Sinhala to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Transliteration Scheme - in progress

Vowels

Independent
  ‌ං ‌ඃ
ʌ ɑː æ æː ɪ ʊ (?) (?) (?) (?) ɛ ɒ ɔː   ŋ h
Dependent
කා කැ කෑ කි කී කු කූ කෘ කෲ කෟ කෳ කෙ කේ කෛ කො කෝ කෞ ක් කං කඃ
kɑː kæː kiː kuː (?) (?) (?) (?) keː kaɪ kɔː kaʊ k kʌŋ kʌh

Consonants

Voiceless Voiced Nasal Nasalised Voiced
Velar
kʰʌ gʰʌ ŋʌ ngʌ
Palatal
tʃʌ tʃʰʌ dʒʌ dʒʰʌ (?) (?)
Alveolar
tʰʌ dʰʌ ndʌ
Dental
θʌ θʰʌ ðʌ ðʰʌ nðʌ
Bilabilal
pʰʌ bʰʌ mbʌ
Glides, Fricatives, etc
ʒʌ ʃʌ

Consonant Clusters

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.

  1. 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'.
  2. 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'.

Revision History

Revision Log

started: 2004/11/21, last updated: 2007/11/10

References