Tamil Sinhala Alphabet -

| Consonant + vowel | Tamil | Sound | |------------------|-------|-------| | க் + அ | க | ka | | க் + ஆ | கா | kā | | க் + இ | கி | ki | | க் + ஈ | கீ | kī | | … and so on | | | Sinhala is more complex. It distinguishes voiced/unvoiced , aspirated/unaspirated , and has conjunct consonants (like Sanskrit). Sinhala uses two main sets: Shuddha Sinhala (pure Sinhala, ~54 letters) and Miśra Sinhala (additional letters for Sanskrit/Pali loans). 3.1 Vowels (Swara) – 14 basic (each with short/long) | Short | Long | IPA | |-------|------|-----| | අ (a) | ආ (ā) | /a/, /aː/ | | ඉ (i) | ඊ (ī) | /i/, /iː/ | | උ (u) | ඌ (ū) | /u/, /uː/ | | එ (e) | ඒ (ē) | /e/, /eː/ | | ඔ (o) | ඕ (ō) | /o/, /oː/ | | – | ඇ (æ) | /æ/ (like a in cat ) | | – | ඈ (ǣ) | /æː/ |

ඓ (ai), ඖ (au) – rare, mainly in Sanskrit loans. 3.2 Consonants (Vyanjana) – ~40 Sinhala organizes consonants by place of articulation and voicing/aspiration . Velar (back of mouth) | Unvoiced unasp. | Unvoiced asp. | Voiced unasp. | Voiced asp. | Nasal | |----------------|---------------|---------------|--------------|-------| | ක (ka) | ඛ (kha) | ග (ga) | ඝ (gha) | ඞ (ṅa) | Palatal | ච (ca) | ඡ (cha) | ජ (ja) | ඣ (jha) | ඤ (ña) | Retroflex (tongue curled back) | ට (ṭa) | ඨ (ṭha) | ඩ (ḍa) | ඪ (ḍha) | ණ (ṇa) | Dental (tongue against teeth) | ත (ta) | ථ (tha) | ද (da) | ධ (dha) | න (na) | Labial (lips) | ප (pa) | ඵ (pha) | බ (ba) | භ (bha) | ම (ma) | Semivowels, sibilants, liquids | Letter | Sound | |--------|-------| | ය | ya | | ර | ra | | ල | la | | ව | va | | ශ | śa (palatal sh) | | ෂ | ṣa (retroflex sh) | | ස | sa (dental s) | | හ | ha | | ළ | ḷa (retroflex l) | 3.3 Diacritics (Pilli) Like Tamil, Sinhala vowels are attached to consonants as diacritics. Example with ක් (k + inherent a removed): tamil sinhala alphabet

| Short | Long | IPA | |-------|------|-----| | அ (a) | ஆ (ā) | /a/, /aː/ | | இ (i) | ஈ (ī) | /i/, /iː/ | | உ (u) | ஊ (ū) | /u/, /uː/ | | எ (e) | ஏ (ē) | /e/, /eː/ | | ஐ (ai) | – | /aɪ/ | | ஒ (o) | ஓ (ō) | /o/, /oː/ | | ஔ (au) | – | /aʊ/ | | Consonant + vowel | Tamil | Sound