File:සිංහල_in_Noto_Serif_Sinhala_Black.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Sinhala

Also known as Singhalese language, Helabasa, Sinhalese language, Sinhalese, Sinhala language

Indo-Aryan language native to Sri Lanka

AI overview

Sinhala is a language spoken by the majority of people in Sri Lanka, belonging to the Indo-Aryan language family that also includes languages like Hindi and Bengali. It matters because it is the primary language of Sri Lanka's largest ethnic group and serves as an official language of the country.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: modern language
Country: Sri Lanka
Image: සිංහල in Noto Serif Sinhala Black.svg

Show 16 more facts

has tense: present tense
writing system: Sinhala script
topic's main category: Category:Sinhala language
Wikimedia language code: si
native label: සිංහල
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 15300000
Commons category: Sinhala language
linguistic typology: postposition
category for films in this language: Category:Sinhala-language films
indigenous to: Sri Lanka
exact match: publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/SIN
P10369: penis
described by source: Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
has grammatical case: vocative case
P13311: Central Europe
has grammatical gender: neuter

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Encyclopedic overview

Sinhala (/ˈsɪnhələ, ˈsɪŋələ/ SIN-hə-lə, SING-ə-lə; Sinhala: සිංහල, siṁhala, [ˈsiŋɦələ]), sometimes called Sinhalese (/ˌsɪn(h)əˈliːz, ˌsɪŋ(ɡ)əˈliːz/ SIN-(h)ə-LEEZ, SING-(g)ə-LEEZ), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. It is also the first language of about 2 million other Sri Lankans, as of 2001. It is written in the Sinhalese script.

The language has two main varieties, written and spoken, and is a notable example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sinhala” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.