Sinhala

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

Courses
Beginning colloquial Sinhala : an introductory Sinhala curriculum SINH CBEG 5(PACK)
Beginning readings in colloquial Sinhala : student reader SINH CBEG 5b
Reading and writing practice with the Sinhala alphabet SINH CBEG 5a
Sinhalese : an introductory course SINH CBEG 1(PACK)
Sinhala: Talk Now! SINH CBEG 2(CD-ROM)
Dictionaries
Sarasavi English-Sinhala dictionary SINH DICO 1
Films
Machan SINH FILM 1(DVD)*
Vocabulary
Say it in Sinhala SINH VOCAB 2
Sinhala Phrasebook and Dictionary SINH VOCAB 1