An Indo-European language and a member of the Indo-Aryan group, spoken by c. 12 million people in the island of Sri Lanka, where it is an official language, together with English and Tamil; also known as Sinhalese and Singhalese.
The language was brought to the island by colonists from northern India in the 5th century BC. It was attested from the 3rd century BC and the earliest records of the literary language date from the 9th century AD. Due to its geographical position, Sinhala has developed in isolation from other Indo-Aryan languages. The closest linguistic affiliation is with the Mahl dialect spoken in the Maldive Islands.
It is written in the Sinhala syllabic script, introduced in the 10th century. It was derived from a South Indian version of the Brahmi script.
CLASSIFICATION = Indo-European family, SCRIPT = Sinhala
Films |
Machan |
SINH FILM 1(DVD)* |