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The Tamil language is spoken by native Sri Lankan Tamils and is also spoken by Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka and by most Sri Lankan Moors. Tamil speakers number around 4.8 million (29% of the population), making it the second largest language in Sri Lanka. There are more than 40,000 speakers of the Sri Lankan Malay language.
Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages of Sri Lanka, with English as the link language. Tamil is a South-Dravidian language, and Sinhala belongs to the Insular Indic family (along with Dhivehi of Maldives). Vedda is said to be the indigenous language of Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans and Dravidians.
The language has two main varieties, written and spoken, and is a notable example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia. [7] Sinhala is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, Along with Pali, it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. [1]
Official language A language designated as having a unique legal status in the state: typically, the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, and often, official government business. Regional language A language designated as having official status limited to a specific area, administrative division, or territory of the state.
extinct languages of the Fertile Crescent such as Sumerian and Elamite. extinct languages of South Asia; mainly the unclassified Harappan language; small language families and isolates of the Indian subcontinent: Burushaski, Kusunda, and Nihali. The Vedda language of Sri Lanka is likely an isolate that has mixed with Sinhala.
The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Dravidian is first attested in the 2nd century BCE, as inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script on cave walls in the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts ...
Hindi is one of the two official union languages of India alongside English. Hindi and Urdu (both registers of Hindustani language) are official languages along with 20 others under the Eighth Schedule of Constitution of India. Pakistan: Asia 220,892,331 [2] Urdu is co-official with English. South Africa: Africa 59,622,350 [3]
The following chart lists countries and dependencies along with their capital cities, in English and non-English official language(s). In bold: internationally recognized sovereign states. The 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) Vatican City (administered by the Holy See, a UN observer state), which is generally recognized as a ...