Vowels
| Independent |
| අ |
ආ |
ඇ |
ඈ |
ඉ |
ඊ |
උ |
ඌ |
ඍ |
ඎ |
ඏ |
ඐ |
එ |
ඒ |
ඓ |
ඔ |
ඕ |
ඖ |
|
ං |
ඃ |
| ʌ |
ɑː |
æ |
æː |
ɪ |
iː |
ʊ |
uː |
(?) |
(?) |
(?) |
(?) |
ɛ |
eː |
aɪ |
ɒ |
ɔː |
aʊ |
|
ŋ |
h |
| Dependent |
| ක |
කා |
කැ |
කෑ |
කි |
කී |
කු |
කූ |
කෘ |
කෲ |
කෟ |
කෳ |
කෙ |
කේ |
කෛ |
කො |
කෝ |
කෞ |
ක් |
කං |
කඃ |
| kʌ |
kɑː |
kæ |
kæː |
kɪ |
kiː |
kʊ |
kuː |
(?) |
(?) |
(?) |
(?) |
kɛ |
keː |
kaɪ |
kɒ |
kɔː |
kaʊ |
k |
kʌŋ |
kʌh |
Consonants
| Voiceless |
Voiced |
Nasal |
Nasalised Voiced |
| Velar |
| ක |
ඛ |
ග |
ඝ |
ඞ |
ඟ |
| kʌ |
kʰʌ |
ɡʌ |
ɡʱʌ |
ŋʌ |
ŋɡʌ |
| Palatal |
| ච |
ඡ |
ජ |
ඣ |
ඤ |
ඦ |
| tʃʌ |
tʃʰʌ |
dʒʌ |
dʒʱʌ |
(?) |
(?) |
| Alveolar |
| ට |
ඨ |
ඩ |
ඪ |
ණ |
ඬ |
| tʌ |
tʰʌ |
dʌ |
dʱʌ |
nʌ |
ndʌ |
| Dental |
| ත |
ථ |
ද |
ධ |
න |
ඳ |
| θʌ |
θʰʌ |
ðʌ |
ðʱʌ |
n̪ʌ |
n̪ðʌ |
| Bilabilal |
| ප |
ඵ |
බ |
භ |
ම |
ඹ |
| pʌ |
pʰʌ |
bʌ |
bʱʌ |
mʌ |
mbʌ |
| Glides, Fricatives, etc |
| ය |
ර |
ල |
ව |
ශ |
ෂ |
ස |
හ |
ළ |
ෆ |
| jʌ |
rʌ |
lʌ |
vʌ |
ʒʌ |
ʃʌ |
sʌ |
ɦʌ |
lʌ |
fʌ |
Consonant Clusters
| ඥ |
ක්ර |
ක්ය |
ර්ක |
| (?) |
krʌ |
kyʌ |
rkʌ |
Objective
Provide a transliteration scheme between Sinhala and the International
Phonetic Alphabet to allow non-Sinhala speakers to identify the phonemes
associated with Sinhala letters.
Clarification
When a Sinhala consonant is part of a word, the inherent vowel is a
'ə' (schwa). So a 'ක', when it is part of a word,
is transliterated to a 'kə'. There are two exceptions to this rule.
- When the Sinhala consonant is the first letter of a word, the
inherent vowel is a 'ʌ' (caret). So a 'ක', when it is the first
letter of a word is transliterated to a 'kʌ'.
- When one is simply referring to the letter by itself, the
inherent vowel is a 'ʌ' (caret). So the letter 'ක' is transliterated
to a 'kʌ'.
