Sinhala script

**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. These languages are used for religious texts. The Sinhalese Akṣara Mālāva, one of the Brahmic scripts, comes from the Ancient Indian Brahmi script. It is also related to the ancient Kannada script.   

## History 
Sinhala script comes from Brahmi, and was imported from Northern India, around the 3rd century BCE. Sinhala script developed in a complex way: Part independently but also strongly influenced by South Indian scripts at various stages. It is clearly influenced by the early Grantha script.

Medieval Sinhalese first began to be used around 750 AD. It has a very strong influence from the Grantha script. As a result, Medieval (and modern) Sinhalese look similar to the South Indian scripts.

Today, the alphabet is used by over 16 million people to write Sinhala in very different situations, such as newspapers, TV commercials, government announcements, graffiti, and schoolbooks.

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

## Types of alphabets
### Sidath sangara alphabet
This alphabet was invented in the Dambadeniya period (1220–1345). This is the first specific Sinhala alphabet to be found in writing. 

### Śuddha set 
This alphabet includes the letters usually used everyday. It is enough to write almost every word in Sinhala. 

### Miśra set 
The Śuddha set was not enough to spell Pali and Sanskrit words correctly. So, new letters had to be used. This alphabet first appears in Abraham Mendis Gunasekara's Comprehensive Grammar of the Sinhalese Language, a grammar book published in 1891. 

### National Institute of Education Alphabet 
The alphabet was adopted by the National Institute of Education in 1989. This is the alphabet commonly used in schools in Sri Lanka.

### Contemporary Sinhala Alphabet (Modern Sinhala Alphabet)
This alphabet was first published in 1990 by J.B. Dissanayake. Here, the vowels **අ** and **ආ** have two forms as open and closed. 

### International Standards Institution Sinhala Alphabet
### Unicode Sinhala Alphabet 
## 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)*

## Letters and how they are pronounced
Here, the letters of the National Institute of Education Alphabet are shown.  

### Vowels
There are 18 vowels. 

***අ** is pronounced like the *u* in *cut*
***ආ** is pronounced like the *a* in *father*
***ඇ** is pronounced like the *a* in *cat*
***ඈ** is pronounced like **ඇ** but the sound is held longer
***ඉ** is pronounced like the i in *is*
***ඊ** is pronounced like the *ee* in *feet*
***උ** is pronounced like the *u* in *put*
***ඌ** is pronounced like the *u* in *flute*
***ඍ** is pronounced like the *ri* in *river* (when it is combined with a consonant, it is pronounced like *ru*)
***ඎ** is pronounced like the *ree* in *reel* This vowel occurs rarely
***ඏ** is pronounced as *li* or *lu*. This vowel is no longer in use
***ඐ** is pronounced as **ඏ** but the sound is held longer. This vowel is no longer in use
***එ** is pronounced like the *e* in *bed*
***ඒ** is pronounced like the *a* in *ancient*
***ඓ** is pronounced like *eye*
***ඔ** is pronounced like the *o* in *cot*
***ඕ** is pronounced like the *o* in *go*
***ඖ** is pronounced like the *ou* in *house*

### Consonants 
There are 42 consonants. The consonants are divided into many groups based on how they are pronounced.

The consonant ඥ (pronounced like ඤ - like the *ny* in *canyon*) is used today but it is **not included** in the National Institute of Education Alphabet.

## References