Sinhala, sometimes called Sinhalese, 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 written in the Sinhalese script.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count2021 estimate, first-language (L1) speakers. StatusWikipedia article on Sinhala: a currently spoken living language with an active native-speaker population; checked 2026-09-27. Attested From (Year) Classification
Language Kind Official Status Connections
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Sinhala Language
Source Wikipedia: Sinhala Language
Written In
Source Wikipedia: Sinhala Language
In the Other Atlases
Cases Where Used
Also in Society and Culture Atlas: used in this subject.
Source Wikipedia: Sinhalese peopleLead sentence 3Quote, Lead sentence 3
The Sinhalese people speak Sinhala, an insular Indo-Aryan language.
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Wikipedia: Sinhala LanguageLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
Sinhala ( SIN-hə-lə, SING-ə-lə; Sinhala: සිංහල, siṁhala, [ˈsiŋɦələ]), sometimes called Sinhalese ( 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.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Sinhala (Glottolog languoid sinh1246)
GlottologEndangerment, AES statusQuote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
2. Wikipedia: Sinhala Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Sinhala ( SIN-hə-lə, SING-ə-lə; Sinhala: සිංහල, siṁhala, [ˈsiŋɦələ]), sometimes called Sinhalese ( 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.
Infobox, ISO 639-3
sin
Infobox: speakers2
L2: million (2021)<ref name="e28
Infobox, Native to
Sri Lanka
Infobox, Official language in
Sri Lanka
- Written In: Sinhala Script
In Family: Indo-Iranian, Infobox: fam2
Indo-Iranian
In Family: Indo-Aryan, Infobox, Language family
Indo-Aryan
View the Source 3. Omniglot: Sinhala language, alphabet and pronunciation
OmniglotLanguage at a glanceQuote, Language at a glance
First written : 9th century AD
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