SV: "~NH" in Sinhalese Pali Orthography

<This is purely a question of comparative orthography --it has nothing to do
with the permutation of the anuswara!

E.M.

Dear Jim and E.M.,

The use of /.n/ raises some interesting questions about early Pali
orthography. The use of /.n/ recorded in ms.s is often confusing and
seemingly erratic. Kacc records /.n/ as one of letters of Pali, so it must
have been part of the orthographical system used to render the canon at the
time of composition of Kacc. However, there is no trace of /.l/ in the
rules, although it is occasionally found in the canon. The rules invariably
use /l/ in contrast to Kacc-v that introduces /.l/ instead. They were
evidently composed when the system of writing used to reproduce the
canonical texts were not in use. This is historically interesting. 

Ole Pind