THE SCRIPT BEHIND SINHALESE

THE HISTORY OF SRI LANKA’S NATIONAL LANGUAGE

Sri Lanka has three major languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English. Of the three, Sinhalese is the most widely spoken, and is used by 17 million out of 20 million of the country’s population. It is the statutory national language and is also known as Singhalese, Cingalese or Sinhala.

The native name of the language is සිංහල (Siṃhāla) and it comes from Sanskrit, literally meaning “lion-seizer”, “lion- killer” or “lion blood” as a reference to the founder of the Sinhala people, Prince Vijaya. The prince is believed to be a descendant of Sinhabahu (Lion Arms), the son of a Vanga Kingdom princess and a lion.

Brought over from northern India during the 5th century BC and because of its isolation from other Indo-aryan tongues of mainland India, Sinhalese developed along independent lines and into its own language. It follows the syllabic alphabet, with vowels and consonants, and is written from left to right in horizontal lines.

Influenced by Pali and to a lesser degree by Sanskrit, the Sinhalese alphabet is said to be a descendant of the Brahmi, one of the oldest writing systems used in the Indian subcontinent. It also has a considerable number of borrowed words from the Dravidian languages, mostly Tamil, which is also spoken in Sri Lanka.

The English words “tourmaline” and “beriberi” are taken from Sinhalese, the former a blackish mineral from granite rocks, based on the Sinhalese word toramalli, while the latter is a disease causing inflammation of the nerves due to vitamin B deficiency, taken from the Sinhalese word beri, meaning weakness.

Useful phrases How are you? – Kohomadha? My name is… – Magenama… Yes – owu No – nae Please – Karunakarala Sorry – Samaavenna Thank you – Bohomaisthoothi