Sinhala
The Sinhala script is primarily used to write Sinhala (also Sinhalese), an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 17 million people. Sinhala is one of the official languages of Sri Lanka. The Grantha script, historically used to write Tamil, greatly influenced the development of the Sinhala script. The emergence of the Sinhala script is tied to the early cultivation of Sinhala language literature around the 8th century. Numerous medieval Buddhist manuscripts and royal inscriptions from Sri Lanka are in the Sinhala script.
Script Classification | Abugida |
Letter Case | None |
Numerals | 0-9 : ෦ ෧ ෨ ෩ ෪ ෫ ෬ ෭ ෮ ෯ |
Earliest Recorded Usage | c. 8th century CE |
Used to Write | Sinhala (Sinhalese), Pali, Sanskrit |
Added to Unicode | Version 3.0 (1999) |