Sinhala script

Sinhala script is an Abugida, a script between a syllabic and alphabetic script. It is written from left to right. It is used to write Sinhala, the official language of Sri Lanka. It is sometimes also used to write Sanskrit and Pali. These languages are used for religious texts.

Structure

It uses consonants as it's base unit. To make different sounds, small strokes of lines called 'pili' (in Sinhala) are written before, after, above or below the base consonant.

Example

ක = 'ka' sound (this is the base consonant)

ක + ි = කි = 'ki' sound (a small arch like shape is placed on top of ක)

ක + ් = ක් = 'k' sound (a small flag like shape is placed on top of ක)