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Poster in Sinhala script for GCE Advanced Level Political science tuition class in Matale. The main text (in blue) reads dēśapālana vidyāva Jayasēna Beligala. The first two words mean "political science", the latter two are the tutor's name.

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.^[1] Being a member of the Brahmic family of scripts, the Sinhala script can trace its ancestry back more than 2000 years.^[1] Image File history File links Example. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ... An inscription of Swampy Cree using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, an abugida developed by Christian missionaries for Aboriginal Canadian languages An abugida, alphasyllabary, or syllabics is a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. ... a resource to look at current viewpoints Categories: Indo-Aryan languages | Languages of Sri Lanka | Wikipedia cleanup | Language stubs ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems (scripts). ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 318 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Advertisement for a course in political science, Sri Lanka. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 318 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Advertisement for a course in political science, Sri Lanka. ... Poster from the Spanish Revolution A poster is any large piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. ... The General Certificate of Education or GCE is a secondary-level academic qualification, which was used in Britain and continues to be used in some former British colonies. ... The A-level, short for Advanced Level, is a General Certificate of Education qualification in the United Kingdom, usually taken by students during the optional final two years of secondary school (Years 12 & 13, commonly called the Sixth Form), or at a separate sixth form college or further education college... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political Science is the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behaviour. ... Tuition means instruction, teaching or a fee charged for educational instruction especially at a formal institution of learning. ... Clock-tower Hindu temple in Matale Memorial over the 1848 rebellion Matale town Matale is a town in the hill country of Sri Lanka, 142 kilometres (90 miles) from Colombo. ... An inscription of Swampy Cree using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, an abugida developed by Christian missionaries for Aboriginal Canadian languages An abugida, alphasyllabary, or syllabics is a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. ... An official language is a language that is given a unique legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. ... a resource to look at current viewpoints Categories: Indo-Aryan languages | Languages of Sri Lanka | Wikipedia cleanup | Language stubs ... A sacred language is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. ... Pali (IAST: ) is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ...

Sinhala is often considered two alphabets, or an alphabet with another alphabet, due to the presence of two different sets of letters. The core set, known as the śuddha siṃhala (Pure Sinhala, ශුද්ධ සිංහල) or eḷu hōḍiya (Eḷu alphabet එළු හෝඩිය), can represent all native phonemes. In order to render Sanskrit and Pali words, an extended set, the miśra siṃhala (Mixed Sinhala, මිශ්‍ර සිංහල), is available.^[2] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ...

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 (/a/), which can be changed with the different vowel signs. Thus, for example, the basic form of the letter k is ක "ka". For "ki", a small arch is placed over the ක: කි. This replaces the inherent /a/ by /i/. It is also possible to have no vowel following a consonant. In order to produce such a pure consonant, a special marker, the hal kirīma has to be added: ක්. This marker suppresses the inherent vowel. Writing systems of the world today. ... An inscription of Swampy Cree using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, an abugida developed by Christian missionaries for Aboriginal Canadian languages An abugida, alphasyllabary, or syllabics is a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... An inherent vowel is part of an abugida script. ...

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. A curlicue, or alternatively curlycue, in the visual arts, is a fancy twist, or curl, composed usually from a series of concentric circles. ...

The core set of letters forms the śuddha siṃhala alphabet (Pure Sinhala, ශුද්ධ සිංහල), which is a subset of the miśra siṃhala alphabet (Mixed Sinhala, මිශ්‍ර සිංහල). This 'pure' alphabet contains all the graphemes necessary to write E'lu (classical Sinhala) as described in the classical grammar Sidatsan̆garā (1300 AD).^[3] This is the reason why this set is also called E'lu hōdiya ('E'lu alphabet' එළු හෝඩිය). 1308 - Avignon Papacy established, which splits and weakens the Roman Catholic Church Turku, the oldest city in Finland experiences rapid growth around the recently consecrated Cathedral of Turku Category: ...

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.^[3] A colloquialism is an informal expression, that is, an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ...

All native phonemes of the Sinhala spoken today can be represented in śuddha, while in order to render special Sanskrit and Pali sounds, one can fall back on miśra siṃhala. This is most notably necessary for the graphemes for the Middle Indic phonemes that the Sinhalese language lost during its history, such as aspirates.^[3] In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... In typography, a grapheme is the atomic unit in written language. ... The Middle Indo-Aryan (Middle Indic) languages are the medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Iron Age Prakrits, and the predecessors of the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages like Hindustani, Bengali, and Punjabi. ... Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල, ISO 15919: , IPA: [], earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ...

History and usage

The Sinhala script originated as an offshoot from Brahmi.^[1] and is found in the southern branch of this family, sharing a lineage with scripts such as Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil.^[4] The writing system was originally used in inscriptions, the oldest ones dating from the second century B.C.^[5] By the ninth century A.D., 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. Brāhmī refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ... An evolutionary lineage (also called a clade) is composed of species, taxa, or individuals that are related by descent from a common ancestor. ... The family tree ([1]) of the scripts of the South and South-East Asian sub-continent. ... Oriya is the official language of the Indian state of Orissa. ... Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu, a Dravidian Language found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states. ... Kannada - aptly described as sirigannada (known to few as Kanarese) is one of the oldest Dravidian languages and is spoken in its various dialects by roughly 45 million people. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Inscriptions are words or letters written, engraved, painted, or otherwise traced on a surface and can appear in contexts both small and monumental. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 2nd century BC started on January 1, 200 BC and ended on December 31, 101 BC. // Coin of Antiochus IV. Reverse shows Apollo seated on an omphalos. ... As a means of recording the passage of time the 9th century was the century that lasted from 801 to 900. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Standard edition of the Thai Pali Canon The Pali Canon is the standard scripture collection of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. ... Theravada (Pāli: theravāda; Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda; literally, the Way of the Elders) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and most of continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand). ... A silhouette of a Buddha statue at Ayutthaya, Thailand. ... Pali (IAST: ) is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ...

Areas of use of the Sinhala alphabet. In the north of the island, the Tamil language and alphabet are more prominent than Sinhala.

Today, the alphabet is used by approx. 16,000,000 people to write the Sinhalese language in very diverse contexts, such as newspapers, TV commercials, government announcements, graffiti, and schoolbooks. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... The first Television network in Sri Lanka, named Independent Television Network (ITN) was launched on April 14, 1979 as a private broadcaster[1]. On June 5, 1979 ITN was converted to a government owned business[1] and it was later brought under the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Act of 1982 along... For other uses, see Graffiti (disambiguation). ... Educational oversight Minister of Education Ministry of Education Susil Premajayantha National education budget Rs. ...

Sinhala is the main language written in this alphabet, but rare instances of Sri Lanka Malay written in this script are recorded. Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල, ISO 15919: , IPA: [], earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. ... The Sri Lankan Creole Malay language is a unique mixture of the Sinhalese language and the Tamil language with Malay. ...

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.^[6] In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... A grapheme designates the atomic unit in written language. ... It has been suggested that Misspelling generator be merged into this article or section. ...

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. Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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 <ḷ> and <ṇ>, which are no longer phonemic in modern Sinhala. These two letters were needed for the representation of Eḷu, 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. Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change. ...

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 /ḷ/ and /ṇ/, which are not phonemic in modern Sinhala, but which still form part of the set. These are shaded in the table. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ... Semivowels (also glides, more rarely: semiconsonants) are non-syllabic vowels that form diphthongs with syllabic vowels. ...

The voiceless affricate (ච [t͡ʃa]) is not included in the śuddha set by purists since it does not occur in the main text of the Sidatsan̆garā. The Sidatsan̆garā does use it in examples though, so this sound did exist in Eḷu. In any case, it is needed for the representation of modern Sinhala.^[3]

The basic shapes of these consonants carry an inherent /a/ unless this is replaced by another vowel or removed by the hal kirīma.

The word stop, when used alone, has several possible meanings in the English language. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... (adj. ... (adj. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ... Semivowels (also glides, more rarely: semiconsonants) are non-syllabic vowels that form diphthongs with syllabic vowels. ... Semivowels (also glides, more rarely: semiconsonants) are non-syllabic vowels that form diphthongs with syllabic vowels. ...

Vowels

The vocalic diacritics for u and ū vary according to the consonant to which they are attached.

Vowels come in two shapes: independent and diacritic. The independent shape is used when a vowel does not follow a consonant, e.g. at the beginning of a word. The diacritic shape is used when a vowel follows a consonant. Depending on the vowel, the diacritic can attach at several places. The diacritic for <i> attaches above the consonant, the diacritic for <u> attaches below, the diacritic for <ā> follows, while the diacritic for <e> precedes. <o> finally is marked by the combination of preceding <e> and following <ā>. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 593 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2231 × 2254 pixel, file size: 330 KB, MIME type: image/png) I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 593 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (2231 × 2254 pixel, file size: 330 KB, MIME type: image/png) I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...

While <a,e,i,o> are regular, the diacritic for <u> takes a different shape according to the consonant it attaches to. The most common one is represented on the image on the right for the consonant ප (p). The k-shape is used for some consonants ending at the lower right corner (ක (k),ග (g), ත(t), but not න(n) or හ(h)). Combinations of ර(r) or misra ළ(ḷ) with <u> have idiosyncratic shapes.^[7]

Prenasalized consonants

The prenasalized consonants resemble their plain counterparts. <m̆b> 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.^[8] Vowel diacritics attach in the same way as they would to the corresponding plain stop. Prenasalized stops are phonetic sequences of nasal plus plosive that behave phonologically like single consonant. ...

Non-vocalic diacritics

The two shapes of the hal kirīma for p (left) and b (right).

The Anusvara (often called binduva 'zero' ) is represented by one small circle ං (unicode 0D82),^[9] 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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Anusvaara (or anusvaaram) appears in the alphabet of Indian languages like Sanskrit which use the Devanagari script, and in the Dravidian languages. ... Visarga () is a Sanskrit word meaning sending forth, discharge. In Sanskrit phonology (), (also called, equivalently, by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone, , written as IAST <>, Harvard-Kyoto <H>, Devanagari <>. Visarga is an allophone of and in pausa (at the end of an utterance). ...

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,^[10] for the sibilants, <s>.^[11] ඤ (ñ) and ඥ (gn) cannot be represented by śuddha graphemes, but are only found in less than 10 words each. ෆ fa can be represented by ප pa with a Latin <f> inscribed in the cup. A is a subset of B, and B is a superset of A. In mathematics, especially in set theory, a set A is a subset of a set B, if A is contained inside B. The relationship of one set being a subset of another is called inclusion. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... A sibilant is a type of fricative, made by speeding up air through a narrow channel and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Tatsama are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indic languages like Bangla or Sinhala. ... ... A tenuis consonant is one which is unvoiced and unaspirated. ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ... Coronal consonants are articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. ... A sibilant is a type of fricative, made by speeding up air through a narrow channel and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth. ...

There are six additional vocalic diacritics in the miśra alphabet. The two diphthongs are quite common, while the syllabic ṛ is much rarer, and the syllabic ḷ is all but obsolete. They are almost exclusively found in loanwords from Sanskrit.^[12] In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ... A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ...

The miśra <ṛ> can be also be written with śuddha <r>+<u> or <u>+<r>, which corresponds to the actual pronunciation. The miśra syllabic <ḷ> is obsolete, but can be rendered by śuddha <l>+<i>.^[13] Miśra <au> is rendered as śuddha <awu>, miśra <ai> as śuddha <ayi>. Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Note that the transliteration of both ළ ්and ෟ is <ḷ>. This is not very problematic since the second one is extremely scarce. In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds, or with two tones) is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ... A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ... A syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a syllable of its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. ...

Names of the graphemes

The letters of the English alphabet have more or less arbitrary names, e.g em for the letter <m> or bee for the letter <b>. The Sinhala śuddha graphemes are named in a uniform way adding -yanna to the sound produced by the letter, including vocalic diacritics. ^[14][9] 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. In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (, from Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ...

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 kayanna bayanna. kayanna indicates the sound, while bayanna indicates the shape: ඛ (kh) is similar in shape to බ (b).

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

Ligatures

Śrī

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). ^{[15] [16] [10]} 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. ^{[12] [16] [10]} Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The word ligature can mean more than one thing. ...

Ligatures of ද(d)+ය(y) (blue on yellow) and ක(k)+ෂ ි (ṣi)(red on white)

The image on the left shows she glyph for śrī, which is composed of the letter ś with the vowel ī marked above and a ligature indicating the r below. The image on the right shows ligatures of ද(d)+ය(y) and ක(k)+ෂි (ṣi) on the Political science course advertisement. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... variant glyphs representing the character a (allographs of a) in the Zapfino typeface. ... Sri or Shri (&#346;r&#299;), &#8212;pronounced halfway between sree and shree&#8212;is a Sanskrit title of veneration, a Hindu honorific stemming from the Vedic conception of prosperity (see Lakshmi below). ...

Similarities to other scripts

Sinhala is one of the Brahmic scripts, and thus shares many similarites with other members of the family, such as the Tamil script and Devanāgarī. As a general example, /a/ is the inherent vowel in all three scripts.^[1] Other similarities include the diacritic for <ai>, which resembles a doubled <e> in all three scripts (Sinhala e:ෙ, ai:ෛ; Tamil e:ெ, ai:ை, Devanāgarī pe:पे, pai:पै). The combination of the diacritics for <e> and <ā> yields <o> in all three scripts: The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... () is an abugida script used to write, either along with other scripts, or exclusively, several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Marwari, Konkani, Bhojpuri, languages from Nepal like Nepali, Tharu Nepal Bhasa and sometimes Kashmiri and Romani. ...

• Sinhala e: ෙ, Sinhala ā: ා, Sinhala o: ො
• Tamil e:ெ, Tamil ā: ா, Tamil o: ொ
• Devanāgarī e: ` ,Devanāgarī ā: ा, Devanāgarī o: ो

The diacritic for <au> is composed of preceding <e> and following <ḷ> in Sinhala (ෞ) and Tamil (ௌ).

Sinhala transliteration

It is easy to confuse these Sinhala letters.

Sinhala transliteration can be done in analogy to Devanāgarī transliteration. A problem is the transliteration of /අැ/, not found in Devanāgarī. This is <ä> in the German tradition of Wilhelm Geiger, and <æ> in the Anglophone tradition (e.g. James Gair). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Devanagari. ...

Layman's transliterations in Sri Lanka normally follow neither of these. Vowels are transliterated according to English spelling equivalences, which can yield a variety of spellings for a number of phonemes. /ī/ for instance can be <ee>, <e>, <ea>, <i>, etc.

A transliteration pattern peculiar to Sinhala (and Tamil), and facilitated by the absence of phonemic aspirates, is the use of <th> for the voiceless dental stop, and the use of <t> for the voiceless retroflex stop. This is presumably because the retroflex stop /ʈ/ is perceived the same as the English alveolar stop /t/, and the Sinhala dental stop /t̪/ is equated with the English voiceless dental fricative /θ/.^[17] Dental and retroflex voiced stops are alway rendered as <d>, though, presumably because <dh> is not found as a representation of /ð/ in English orthography. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Voiceless alveolar plosive. ... The voiceless retroflex plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... The voiceless alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ... The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ... The voiced dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

Sinhala in Unicode

The Unicode range for Sinhala is U+0D80 ... U+0DFF. Dots indicate non-assigned code points. The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ...

This character allocation has been adopted in Sri Lanka as the Standard SLS1134. The word standard has several meanings: Originally, standard referred to a conspicuous object used as a rallying point in battle. ...

Computer support

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 <u> 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. Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Tamil ( ; IPA ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamils in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. ... Hindi ( , Devanagari: or , IAST: , IPA: ), an Indo-European language spoken all over India in varying degrees and extensively in northern and central India, is one of the two central official languages of India, the other being English. ... Windows Vista is a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... A font can mean: A member of a typeface family; or digital font - file format that encapsulates a typeface family in a database. ...

Sinhala script in an xfce4-terminal and in the Firefox web browser

For Linux, the scim input method selector allows to use Sinhala script in applications like terminals or web browsers. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 768 pixel, file size: 465 KB, MIME type: image/png) I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 768 pixel, file size: 465 KB, MIME type: image/png) I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... The default outlook of Xfce 4. ... Firefox may refer to: Firefox (novel), written by Craig Thomas, published in 1978 Firefox (film), the 1982 movie starring Clint Eastwood, based on the novel Firefox (arcade game), the laserdisc arcade game based on the movie Mozilla Firefox, a web browser The Red Fox or the Red Panda, based on... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... The logo for SCIM The Smart Common Input Method platform (SCIM), is an input method platform supporting more than thirty languages (CJK and many European languages) for POSIX-style operating systems including Linux and BSD. SCIM is a development platform to make Input Method (IM) developer life easier. ... Look up Terminal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An example of a Web browser (Internet Explorer 7) A Web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ...

Online resources

• Sinhala guide of the Sinhalese wikipedia (in English)
• Online Sinhala Unicode Writer
• Sinhala Unicode Support Group
• Online Unicode Converter

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Daniels (1996), p. 408.
2. ^ Gair and Paolillo 1997:15f.
3. ^ Cite error 8; No text given.
4. ^ Daniels (1996), p. 380.
5. ^ Geiger (1995) p.2
6. ^ Matzel (1983) p.15,17,18
7. ^ Jayawardena-Moser (2004) p. 11
8. ^ Fairbanks et al. (1968), p.126
9. ^ ^{a b} Karunatillake (2004), p. xxxii
10. ^ ^{a b c} Karunatillake (2004), p. xxxi
11. ^ Daniels (1996), p. 410.
12. ^ ^{a b} Matzel (1983), p.8
13. ^ Matzel (1983), p.14
14. ^ Fairbanks et al. (1968), p. 366
15. ^ Fairbanks et al. (1968), p.109
16. ^ ^{a b} Jayawardena-Moser (2004), p. 12
17. ^ Matzel(1983), p.16

References

• Daniels, Peter T. (1996). "Sinhala alphabet", The World's Writing Systems. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0. 

• Fairbanks, G.W.; J.W. Gair, MWSD Silva (1968). Colloquial Sinhalese (Sinhala). Ithaca, NY: South Asia Programm, Cornell University. 

• Gair, J.W.; John C. Paolillo (1997). Sinhala. München, Newcastle: South Asia Programm, Cornell University. 

• Geiger, Wilhelm (1995). A Grammar of the Sinhalese Language. New Delhi: AES Reprint. 

• Jayawardena-Moser, Premalatha (2004). Grundwortschatz Singhalesisch - Deutsch, 3, Wiesbaden: Harassowitz. 

• Karunatillake, W.S. (1992). An Introduction to Spoken Sinhala, [several new editions]. 

• Matzel, Klaus (1983). Einführung in die singhalesische Sprache. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 

Peter T. Daniels is a scholar of writing systems. ...

External links

• Sinhala Unicode Character Code Chart
• Sinhala Unicode & Ascii Fonts
• Sinhala Unicode Group
• Sinhala Alphabet

• Sinhala page at Omniglot

• List of free fonts for the Sinhala script

• MADHURA English-Sinhala Dictionary Font