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Sinhala ConjunctsModern Sinhala is generally written without conjuncts except for ය ya, ර ra, which generate special combining forms like ක්ර kra , ක්ය kya and the occasional ක්ෂ kṣa However, in rare cases and when writing languages such as writing Pali/Sanskrit more number of conjuncts are used.
There are two types of Conjuncts in Sinhala Script
buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi saṁghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
In the above text, ccha, mma are rendered as Touching conjuncts, and ddha as combining conjunct. A conjunct may have both touching & combining forms.
Forming Conjuncts in Sinhala UnicodeSinhala Unicode does not form conjuncts automatically like the other Indic Script, due to their rare usage. Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) must be inserted between the Virama and the Consonant to induce conjunct formation.
For Normal Conjuncts (including Repha) <C1> + <Virama> + <ZWJ> + <C2> ------> <C1-C2> conjunct
For Touching Conjuncts, <C1> + <ZWJ> + <Virama> + <C2> ------> <C1-C2> touching
FontsAFAIK There are no free Sinhala fonts which extensively support conjunct behavior in Sinhala Script. There free fonts avaiable only support the -ra, -ya and a few combining & touching conjunct. Iskoola Pota is a good looking font, which comes bundled with Windows 7.
Iskoola Pota in Windows 7 displays the following conjuncts properly (with Google Chrome): ්ර ්ය ර් ක්ෂ ක්ව න්ද න්ධ ත්ව ත්ථ ඳ්ව ඳ්ඨ ඳ්ධ ම්ම
The Commercial Mac OS font Xenotype Sinhala font has extensive support for Conjuncts. See here for Pali Text typeset using this font.
Pali in Sinhala ScriptSinhala even though being an Indo-Aryan Language, Sinhala Script has distinct symbols for short & long e/o (probably due to the neighbouring dravidian influence). But, however when used to write Pali, short e/o are used consistently for representing the Pali long e/o . [On the contrast the Dravidian Languages which also have short & long e/o, constantly use only long e/o for writing Sanskrit]
namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā sambuddhassa
Conversion Options
Enable Rephaya & Combining ConjunctsThe Converter by default renders ්ර ්ය & ක්ෂ [Rakaransaya, Yansaya & Ksa] conjunct characters. If there is a need to display additional Conjunct characters this may be used. This option enabled Rephaya and the below combining Conjuncts. It also enables Rephaya. ර් ර්However, the properly display of these conjunct depends upon the font. If the font does not have support for these conjuncts, they rendered with an explicit Virama (Hal-Kirima).
Sanskrit/Pali TextEnable this option, if you want to represent the long e/o vowels using the Pali Conventions (i.e Short e/o) (e.g) namo becomes නමො instead of නමෝ.
Sinhala Input : Sanskrit/Pali Text
If a Sinhalese text written in Pali convnetions is to be transliterated to other scripts e.g Passages from Tripitaka etc, this option can be enabled. The short e/o vowels in the source Text will be rendered as the corresponding long vowels in the Target Script.
Sample Sanskrit Textअनिरोधम् अनुत्पादम् अनुच्छेदम् अशाश्वतम् । अनेकार्थम् अनानार्थम् अनागमम् अनिर्गमम् ॥ यः प्रतीत्यसमुत्पादं प्रपञ्चोपशमं शिवम् । देशयामास संबुद्धस्तं वन्दे वदतां वरम् ॥
Default Conversionඅනිරෝධම් අනුත්පාදම් අනුච්ඡේදම් අශාශ්වතම් | අනේකාර්ථම් අනානාර්ථම් අනාගමම් අනිර්ගමම් || යඃ ප්රතීත්යසමුත්පාදං ප්රපඤ්චෝපශමං ශිවම් | දේශයාමාස සංබුද්ධස්තං වන්දේ වදතාං වරම් ||
Pali e/o Conventionඅනිරොධම් අනුත්පාදම් අනුච්ඡෙදම් අශාශ්වතම් | අනෙකාර්ථම් අනානාර්ථම් අනාගමම් අනිර්ගමම් || යඃ ප්රතීත්යසමුත්පාදං ප්රපඤ්චොපශමං ශිවම් | දෙශයාමාස සංබුද්ධස්තං වන්දෙ වදතාං වරම් ||
With Repha ( & Pali Convention)අනිරොධම් අනුත්පාදම් අනුච්ඡෙදම් අශාශ්වතම් | අනෙකාර්ථම් අනානාර්ථම් අනාගමම් අනිර්ගමම් || යඃ ප්රතීත්යසමුත්පාදං ප්රපඤ්චොපශමං ශිවම් | දෙශයාමාස සංබුද්ධස්තං වන්දෙ වදතාං වරම් || Further Reading1. Sinhala Character Code for Information Excange : Part 2 http://www.locallanguages.lk/files/SLS_1134_Part_2_Requirements_and_Methods_of_Test.pdf 2. Pali Tripitaka in Sinhala Script : http://www.tipitaka.org/sinh/ |
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Aksharamukha Notes
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