet contains all the graphemes necessary to write (classical Sinhala) as described in the classical grammar Sidatsangarā (1300 AD). This is the reason why this set is also called ('' එළු හෝඩිය).

The definition of the two sets is thus a historic one. Out of pure coincidence, the phoneme inventory of present day colloquial Sinhala is such that yet again the śuddha alphabet suffices as a good representation of the sounds.

Neither the Sinhala numerals nor U+0DF4 ෴ Sinhala punctuation kunddaliya is in general use today. The kunddaliya was formerly used as a full stop; it is included for scholarly use. The Sinhala numerals are not presently encoded.

History and usage

The Sinhala script originated as an offshoot from Brahmi. The writing system was originally used in inscriptions, the oldest ones dating from the 6th century BCE on pottery, with lithic inscriptions dating from the 2nd century BC By the 9th century CE, literature written in Sinhala script had emerged and the script began to be used in other contexts. For instance, the Buddhist literature of the Theravada-Buddhists of Sri Lanka, written in Pali, used the Sinhala alphabet.

Today, the alphabet is used by approximately 16,000,000 people to write the Sinhalese language in very diverse contexts, such as newspapers, TV commercials, government announcements, graffiti, and schoolbooks.

Sinhala is the main language written in this alphabet, but rare instances of Sri Lanka Malay written in this script are recorded.

and alphabet are used more often in the north and east of the island.]]

Relations between orthography and phonology

Most phonemes of the Sinhalese language can be represented by a śuddha letter or by a miśra letter, but normally only one of them is considered correct. This one-to-many mapping of phonemes onto graphemes is a frequent source of misspellings.

While a phoneme can be represented by more than one grapheme, each grapheme can be pronounced in only one way. This means that the actual pronunciation of a word is always clear from its orthographic form.

Śuddha graphemes

The śuddha graphemes are the mainstay of the Sinhala alphabet and are used on an everyday-basis. Every sequence of sounds of the Sinhalese language of today can be represented by these graphemes. Additionally, the śuddha set comprises graphemes for retroflex and , which are no longer phonemic in modern Sinhala. These two letters were needed for the representation of , but are now obsolete from a purely phonemic view. However, words which historically contain these two phonemes are still often written with the graphemes representing the retroflex sounds.

Consonants

The śuddha alphabet comprises 8 stops, 2 fricatives, 2 affricates, 2 nasals, 2 liquids and 2 glides. Additionally, there are the two graphemes for the retroflex sounds and , which are not phonemic in modern Sinhala, but which still form part of the set. These are shaded in the table.

The voiceless affricate (ච ) is not included in the śuddha set by purists since it does not occur in the main text of the . The Sidatsangarā does use it in examples though, so this sound did exist in . In any case, it is needed for the representation of modern Sinhala.

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="24" | |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="24" | Vowels |- bgcolor="#999999" align="center" | | colspan="8" | short || | | | | colspan="8" | long || | | |- bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | colspan="4" | independent || | colspan="4" | diacritic | | | | colspan="4" | independent || | colspan="4" | diacritic | | |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | අ || 0D85 || a || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:12px" | inherent || || a || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ආ || 0D86 || ā || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ා || 0DCF || ā || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | එ || 0D91 || e || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෙ || 0DD9 || e || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඒ || 0D92 || ē || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ේ || 0DDA || ē || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඉ || 0D89 || i || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ි || 0DD2 || i || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඊ || 0D8A || ī || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ී || 0DD3 || ī || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඔ || 0D94 || o || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ො || 0DDC || o || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඕ || 0D95 || ō || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෝ || 0DDD || ō || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | උ || 0D8B || u || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ු || 0DD4 || u || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඌ || 0D8C || ū || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ූ || 0DD6 || ū || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඇ || 0D87 || æ/ä || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ැ || 0DD0 || æ || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඈ || 0D88 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෑ || 0DD1 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- | colspan=24 bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center"| |}

Prenasalized consonants

The prenasalized consonants resemble their plain counterparts. is made up by the left half of ‹m› and the right half of ‹b›, while the other three are just like the grapheme for the stop with a little stroke attached to their left. Vowel diacritics attach in the same way as they would to the corresponding plain stop.

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="9" | |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="9" | Prenasalized consonants |- bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" colspan="9"| |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | nasal ||obstruent || prenasalized consonant || unicode || translit. || IPA || | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| velar | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඞ | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ග | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඟ | 0D9F | | | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| velar |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| retroflex | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ණ | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඩ | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඬ | 0DAC || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| retroflex |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| dental | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |න | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ද | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඳ | 0DB3 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| dental |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| labial | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ම | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |බ | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඹ | 0DB9 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| labial |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" | | colspan="7" | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" | |- bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center" | colspan="9"| |}

Non-vocalic diacritics

The Anusvara (often called binduva 'zero' ) is represented by one small circle ං (unicode 0D82), and the Visarga (technically part of the miśra alphabet) by two ඃ (unicode 0D83). The inherent vowel can be removed by a special diacritic, the hal kirīma(්), which varies in shape according to the consonant it attaches to. Both are represented in the image on the right side. The first one is the most common one, while the second one is used for letters ending at the top left corner.

Miśra set

The miśra alphabet is a superset of śuddha. It adds letters for aspirates, retroflexes and sibilants, which are not phonemic in today's Sinhala, but which are necessary to represent non-native words, like loanwords from Sanskrit, Pali or English. The use of the extra letters is mainly a question of prestige. From a purely phonemic point of view, there is no benefit in using them, and they can be replaced by a (sequence of) śuddha letters as follows: For the miśra aspirates, the replacement is the plain śuddha counterpart, for the miśra retroflex liquids the corresponding śuddha coronal liquid, for the sibilants, . ඤ (ñ) and ඥ (gn) cannot be represented by śuddha graphemes but are found only in less than 10 words each. ෆ fa can be represented by ප pa with a Latin inscribed in the cup.

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="12" | |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="12" | Extra miśra stops |- bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | colspan="4" | voiceless || | colspan="4" | voiced | | |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | unicode || translit. || IPA | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | unicode || translit. || IPA | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| velar | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඛ || 0D9B || kha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඝ || 0D9D || gha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| velar |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| retroflex | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඨ || 0DA8 || ha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඪ || 0DAA || ha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| retroflex |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| dental | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ථ || 0DAE || tha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ධ || 0DB0 || dha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| dental |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| labial | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඵ || 0DB5 || pha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | භ || 0DB7 || bha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| labial |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- | colspan=12 bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center"| |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="12" | Other additional miśra graphemes |- bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | colspan="4" | || | colspan="4" | | | |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | unicode || translit.|| IPA | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | unicode || translit.|| IPA | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| sibilants | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ශ || 0DC1 || śa || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෂ || 0DC2 || a || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| sibilants |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| aspirate affricates | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඡ || 0DA1 || cha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;";| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඣ || 0DA3 || jha || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| aspirate affricates |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| nasals | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඤ || 0DA4 || ña || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඥ || 0DA5 || gna || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| nasals |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| other | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඞ || 0D9E || a || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෆ || 0DC6 || fa || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| other |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| other | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ඦ || 0DA6 || nja || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | fප || n/a || fa || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| other |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- | colspan=12 bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center"| |}

There are six additional vocalic diacritics in the miśra alphabet. The two diphthongs are quite common, while the "syllabic" is much rarer, and the "syllabic" is all but obsolete. The latter are almost exclusively found in loanwords from Sanskrit.

The miśra can be also be written with śuddha ‹r›+‹u› or ‹u›+‹r›, which corresponds to the actual pronunciation. The miśra syllabic is obsolete, but can be rendered by śuddha ‹l›+‹i›. Miśra ‹au› is rendered as śuddha ‹awu›, miśra ‹ai› as śuddha ‹ayi›.

{| border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="24" | |- bgcolor="#888888" align="center" | colspan="24" | Vocalic diacritics |- bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | colspan="4" | independent || | colspan="4" | diacritic | | | | colspan="4" | independent || | colspan="4"; | diacritic | | | | | |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| diphthongs | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඓ || 0D93 || ai || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:12px" | ෛ || 0DDB || ai || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඖ || 0D96 || au || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෞ || 0DDE || au || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| diphthongs |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| syllabic r | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඍ || 0D8D || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෘ || 0DD8 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඎ || 0D8E || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෲ || 0DF2 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| syllabic r |- align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| syllabic l | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඏ || 0D8F || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" |ෟ || 0DDF || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="right"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ඐ || 0D90 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| | bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="font-size:24px" | ෳ || 0DF3 || || | bgcolor="#CCCCCC"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="left"| syllabic l |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| | | || || | style="border-right-width:1px; border-right-style:solid;"| || | || || | | bgcolor="#AAAAAA"| |- | colspan=24 bgcolor="#AAAAAA" align="center"| |}

Note that the transliteration of both and is . This is not very problematic as the second one is extremely scarce.

Names of the graphemes

The letters of the English alphabet have more or less arbitrary names, e.g. em for the letter or bee for the letter . The Sinhala śuddha graphemes are named in a uniform way adding -yanna to the sound produced by the letter, including vocalic diacritics. The name for the letter අ is thus ayanna, for the letter ආ āyanna, for the letter ක kayanna, for the letter කා kāyanna, for the letter කෙ keyanna and so forth. For letters with hal kirīma, an epenthetic a is added for easier pronunciation: the name for the letter ක් is akyanna. Another naming convention is to use al- before a letter with suppressed vowel, thus alkayanna.

Since the extra miśra letters are phonetically not distinguishable from the śuddha letters, proceeding in the same way would lead to confusion. Names of miśra letters are normally made up of the names of two śuddha letters pronounced as one word. The first one indicates the sound, the second one the shape. For example, the aspirated ඛ (kh) is called bayanu kayanna. kayanna indicates the sound, while bayanu indicates the shape: ඛ (kh) is similar in shape to බ (b) (bayunu = like bayanna).

Another method is to qualify the miśra aspirates by mahāprāna (ඛ: mahāprāna kayanna) and the miśra retroflexes by mūrdhaja (ළ: mūrdhaja layanna).

Ligatures

Certain combinations of graphemes trigger special ligatures. Special signs exist for an ර (r) following a consonant (inverted arch underneath), a ර (r) preceding a consonant (loop above) and a ය (y) following a consonant (half a ය on the right). Furthermore, very frequent combinations are often written in one stroke, like ddh, kv or kś. If this is the case, the first consonant is not marked with a hal kirīma. Dental and retroflex voiced stops are alway rendered as , though, presumably because is not found as a representation of in English orthography.

Sinhala in Unicode

The Unicode range for Sinhala is U+0D80–U+0DFF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

This character allocation has been adopted in Sri Lanka as the Standard SLS1134.

Computer support

on the xubuntu desktop using scim]] Generally speaking, Sinhala support is less developed than support for Devanāgarī for instance. A recurring problem is the rendering of diacritics which precede the consonant and diacritic signs which come in different shapes, like the one for for example.

Sinhala does not come built in with Windows XP, unlike Tamil and Hindi. However, all versions of Windows Vista come with Sinhala support by default, and do not require external fonts to be installed to read Sinhalese script.

For OS X, Sinhala font and keyboard support can be found at http://web.nickshanks.com/typography/ and at http://www.xenotypetech.com/osxSinhala.html

For Linux, the scim input method selector allows to use Sinhala script in applications like terminals or web browsers.

History of Sinhala Software

Online resources

Online Sinhala Unicode Writer

Sinhala Unicode Support Group

Online Unicode Converter

See also

Dutch loanwords in Sinhala

English loanwords in Sinhala

Portuguese loanwords in Sinhala

Tamil loanwords in Sinhala

Notes

References

External links

Sinhala Unicode Character Code Chart

Complete table of consonant-diacritic-combinations

Complete table of consonant-diacritic-combinations as text

Sinhala page at Omniglot

Transliteration Add-on for Firefox (Tamil script to Sinhala script

Sinhala Accepted As One Of The World’s Most Creative Alphabets

Image list for readers with font problems

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Category:Brahmic scripts Category:Sinhala Category:Sinhalese script