The Application of World Orthography to Sinhalese

A Description of “World Orthography”, which is now the official manner of writing a number of languages of Africa, is to be found in the booklet Practical Orthography of African Languages published by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. The system is a phonetic one and is in most respects the same as the International Phonetic Alphabet, the chief exceptions being that j and y are used with their English values, vowel length is indicated by doubling the letter, and capital letters are provided for the use of those who consider them necessary. J. R. Firth has shown how World Orthography may be applied to Burmese and to several Indian languages, and it is the object of this article to show how it might be applied to Sinhalese.