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The most closely-related languages to Sinhala are the Vedda language and the Maldivian languages; the former is an endangered indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, which mixes Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin. Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects of Vedda into its main Indo-Aryan substrate. [10]
Sinhala has also adopted many loanwords of foreign origin, including from many Indian such as Tamil and European languages such as Portuguese, Dutch, and English. [ 59 ] Sandesha Kavyas written by Buddhist priests of Sri Lanka are regarded as some of the most sophisticated and versatile works of literature in the world. [ 60 ]
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.
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 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
[Elu] is the name by which is known an ancient form of the Sinhala language from which the modern vernacular of Ceylon is immediately received, and to which the latter bears is of the same relation that the English of today bears to Anglo-Saxon...The name Elu is no other than Sinhala much succeeded, standing for an older form, Hĕla or Hĕlu ...
Historian Patrick Peebles states by the end of the 19th century Sri Lankan Muslims comprised about 6–7 percent of the population, and that "the majority of Muslims were of South Indian origin and spoke Tamil." [23] Another view suggests that the Arab traders, however, adopted the Sinhalese and Tamil languages only after settling in Sri Lanka ...
The parent Vedda language(s) is of unknown linguistic origins, while Sinhalese is part of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Phonologically, Vedda is distinguished from Sinhalese by the higher frequency of palatal sounds [c] and [ɟ]. The effect is also heightened by the addition of inanimate suffixes.