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Sinhala Script
There are 58 letters in the Sinhala - alphabet sixteen vowels and forty-two consonants. Spoken Sinhala makes use of only forty sounds fourteen vowels and twenty six consonants. Please note the lists given are by no means the complete list of all Sinhala letters.
Included here are what my wife considers to be the most common letters used in spoken Sinhala. I will add any other letters at the end of the lists if they are used in any of the vocabulary or dialogues.
For Unit 1 lessons 1 - 5 you will need to access the old pronunciation guide. I am in the process of updating these lessons so they conform with the new pronunciation guide.
When a vowel sound is at the beginning of a word that vowel sound is used but if the vowel sound is after a consonant then some kind of stroke or adjustment is made to the consonant letter to represent the vowel sound.
Consonants that have no stroke or modification represent two sounds - the consonant sound itself and a vowel sound either a as in up or ~ as in ago (see the new pronunciation guide) If the consonant is at the beginning of a word then the vowel sound a as in up if the consonant is not at the beginning then the vowel sound is ~ as in ago.
Consonant modifier
