Aims:

This guide to pronunciation and the Sinhala script is designed to help you, with the aid of the sound files, reach an acceptable level of pronunciation so you will have no trouble being understood when speaking Sinhala.

There are five parts to the Script and Pronunciation section:

1. Transcription - a Romanised pronunciation guide showing which sounds go with which letters.
2. Sinhala Vowels - the most commonly used vowels in spoken Sinhala in Sinhala script and how they relate to the pronunciation guide.
3. Sinhala Consonants - the most commonly used consonants in spoken Sinhala in Sinhala script and how they relate to the pronunciation guide.
4. Sinhala Vowel Stokes - shows how Sinhala consonants are modified to carry different vowel sounds.
5. Letter Videos - short videos showing how each of the letters given in the preceding sections are written.

Sinhala Script:

There are fifty-eight 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. (J.B. Disanayaka, 1993) The Sinhala letters you will find in the sections listed above are commonly used in Spoken Sinhala and are not intended to be an exhaustive reference.

For a complete reference to the Sinhala alphabet refer to The Structure of Spoken Sinhala Volume 1: Sounds and Their Patterns by J. B. Disanayaka published by the National Institute of Education, Maharagama.

Note: 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 automatically carry a vowel sound in addition to the consonant sound. This is either a as in up or ~ as in ago.