Sinhala
Sinhala(ISO 15919: sihala, pronounced [siŋɦələ], sometimes referred by alternative spelling Singhalese) is the language of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages.
Sinhala is spoken by about 19 million people in Sri Lanka, about 16 million of whom are native speakers. It is one of the constitutionally-recognised official languages of Sri Lanka, along with Tamil. Sinhala has its own writing system (see Sinhala alphabet) which is an offspring of the Indian Brahmi script.
The oldest Sinhala inscriptions were written in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE; the oldest existing literary works date from the 9th century CE.
The closest relative of Sinhala is the language of the Maldives, Dhivehi.
Sinhala is actually a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indic word is Sīhala; the actual Sinhala term is heḷa or eḷu. The Sanskrit and the Middle Indic words have as their first element (siṃha and sīha) the word "lion" in the respective languages. According to legend, Sinhabahu or Sīhabāhu ("Lion-arms"), was the son of a Vanga princess and a lion. He killed his father and became king of Vanga. His son Vijaya would emigrate from north India to Lankā and become the progenitor of the Sinhala people. Taking into account linguistic and mythological evidence, we can assume that the first element of the name of the people means "lion".[1]
As for the second element la, local tradition connects it to the Sanskrit root lā- "to seize",[2] as to translate it "lion-seizer" or "lion-killer", or to Sanskrit loha/Sinhala lē "blood", to have it mean "lion blood". From a linguistic point of view however, neither interpretation is convincing[citation needed], so that we can only safely say that the word Sinhala is somehow connected to a term meaning "lion".
About the 5th century BCE, settlers from North-Western India reached the island of Sri Lanka, bringing with them an Indo-Aryan language. (This first group of settlers is referred to as prince Vijaya and his entourage in the chronicle Mahavamsa.) In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India-Bengal (Kalinga, Magadha) which led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits
Sinhalese spoken in the Southern province of Sri Lanka (Galle, Matara and Hambantota districts) uses several words that are not found else where in the country; this is also the case for the Central part, and north-central region. For native speakers all dialects are mutually intelligible, and they might not even realize that the differences are significant.
The language of the Veddah people resembles Sinhala to a great extent, although it has a large number of words which cannot be traced to another language. Rodiya people use another dialect of Sinhala.
Spoken in: Sri Lanka
Total speakers: 19 million
Ranking: 60
Language family: Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Insular Indo-Aryan
Sinhala
Writing system: Sinhala abugida (developed from the Brahmi)
Official status
Official language: in Sri Lanka
Regulated by: No official regulation
Language codes:
ISO 639-1 si
ISO 639-2 sin
ISO 639-3 sin
