Editing Sinhala script (section)

==Use for the Pali language==
Many of the oldest Pali manuscript are written in the Sinhala script. The first instance of the Pali [[Tripitaka]] being written down sometime from 29 to 17 BCE occurred in Sri Lanka.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Winternitz |first1=Maurice |translator1-last=Ketkar |translator1-first=S. |translator2-last=Kohn |translator2-first=H. |title=A History of Indian Literature |date=1933 |publisher=University of Calcutta |page=8 |access-date=2024-08-04 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.10371/page/8/mode/2up }}</ref><ref name="bones">{{cite book |last1=Schopen |first1=Gregory |last2=Lopez |first2=Donald S. Jr. |title=Bones, Stones, And Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, And Texts Of Monastic Buddhism in India |url=https://archive.org/details/bonesstonesbuddh00scho |url-access=limited |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=1997 |isbn=0-8248-1748-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bonesstonesbuddh00scho/page/n56 27]}}</ref> At the time, these would have been written in what was still Brahmi script but adapted to palm leaves. Successive copies of Buddhist texts follow the evolution of that version of Brahmi on the island, leading to modern Sinhala.

Many of the {{translit|si|iso|miśra}} consonants are used to represent Pali phonemes that have no Sinhala counterpart, particularly the aspirated consonants. On the other hand, not all {{translit|si|iso|śuddha}} set consonants are used; the prenasalised consonants have no counterpart in Pali phonology, and so are not used. Consonant sequences may be combined in ligatures the same way as in Sinhala.

The vowels are a subset of those for writing Sinhala, comprising long and short ''a'', ''i'', and ''u'', short ''e'' and short ''o''.

The {{IAST|niggahīta}} is represented with the sign ං.

As an example, below is the first verse from the Pali [[Dhammapada]] in Sinhala script, along with the corresponding romanization.<ref>{{cite web |title=යමක වර්ගය |url=https://www.thripitakaya.org/sutta/index/21200 |website=ත්‍රිපිටකය |access-date=2024-08-04}}</ref>
	
	
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{{fs interlinear|lang=si|මනොපුබ්‌බඞ්‌ගමා ධම්‌මා, මනොසෙට්‌ඨා මනොමයා;|Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā;|}}
	
{{fs interlinear|lang=si|මනසා චෙ පදුට්‌ඨෙන, භාසති වා කරොති වා;|manasā ce paduṭṭhena bhāsati vā karoti vā;|}}
	
{{fs interlinear|lang=si|තතො නං දුක්‌ඛමන්‌වෙති, චක්‌කංව වහතො පදං.|tato naṁ dukkhamanveti cakkaṁva vahato padaṁ.|}}
	
|title=Yamaka-vaggo 1
	
}}