Sinhala script
| Sinhala script (Sinhalese) | |
|---|---|
| සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāva | |
| Geographic distribution: | Sri Lanka |
| Linguistic classification: | Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
|
| Subdivisions: | |
Sinhala script (Sinhala: සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව; Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāva) is an Abugida, a script between a syllabic and alphabetic script. It is also known as Sinhalese script. It is written from left to right. It is used to write Sinhala, which is the official language of Sri Lanka. It is also used to write Sanskrit and Pali.[1] These languages are used for religious texts. The Sinhalese Akṣara Mālāva, one of the Brahmic scripts, comes from the the Ancient Indian Brahmi script. It is also related to the ancient Kannada script.[2]
Structure
It uses consonants as its 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)
ක + ෙ = කෙ = 'ke' sound (a swirl is placed in front of ක)
