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[4] [1] Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. [5] It is written using the Sinhala script, which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. [6] Sinhala is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil.
Exception from the standard are the romanization of Sinhala long "ä" ([æː]) as "ää", and the non-marking of prenasalized stops. Sinhala words of English origin mainly came about during the period of British colonial rule in Sri Lanka. This period saw absorption of several English words into the local language brought about by the ...
Sinhala may refer to: Sinhala or Sinhala dvipa, another name of Sri Lanka; Sinhalese people, an ethno-linguistic group native to Sri Lanka; Sinhala language, the native language of the Sinhalese people; Sinhala script, the writing system of the Sinhala language Sinhala (Unicode block), a block of Sinhala characters in Unicode
Sinhala dialects are the various minor variations of Sinhalese language which are based on the locale (within Island of Sri Lanka) and the social classes and social groups (e.g. university students). Most of the slang are common across all dialects.
The Sinhala script (Sinhala: සිංහල අක්ෂර මාලාව, romanized: Siṁhala Akṣara Mālāva), also known as Sinhalese script, is a writing system used by the Sinhalese people and most Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka and elsewhere to write the Sinhala language as well as the liturgical languages Pali and Sanskrit. [3]
Sinhalese people speak Sinhala, also known as "Helabasa"; this language has two varieties, spoken and written. Sinhala is an Indo-Aryan language within the broader group of Indo-European languages . [ 17 ]
As per 2016, the Sinhala language is mostly spoken by the Sinhalese people, who constitute approximately 74.9% of the national population and total about 16.6 million. However, around 87% of the population are able to speak Sinhala. [2] It uses the Sinhala abugida script, which is derived from the ancient Brahmi script.
Sinhala words of Portuguese origin came about during the period of Portuguese colonial rule in Sri Lanka between 1505–1658. This period saw rapid absorption of many Portuguese words into the local language brought about by the interaction between Portuguese colonials and the Sinhalese people, mainly in the coastal areas of the island.