Sinhala script
Abugida writing system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Sinhala script (Sinhala: සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව, romanized: Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāva), also known as Sinhalese script, is a writing system used by the Sinhalese people and most Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka and elsewhere to write the Sinhala language as well as the liturgical languages Pali and Sanskrit.[3] The Sinhalese Akṣara Mālāva, one of the Brahmic scripts, is a descendant of the Ancient Indian Brahmi script. It is also related to the Grantha script.[4]
Sinhala script (Sinhalese) සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāva | |
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Script type | |
Time period | c. 300 – present[1] |
Direction | Left-to-right |
Languages | Sinhala, Pali, Sanskrit |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Tamil-Brahmi, Gupta, Bhattiprolu, Kadamba, Tocharian |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Sinh (348), Sinhala |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Sinhala |
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The theorised Semitic origins of the Brahmi script are not universally agreed upon. | |
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
The Sinhala script is an abugida written from left to right. Sinhala letters are classified in two sets. 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).