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Sinhala script

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Also known as Sinhala alphabet, Sinhalese script, Sinhalese alphabet, Sinh, Sinhala abugida

Brahmic writing system

Key facts

Script type
Abugida
Period
8th century CE – present
Direction
Left-to-right
Languages
Sinhalese , Pali , Sanskrit
Parent systems
Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Brahmi Tamili Pallava Grantha Sinhalese script
Iso 15924
Sinh (348) , ​ Sinhala
Unicode alias
Sinhala
Unicode range
U+0D80–U+0DFF Sinhala U+111E0–U+111FF , Sinhala Archaic Numbers

via Wikipedia infobox

~21 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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The Sinhalese script (Sinhala: සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව, romanized: Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāwa), also known as Sinhala script, is a writing system used by the Sinhalese people and most Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka and elsewhere to write the Sinhalese language as well as the liturgical languages Pali and Sanskrit. The Sinhalese Akṣara Mālāva, one of the Brahmic scripts, is a descendant of the Ancient Indian Brahmi script. It is thought to be derived from Grantha script.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sinhala script” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.