The Sinhalese Alphabet

Q: What type of writing system is the Sinhala script?

The Sinhala script is a Brahmic abugida written left to right . Each consonant carries an inherent /a/ vowel; other vowels are written with diacritical signs called pilla , and the al-lakuna suppresses the inherent vowel in clusters. It has 18 independent vowels, 41 consonants, and dedicated letters for prenasalised consonants (ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ) unique to the Sinhala script among South Asian Brahmic scripts.

Q: What language family does Sinhalese belong to?

Sinhalese belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European, forming the Sinhala-Vedda sub-branch — a lineage that separated from mainland Indo-Aryan early, with settlers arriving in Sri Lanka around 500 BCE. Classified under Glottolog sinh1246, it is distinct from other Indo-Aryan languages due to millennia of independent development and substantial influence from Dravidian languages such as Tamil.

Q: What are the prenasalised consonants in Sinhala?

Sinhala has five prenasalised consonant letters — consonants preceded by a brief nasal at the same place of articulation: ඟ (ng+g), ඦ (ny+j), ඬ (nn+dd), ඳ (n+d), ඹ (m+b). These are phonemically distinctive in Sinhala and have dedicated letters in the script — a feature unique among South Asian Brahmic scripts such as Devanagari and Tamil.

Q: What makes the Sinhala script unique among Brahmic scripts?

Key features setting Sinhala apart: rounded circular letterforms unlike angular Devanagari or geometric Tamil, and five prenasalised consonant letters (ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ) unique to the Sinhala script. Further unique features include the ae vowels (ඇ/ඈ) not found in most related scripts, and a native digit set (෦–෯) distinct from Devanagari or Tamil numerals.

Q: Where is Sinhalese spoken?

Sinhalese is spoken almost entirely in Sri Lanka , where it is one of two official languages alongside Tamil. As the language of the Sinhalese ethnic group — approximately 74% of the population — it is concentrated in the southern, western, central, and north-central provinces, including Colombo and Kandy.

Q: What is the literary and historical tradition of the Sinhala script?

Sinhala has a recorded literary history of approximately 2,000 years , with inscriptions dating to the 3rd century BCE. Sri Lanka's rich Buddhist literary tradition includes the Mahavamsa chronicle (5th–6th century CE) and preservation of the Pali Canon. Classical Sinhala poetry and prose span from the medieval Kandyan period to a flourishing modern literature.

Sinhalese Alphabet at a Glance

The Sinhala script has 18 independent vowels, 41 consonants, and a system of vowel signs (pilla) — a Brahmic abugida written left to right in which each consonant carries an inherent vowel a
Sinhalese (Sinhala) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 16–17 million people as their native language; it is one of the two official languages of Sri Lanka and Glottolog classifies it as sinh1246 ^[1]
The Sinhala script is a unique Brahmic abugida derived from ancient Brahmi through Pallava and Grantha scripts; it is distinct from other South Asian Brahmic scripts and uses a rounded, circular letterform style distinctive to Sri Lanka ^[2]
A defining feature of the Sinhala script is the series of prenasalised consonant letters (ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ) for prenasalised stops — a phonological feature characteristic of Sinhala not reflected in other South Asian Brahmic scripts
Sinhala has two distinctive vowels not found in most related South Asian scripts: ae (ඇ) and aae (ඈ) — a short and long front vowel pair that are independent phonemes in Sinhala phonology
The al-lakuna sign (◌්) cancels the inherent vowel of a consonant to allow consonant clusters — essential for writing complex Sinhala syllables; vowel signs (pilla) are written before, above, below, or after consonants
Sinhala has its own set of native digits (෦–෯) corresponding to the numerals 0–9; both Sinhala digits and Western Arabic numerals are used in Sri Lanka across different contexts

Sinhalese (Sinhala, ISO 639-3: sin) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 16–17 million native speakers in Sri Lanka, where it is one of the country's two official languages ^[1]. It uses the Sinhala script — a unique Brahmic abugida with rounded letterforms distinct from all other South Asian scripts.

The Sinhala script is a Brahmic abugida derived from ancient Brahmi. Written left to right, each consonant inherently carries the vowel a, with other vowels marked by diacritical signs called pilla ^[2]. It has 18 independent vowels and 41 consonants, plus unique prenasalised letters (ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ).

Sinhala Independent Vowels

Sinhala has 18 independent vowel letters used when a vowel begins a syllable without a preceding consonant. The system includes short/long pairs for a, ae, i, u, e, and o; the vocalic r (ඍ); diphthongs ai (ඓ) and au (ඖ); and the nasal sign anusvaraya (ං) and aspiration sign visargaya (ඃ).

The vowels ae (ඇ) and aae (ඈ) are distinctive Sinhala vowels not present in most related Brahmic scripts — a front vowel pair reflecting Sinhala's independent phonological development.

Sinhala Independent Vowels

අ

[AH]

ආ

[AH-long]

ඇ

[AE]

ඈ

[AE-long]

ඉ

[EE]

ඊ

[EE-long]

උ

[OO]

ඌ

[OO-long]

ඍ

[RU]

එ

[EH]

ඒ

[EH-long]

ඓ

[AI]

ඔ

[OH]

ඕ

[OH-long]

ඖ

[AU]

ං

[NG]

ඃ

[H-aspiration]

ඞ

[NGA]

අ

[AH]

Short open vowel a — the inherent vowel of Brahmic scripts. The most basic and frequent vowel in Sinhala; this is the vowel inherent to every consonant in the Sinhala abugida.

ආ

[AH-long]

Long open vowel aa — a prolonged a sound. The long counterpart of short a; one of the most common vowels in Sinhala native vocabulary.

ඇ

[AE]

Short front vowel ae — a sound similar to the "a" in English "cat". This vowel is distinctive in Sinhala and does not exist in many related Brahmic scripts.

ඈ

[AE-long]

Long front vowel aae — a prolonged ae sound. The long counterpart of short ae; a distinctively Sinhala vowel.

ඉ

[EE]

Short close front vowel i — like "i" in "machine" (short). One of the fundamental vowels in Sinhala; common throughout native vocabulary.

ඊ

[EE-long]

Long close front vowel ii — like "ee" in "feet". The long counterpart of short i; phonemically distinct by duration in Sinhala.

උ

[OO]

Short close back rounded vowel u — like "oo" in "book" (short). Common in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ඌ

[OO-long]

Long close back rounded vowel uu — like "oo" in "food". The long counterpart of short u in Sinhala.

ඍ

[RU]

Vocalic r — a syllabic r vowel inherited from Sanskrit. Represents the vowel quality of the syllabic r in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary; also called iruyanna in Sinhala script tradition.

එ

[EH]

Short mid front vowel e — like "e" in "bed". One of the common vowels in Sinhala native and borrowed vocabulary.

ඒ

[EH-long]

Long mid front vowel ee — a prolonged e sound. The long counterpart of short e in Sinhala phonology.

ඓ

[AI]

Diphthong ai — a vowel combination like "ai" in "aisle". An independent vowel letter for the ai diphthong inherited from the Sanskrit-Brahmic tradition.

ඔ

[OH]

Short mid back rounded vowel o — like "o" in "note" (short). Common in Sinhala native vocabulary.

ඕ

[OH-long]

Long mid back rounded vowel oo — a prolonged o sound. The long counterpart of short o in Sinhala.

ඖ

[AU]

Diphthong au — a vowel combination like "au" in "audit". Inherited from the Sanskrit-Brahmic tradition; used in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ං

[NG]

Anusvaraya — a nasal sign that follows a vowel to indicate nasalisation or a syllable-final nasal consonant. Used in Sinhala for nasal sounds at the end of a syllable.

ඃ

[H-aspiration]

Visargaya — an aspiration mark that follows a vowel to indicate a following h sound. Inherited from the Sanskrit Brahmic tradition; used in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ඞ

[NGA]

Kantaa naasikyaya — the velar nasal consonant-vowel carrier used as part of the vowel section. Represents the syllabic velar nasal inherited from the Brahmic classification system.

Sinhala Consonants

Sinhala has 41 consonant letters following the traditional Brahmic varga (group) classification: velar (ක–ඟ), palatal (ච–ඦ), retroflex (ට–ඬ), dental (ත–ඳ), labial (ප–ඹ), and semivowels/sibilants (ය–ෆ). Each consonant inherently carries the vowel a.

A distinctive feature is the series of prenasalised consonant letters (ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ) — for prenasalised stops not reflected in most other South Asian Brahmic scripts, reflecting a phonological pattern unique to Sinhala.

Sinhala Consonants

ක

[KAH]

ඛ

[KHA]

ග

[GAH]

ඝ

[GHA]

ඟ

[NNGA]

ච

[CHA]

ඡ

[CHHA]

ජ

[JAH]

ඣ

[JHA]

ඤ

[NYA]

ඥ

[JNYA]

ඦ

[NYJA]

ට

[TTA]

ඨ

[TTHA]

ඩ

[DDA]

ඪ

[DDHA]

ණ

[NNA]

ඬ

[NNDDA]

ත

[TAH]

ථ

[THA]

ද

[DAH]

ධ

[DHA]

න

[NAH]

ඳ

[NDA]

ප

[PAH]

ඵ

[PHA]

බ

[BAH]

භ

[BHA]

ම

[MAH]

ඹ

[MBA]

ය

[YAH]

ර

[RAH]

ල

[LAH]

ව

[VAH]

ශ

[SHA]

ෂ

[SSA]

ස

[SAH]

හ

[HAH]

ළ

[LLA]

ෆ

[FAH]

ක

[KAH]

Ka — voiceless unaspirated velar stop with inherent vowel a. The first letter of the Sinhala consonant series following the traditional Brahmic varga order (beginning with the velar series).

ඛ

[KHA]

Kha — voiceless aspirated velar stop. The aspirated counterpart of ක (ka); the Brahmic script distinguishes aspirated and unaspirated consonants with dedicated letters.

ග

[GAH]

Ga — voiced unaspirated velar stop. The voiced counterpart of ක (ka); common throughout Sinhala native vocabulary.

ඝ

[GHA]

Gha — voiced aspirated velar stop. The aspirated voiced counterpart of ග (ga); found in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ඟ

[NNGA]

Sanyaka gayanna — a prenasalised voiced velar stop, like "ng" followed by "g". A distinctive Sinhala letter for a prenasalised velar stop found in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ච

[CHA]

Ca — voiceless unaspirated palatal affricate, like "ch" in "church" (unaspirated). The first letter of the palatal series in the Brahmic varga classification.

ඡ

[CHHA]

Cha — voiceless aspirated palatal affricate. The aspirated counterpart of ච (ca); found in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ජ

[JAH]

Ja — voiced unaspirated palatal affricate, like "j" in "jump". Common in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ඣ

[JHA]

Jha — voiced aspirated palatal affricate. The aspirated voiced counterpart of ජ (ja); found primarily in Sanskrit-origin vocabulary.

ඤ

[NYA]

Nya — palatal nasal, like "ny" in "canyon". The nasal letter of the palatal series; appears in native Sinhala vocabulary and Sanskrit loanwords.

ඥ

[JNYA]

Jnya — a compound palatal letter representing the sound combination of ja and nya. Found in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ඦ

[NYJA]

Sanyaka jayanna — prenasalised palatal affricate. A Sinhala letter for the prenasalised palatal stop; appears in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ට

[TTA]

Tta — voiceless unaspirated retroflex stop. Pronounced with the tongue tip curled back; the first letter of the retroflex series, shared with other South Asian Brahmic scripts.

ඨ

[TTHA]

Ttha — voiceless aspirated retroflex stop. The aspirated counterpart of ට (tta); found in Sanskrit-origin vocabulary and some native Sinhala words.

ඩ

[DDA]

Dda — voiced unaspirated retroflex stop. Pronounced with the tongue tip curled back; the voiced counterpart of ට (tta). Appears in native Sinhala and Sanskrit-origin vocabulary.

ඪ

[DDHA]

Ddha — voiced aspirated retroflex stop. The aspirated voiced counterpart of ඩ (dda); found in Sanskrit-origin vocabulary.

ණ

[NNA]

Nna — retroflex nasal. Pronounced with the tongue tip curled back against the palate; the nasal of the retroflex series. Common in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ඬ

[NNDDA]

Sanyaka ddayanna — prenasalised voiced retroflex stop. A Sinhala letter for the prenasalised retroflex stop; appears in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ත

[TAH]

Ta — voiceless unaspirated dental stop, like "t" in "top" (dental). The first letter of the dental series; one of the most common consonants in Sinhala native vocabulary.

ථ

[THA]

Tha — voiceless aspirated dental stop. The aspirated counterpart of ත (ta); found in both native and Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ද

[DAH]

Da — voiced unaspirated dental stop. The voiced counterpart of ත (ta); very common in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ධ

[DHA]

Dha — voiced aspirated dental stop. The aspirated voiced counterpart of ද (da); found in Sanskrit-origin vocabulary.

න

[NAH]

Na — dental nasal, like "n" in "no". The nasal of the dental series; one of the most common consonants in Sinhala native vocabulary.

ඳ

[NDA]

Sanyaka dayanna — prenasalised voiced dental stop. A Sinhala letter for the prenasalised dental stop; appears in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ප

[PAH]

Pa — voiceless unaspirated bilabial stop, like "p" in "pen" (unaspirated). The first letter of the labial series in the Brahmic varga classification.

ඵ

[PHA]

Pha — voiceless aspirated bilabial stop. The aspirated counterpart of ප (pa); found in Sanskrit-origin vocabulary.

බ

[BAH]

Ba — voiced unaspirated bilabial stop, like "b" in "bed". The voiced counterpart of ප (pa); common throughout native Sinhala vocabulary.

භ

[BHA]

Bha — voiced aspirated bilabial stop. The aspirated voiced counterpart of බ (ba); found in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ම

[MAH]

Ma — bilabial nasal, like "m" in "man". The nasal of the labial series; one of the most common consonants in Sinhala native vocabulary.

ඹ

[MBA]

Amba bayanna — prenasalised voiced bilabial stop. A Sinhala letter for the prenasalised bilabial stop; appears in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ය

[YAH]

Ya — palatal approximant, like "y" in "yes". Common in Sinhala native vocabulary and in loanwords; also functions as a glide consonant.

ර

[RAH]

Ra — alveolar trill or tap, like a rolled "r". Common throughout Sinhala native vocabulary and grammatical morphology.

ල

[LAH]

La — alveolar lateral approximant, like "l" in "land". One of the most common consonants in Sinhala; appears throughout native vocabulary.

ව

[VAH]

Va — labiodental or bilabial approximant, like "v" in "van" or "w" in "water". Common in native Sinhala vocabulary.

ශ

[SHA]

Sha — voiceless palatal fricative, like "sh" in "ship". One of three sibilant letters in Sinhala; common in Sanskrit-origin vocabulary.

ෂ

[SSA]

Ssa — voiceless retroflex fricative. A retroflex sibilant inherited from Sanskrit; found in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary.

ස

[SAH]

Sa — voiceless alveolar fricative, like "s" in "sun". One of the most common consonants in Sinhala; the standard sibilant in native vocabulary.

හ

[HAH]

Ha — voiceless glottal fricative, like "h" in "hat". Common in native Sinhala vocabulary; also used as an aspiration consonant in certain contexts.

ළ

[LLA]

Lla — retroflex lateral. A distinct retroflex l sound pronounced with the tongue tip curled back; a letter unique to some South Asian Brahmic scripts including Sinhala.

ෆ

[FAH]

Fa — voiceless labiodental fricative, like "f" in "fan". A letter added to represent sounds in modern loanwords from English, Arabic, and other languages; not part of the original classical Sinhala alphabet.

Sinhala Vowel Signs (Pilla)

Vowel signs (pilla) are diacritical marks written around Sinhala consonants to indicate vowels other than the inherent a. They may be placed before, above, below, or after the consonant, or split around it (for o, oo, and au).

The al-lakuna (◌්) suppresses the inherent vowel, allowing consonant clusters. The anusvaraya (ං) indicates syllable-final nasalisation; the visargaya (ඃ) indicates aspiration in Sanskrit-origin words.

Sinhala Vowel Signs (Pilla)

ා

ැ

ෑ

◌ි

◌ී

◌ු

◌ූ

ෘ

ෙ

ේ

ෛ

ො

ෝ

ෞ

◌්

ා

Aela-pilla — the vowel sign for long aa. Written after the consonant to indicate the long a vowel; one of the most common vowel signs in Sinhala.

ැ

Ketti aeda-pilla — the vowel sign for short ae. A distinctively Sinhala vowel sign for the short front vowel ae.

ෑ

Diga aeda-pilla — the vowel sign for long aae. The long counterpart of the short ae vowel sign; distinctive to the Sinhala script.

◌ි

Ketti is-pilla — the vowel sign for short i. Written above the consonant to indicate the short close front vowel; one of the most common vowel signs in Sinhala.

◌ී

Diga is-pilla — the vowel sign for long ii. The long counterpart of the short i vowel sign.

◌ු

Ketti paa-pilla — the vowel sign for short u. Written below the consonant to indicate the short close back vowel.

◌ූ

Diga paa-pilla — the vowel sign for long uu. The long counterpart of the short u vowel sign.

ෘ

Gaeita-pilla — the vowel sign for the vocalic r. Written below the consonant; used in Sanskrit-origin Sinhala vocabulary for the syllabic r vowel quality.

ෙ

Kombuva — the vowel sign for short e. Written before the consonant (to its left); one of the common vowel signs in Sinhala, despite being written before its consonant.

ේ

Diga kombuva — the vowel sign for long ee. The long counterpart of the short e vowel sign; written before the consonant.

ෛ

Kombu deka — the vowel sign for the ai diphthong. A two-part vowel sign written before the consonant representing the diphthong ai.

ො

Kombuva haa aela-pilla — the vowel sign for short o. A two-part sign written on both sides of the consonant; combines the e-sign (before) with the aa-sign (after).

ෝ

Kombuva haa diga aela-pilla — the vowel sign for long oo. A two-part vowel sign for the long o vowel; written on both sides of the consonant.

ෞ

Kombuva haa gayanukitta — the vowel sign for the au diphthong. A two-part vowel sign for the au diphthong; written on both sides of the consonant.

◌්

Al-lakuna (virama) — the vowel suppressor sign. Cancels the inherent a vowel of a consonant to create a pure consonant for forming consonant clusters. Essential for writing complex syllables in Sinhala.

අ

ආ

ඇ

ඈ

ඉ

ඊ

උ

ඌ

ඍ

එ

ඒ

ඓ

ඔ

ඕ

ඖ

ං

ඃ

ක

ඛ

ග

ඝ

ඞ

ඟ

ච

ඡ

ජ

ඣ

ඤ

ඥ

ඦ

ට

ඨ

ඩ

ඪ

ණ

ඬ

ත

ථ

ද

ධ

න

ඳ

ප

ඵ

බ

භ

ම

ඹ

ය

ර

ල

ව

ශ

ෂ

ස

හ

ළ

ෆ

Digits

෦

෧

෨

෩

෪

෫

෬

෭

෮

෯

෦

Sinhala digit zero — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 0.

෧

Sinhala digit one — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 1.

෨

Sinhala digit two — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 2.

෩

Sinhala digit three — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 3.

෪

Sinhala digit four — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 4.

෫

Sinhala digit five — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 5.

෬

Sinhala digit six — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 6.

෭

Sinhala digit seven — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 7.

෮

Sinhala digit eight — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 8.

෯

Sinhala digit nine — the Sinhala numeral equivalent of 9.

Expand All Collapse All

What type of writing system is the Sinhala script?

What language family does Sinhalese belong to?

What are the prenasalised consonants in Sinhala?

What makes the Sinhala script unique among Brahmic scripts?

Where is Sinhalese spoken?

What is the literary and historical tradition of the Sinhala script?

References:

[1] Hammarström, Harald et al. "Sinhalese [sinh1246]". Glottolog 5.3. Retrieved from Glottolog: Sinhalese
[2] SIL International. "Sinhala — ISO 639-3 Language Code: sin". Retrieved from SIL ISO 639-3: sin