Root Zone Label Generation Rules for the Sinhala Script

Overview

This file contains a set of Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the Sinhala script for the Root Zone. For more details on this LGR and additional background on the script, see “Proposal for a Sinhala Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules-Set (LGR)” [Proposal-Sinhala]. This file is one of a set of LGR files that together form an integrated LGR for the DNS Root Zone [RZ-LGR-6]. The format of this file follows [RFC 7940].

Repertoire

According to Section 5, “Repertoire” in [Proposal-Sinhala], the Sinhala LGR contains 72 single code points, in addition to 4 sequences used in the definition of variants, for a total of 76 repertoire elements. The repertoire covers the Sinhala language as written with the Sinhala script.

The repertoire is contained in [MSR-6], which is a subset of [Unicode 16.0.0].

As part of the Root Zone, this LGR includes neither decimal digits nor the HYPHEN-MINUS nor ZWJ.

Repertoire Listing: Each code point or range is tagged with the script or scripts with which the code point is used and one or more other character categories. For each repertoire element, one or more references document sufficient justification for inclusion in the repertoire; see the “References” below.

Variants

According to Section 6, “Variants”, in [Proposal-Sinhala], this LGR defines variants within Sinhala which can cause confusion for even a careful observer. There are no cross-script variants, though some confusing cases are identified in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Variant Disposition: All variants are of type “blocked”, making labels that differ only by these variants mutually exclusive: whichever label containing either of these variants is chosen earlier would be delegated, while any other equivalent labels should be blocked. There is no preference among these labels.

This LGR does not define allocatable variants.

The specification of variants in the Root Zone LGR follows the guidelines in [RFC 8228].

Context Rules for Variants: for some of the variants defined in this LGR the sequences or code points making up source and target are constrained by explicit context rules on the code points (or by implicit context rules defined for the adjacent code points). In such a case, any variants may require context rules that match the intersection between the effective contexts for both source and target; otherwise, a sequence might be considered valid in some variant label when it would not be valid in an equivalent context in an original label. Symmetry requires the same context rule for both forward and reverse mappings.

Character Classes

As most Brahmi-derived scripts, Sinhala is an alphasyllabary writing system written from left to right. All the categories of Consonants, Vowels, Matras, Halant, Anusvara, Visarga and Sannjakas are discussed below.

Consonants: There are 40 consonants in Sinhala alphabet and 38 of them are selected for inclusion. Its consonants imply inherent vowel a(අ) when they are used without dependent vowels. Absence of the inherent vowel is marked by adding hal kirima (remover of the inherent vowel) to the consonant; thus ක /ka/ but ක් /k/, and ව /va/ but ව් /v/. More details in Section 3.3.1, “The Consonants” in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Vowels and Matras: There are separate symbols (dependent vowels) for all the vowels except the inherent vowel අ in Sinhala. Independent vowels are used at the beginning of a word and dependent vowels (matras) are used after consonants. More details in Section 3.3.2, “The Vowels” in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Halanta: The Halanta, which is also called halkirima or hallakuna, is encoded as U+0DCA ( ් ) SINHALA SIGN AL-LAKUNA. This sign is used to remove the inherent vowel of the consonants in Sinhala, and to join consonants and form conjunct characters. More details in Section 3.3.3, “Halanta: The Inherent Vowel Remover” in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Anusvara: U+0D82 ( ං ) SINHALA SIGN ANUSVARAYA, pronounced /ŋ/, represents all the nasals. It can be preceded by any sign except halanta (U+0DCA). More details in Section 3.3.4, “The Anusvara” in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Visarga: U+0D83 ( ඃ ) SINHALA SIGN VISARGAYA is a rarely used sign and pronounced as /h/. It can be preceded by any sign except halanta (U+0DCA). More details in Section 3.3.5, “The Visarga” in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Sannjakas: There are five separate letters for prenasalized voiced stops called sannjakas in Sinhala. From among these, ඦ is not frequently used. Sannjakas cannot be followed by halanta. More details in Section 3.3.6, “Sannjakas” in [Proposal-Sinhala].

Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) and Context Rules

Default Whole Label Evaluation Rules and Actions

The LGR includes the set of required default WLE rules and actions applicable to the Root Zone and defined in [MSR-6]. They are marked with ⍟. The default prohibition on leading combining marks is equivalent to ensuring that a label only starts with a consonant or vowel. The actions compute a label disposition based on WLE rules or variant mapping types.

Sinhala-specific Rules

These rules have been formulated so that they can be adopted for LGR specification.

The following symbols are used in the WLE rules:
C → Consonant
M → Matra / Vowel Signs
V → Vowel
B → Anusvara (Bindu)
X → Visarga
H → Halanta / Virama
J → Sannjaka

The rules are:

• 1. H: must be preceded by C
• 2. M: must be preceded by C or J
• 3. X: must be preceded by either V, C, or M
• 4. B: must be preceded by either V, C, J or M

The following context rules apply to code points in variant sets to ensure the variant transitivity.

• 5. variants are undefined preceding a Halant or Matra
• 6. variants are undefined preceding an Anusvara, Visarga, Halant or Matra

More details in Section 7, “Whole Label Evaluation Rules (WLE)” in [Proposal-Sinhala]

Methodology and Contributors

The Root Zone LGR for the Sinhala Script was developed by the Sinhala Generation Panel in consultation with the Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel (NBGP). For details on methodology and contributors, see Sections 4 and 8 in [Proposal-Sinhala], as well as [RZ-LGR-6-Overview].

References

The following general references are cited in this document:

[MSR-6]

Integration Panel, “Maximal Starting Repertoire — MSR-6 Overview and Rationale”, 23 September 2025,
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/msr-6-overview-23sep25-en.pdf

[Proposal-Sinhala]

Sinhala Generation Panel, “Proposal for a Sinhala Script Root Zone Label Generation Ruleset (LGR)”, 22 April 2019,
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/proposal-sinhala-lgr-22apr19-en.pdf

[RFC 7940]

Davies, K. and A. Freytag, “Representing Label Generation Rulesets Using XML”, RFC 7940, August 2016,
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7940

[RFC 8228]

A. Freytag, “Guidance on Designing Label Generation Rulesets (LGRs) Supporting Variant Labels”, RFC 8228, August 2017,
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8228

[RZ-LGR-6-Overview]

Integration Panel, “Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ LGR-6): Overview and Summary”, 23 September 2025,
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-overview-23sep25-en.pdf

[RZ-LGR-6]

Integration Panel, “Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR-6)”, 23 September 2025 (XML),
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-common-23sep25-en.xml
non-normative HTML presentation:
https://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/lgr/rz-lgr-6-common-23sep25-en.html

[Unicode 16.0.0]

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0.0, (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium, 2024. ISBN 978-1-936213-34-4)
https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/

For references consulted, particularly in designing the repertoire for the Sinhala script for the Root Zone, please see details in the Table of References below. Reference [3] refers to the Unicode Standard version in which the corresponding code points were initially encoded. References [102] and above correspond to sources given in [Proposal-Sinhala] justifying the inclusion of the corresponding code points. Entries in the table may have multiple source reference values.