අ ආ ඇ ඈ ඉ ඊ උ ඌ එ ඒ ඔ ඕ Tamil also has 12 independent vowels:
However, dig a little deeper, and you’ll find a fascinating linguistic story. As two official languages of Sri Lanka, Sinhala and Tamil have influenced each other for over two millennia. While they belong to different language families (Sinhala is Indo-European; Tamil is Dravidian), their alphabets share a common ancestor and several interesting parallels. sinhala alphabet with tamil
Do you speak Sinhala or Tamil? Have you noticed any other alphabet similarities? Share in the comments below! අ ආ ඇ ඈ ඉ ඊ උ ඌ
| Sound | Sinhala | Tamil | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Ka (unvoiced) | ක | க | | Kha (aspirated) | ඛ | (not present) | | Ga (voiced) | ග | (uses க with sound change) | | Gha (aspirated voiced) | ඝ | (not present) | Do you speak Sinhala or Tamil
அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஐ ஒ ஓ ஔ
| Feature | Sinhala | Tamil | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | 60 (12 vowels + 48 consonants) | 31 (12 vowels + 18 consonants + 1 special) | | Direction | Left to Right | Left to Right | | Inherent Vowel | 'a' (අ) | 'a' (அ) | | Script Style | Rounded, cursive | Angular, blocky | Sinhala Vowels (ස්වර) Sinhala has 12 independent vowels:
These are nearly identical in purpose and shape in both alphabets: