LingoflyTransliteration of Sinhala
A correspondence table between the Sinhala script and Latin letters: 59 letters, with names and sounds. The rendering is practical — it exists so you can read aloud and be understood, not to meet a scholarly standard.
Sinhala character → Latin
| Character | Name | In Latin | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| අ | a | a | Short “a”, close to the first vowel of “about” said clearly — as in “cup” |
| ආ | long a | aa | Long “a” — held twice as long as the short one |
| ඇ | open a | ae | Open “a”, like the “a” in English “cat” — between “a” and “e” |
| ඈ | long open a | aae | The same open “a”, but long |
| ඉ | i | i | The usual “i” as in “bit” |
| ඊ | long i | ii | Long “i” as in “see” |
| උ | u | u | The usual “u” as in “put” |
| ඌ | long u | uu | Long “u” as in “food” |
| ඍ | ri | ri | A syllabic “r” with an “i” shade — it sounds like “ru/ri” |
| ඎ | long ri | rii | The long pair to ඍ; it almost never turns up in live text |
| ඏ | lu | lu | A syllabic “l” — a sign from the Sanskrit tradition |
| ඐ | long lu | luu | The long pair to ඏ — the rarest letter of the script |
| එ | e | e | Close “e”, like the first part of the “ay” in “day” without the glide |
| ඒ | long e | ee | Long close “e” |
| ඓ | ai | ai | The diphthong “ai”, like “i” in “ice” |
| ඔ | o | o | The usual “o” as in “more” |
| ඕ | long o | oo | Long “o” |
| ඖ | au | au | The diphthong “au” as in “how” |
| ක | ka-yanna | ka | The syllable “ka”: the letter already carries the vowel “a” |
| ඛ | maha-ka-yanna | kha | Aspirated “kha” — in live speech it sounds like the plain “ka” |
| ග | ga-yanna | ga | The syllable “ga” |
| ඝ | maha-ga-yanna | gha | Aspirated “gha”; by ear it does not differ from ග |
| ඞ | kantu-na-yanna | ng | Back “ng”, like the “ng” in English “sing” |
| ඟ | sanyaka-ga-yanna | nga | Half-nasal “ng” in one syllable: a glottal hum before the “ga” |
| ච | cha-yanna | cha | The syllable “cha” as in “church” |
| ඡ | maha-cha-yanna | chha | Aspirated “chha” — from Sanskrit |
| ජ | ja-yanna | ja | The syllable “ja” as in “jam” |
| ඣ | maha-ja-yanna | jha | Aspirated “jha”; it does not occur in Sinhala words |
| ඤ | taaluja-na-yanna | nya | Soft nasal “ny”, as in the middle of “canyon” |
| ඥ | taaluja-sanyoga-naasikyaya | gn | A Sanskrit sign: in speech “gn” in one motion, as in gnāti “gnaa-ti”; the bookish norm is [dʒɲa] |
| ඦ | sanyaka-ja-yanna | nja | Half-nasal “nj” in one syllable |
| ට | murdhaja-ta-yanna | tta | Hard “ta” with the tongue curled back — as in English “table” |
| ඨ | maha-murdhaja-ta-yanna | ttha | Aspirated “ttha” with the tongue curled back |
| ඩ | murdhaja-da-yanna | dda | Hard “da” with the tongue curled back, darker than English “d” |
| ඪ | maha-murdhaja-da-yanna | ddha | Aspirated “ddha” with the tongue curled back |
| ණ | murdhaja-na-yanna | nna | Hard “na” with the tongue curled back |
| ඬ | sanyaka-da-yanna | ndda | Half-nasal hard “nd” in one syllable |
| ත | dantaja-ta-yanna | ta | Soft “ta”: the tongue at the upper teeth, not at the alveoli |
| ථ | maha-dantaja-ta-yanna | tha | Aspirated dental “tha”, like the “th” of “thin” with a “t” |
| ද | dantaja-da-yanna | da | Soft dental “da” |
| ධ | maha-dantaja-da-yanna | dha | Aspirated dental “dha” |
| න | dantaja-na-yanna | na | The usual “na” |
| ඳ | sanyaka-dantaja-da-yanna | nda | Half-nasal dental “nd” in one syllable |
| ප | pa-yanna | pa | The syllable “pa” |
| ඵ | maha-pa-yanna | pha | Aspirated “pha” |
| බ | ba-yanna | ba | The syllable “ba” |
| භ | maha-ba-yanna | bha | Aspirated “bha” |
| ම | ma-yanna | ma | The syllable “ma” |
| ඹ | sanyaka-ba-yanna | mba | Half-nasal “mb” in one syllable |
| ය | ya-yanna | ya | The syllable “ya” (y + a) |
| ර | ra-yanna | ra | A single-tap “ra” — the tt of American “butter”, never the curled r of English “red” |
| ල | dantaja-la-yanna | la | Softish “la”, the tongue at the teeth |
| ව | va-yanna | va | Between “v” and the English “w” |
| ශ | taaluja-sa-yanna | sha | Soft “sha” |
| ෂ | murdhaja-sa-yanna | ssha | Hard “sha” with the tongue curled back; by ear — the same “sha” |
| ස | dantaja-sa-yanna | sa | The usual “sa” — the only one of the three with which native words are written |
| හ | ha-yanna | ha | A breath, like the English “h” |
| ළ | murdhaja-la-yanna | lla | Hard “la” with the tongue curled back |
| ෆ | fa-yanna | fa | The syllable “fa” |
| ා | aela-pilla | -aa | Long “a”: ක — “ka”, කා — “kaa” |
| ැ | edayya | -ae | Open “a”: කැ — “kae”, like the “a” in “cat” |
| ෑ | dirga edayya | -aae | Long open “a”: කෑ — “kaae” |
| ි | is-pilla | -i | Short “i”: කි — “ki”. Written above |
| ී | dirga is-pilla | -ii | Long “i”: කී — “kii” |
| ු | pa-pilla | -u | Short “u”: කු — “ku”. Written below |
| ූ | dirga pa-pilla | -uu | Long “u”: කූ — “kuu”. Also below |
| ෘ | gaetaya | -ru | Syllabic “ru” — only in Sanskrit words |
| ෙ | kombuva | -e | Short “e”: කෙ — “ke” |
| ේ | dirga kombuva | -ee | Long “e”: කේ — “kee”. Kombuva on the left plus hal kirima on top |
| ෛ | kombuva deka | -ai | The diphthong “ai”: කෛ — “kai”. Two kombuvas in a row |
| ො | kombuva with aela-pilla | -o | Short “o”: කො — “ko”. The letter is taken into brackets from both sides |
| ෝ | kombuva with hal-aela-pilla | -oo | Long “o”: කෝ — “koo” |
| ෞ | kombuva with gayanukitta | -au | The diphthong “au”: කෞ — “kau” |
| ් | hal kirima | hal (no vowel) | No vowel at all: ක් — just “k” |
| ං | binduva | bindu (nasal n) | A nasal “n/ng” hum after the vowel: කං — “kan(g)” |
| ඃ | visargaya | visarga (breath h) | A voiceless breath at the end of a syllable — a sign from Sanskrit; it does not occur in Sinhala words |
How practical transliteration differs from the scholarly kind
Any script has several Latin renderings, and they solve different problems. The scholarly one (ISO, GOST) is reversible: the original spelling can be restored character for character — which is why it is full of marks that are not on any keyboard and that nobody ever reads aloud correctly.
The practical one solves the reverse problem: a person reads it aloud and is understood. That is what the table above uses, and that is what our courses use.
What to watch out for
The twelve vowels you need. A separate vowel letter stands only at the beginning of a word: inside it the vowels are written as signs. Every short one has a long pair, and the length changes the meaning.
Two diphthongs — and four from Sanskrit. The diphthongs ඓ ඖ (“ai”, “au”) are not common. The last four (ඍ ඎ ඏ ඐ) are met almost never. These are the Sanskrit syllabic “r” and “l”, left in the table for completeness.
Twenty consonants of “pure Sinhala”. Shuddha sinhaala is what native words are written with. Having learned these twenty, you read almost any sign: everything else in the script is needed for Sanskrit and Pali borrowings.
Aspirates and Sanskrit letters. Misra sinhaala. The aspirates (ඛ ඝ ඡ ඣ ඨ ඪ ථ ධ ඵ භ) sound like their plain pairs in everyday speech: the puff is heard only in deliberately bookish reading. Reading them is a must; writing them is not.
Five half-nasal letters — a mark of Sinhala. One letter for a nasal shade plus a consonant: ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ. Sanskrit has nothing of the kind, nor do the neighboring Tamils — this is what makes Sinhala Sinhala.
Pili — fourteen vowel signs. Shown on ක (ka): on its own a vowel sign is not written. From කා the “k” has to be subtracted in one’s head — and the very vowel the sign means remains. One of them, kombuva (ෙ), is written to the left of the letter although it sounds after it.
Hal, bindu and visarga. Three signs that are not vowels. Hal kirima removes the vowel altogether, the bindu adds a nasal shade, the visarga has remained from Sanskrit.
Frequently asked
How to write Sinhala text in Latin letters?
Using the table above, character by character. The practical rendering records sound, not spelling, so the original text cannot always be restored from it backwards.
Why do transliterations differ across sources?
Because they solve different problems: the scholarly one is reversible and precise, the practical one is readable, the passport one is fixed by the country's rules. They are not required to agree.