Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest Times to the Sixth Century A.D. c25.s6.t4.7

c25.s6.t4.7

While Tamil-Brāhmī has been adapted to suit the requirements of the Tamil phonetic system, Sinhala-Brāhmī has been adapted to the phonology of Sinhala-Prakrit, which is markedly different from that of the Indian Prakrits. While Tamil-Brāhmī did away with voiced consonants, aspirates, sibilants, the *anusvāra* and the *visarga*, Early Sinhala-Brāhmī dropped long vowels, aspirates, the sibilants *śh* and *s*, the *anusvāra* and the *visarga*, as these sounds did not exist in the language of the early cave inscriptions. While Tamil-Brāhmī added four new letters viz., *l*, *l*, *r* and *n* by modifying the Brāhmī letters with the nearest phonetic values, Early Sinhala-Brāhmī utilised the Brāhmī letter *jh* (an aspirate not present in Early Sinhala-Prakrit) in the place of *j* to represent some allied sound for which no letter was available in Brāhmī.