Languages Of Sri Lanka - Wikipedia

Languages of Sri Lanka
A sign in Sinhala, Tamil and English
Official	Sinhala and Tamil
Semi-official	English
Vernacular	Sri Lankan Tamil dialects, Sri Lankan English, Sri Lanka Malay
Minority	Sri Lankan Portuguese creole, Vedda, Arwi
Foreign	English
Signed	Sri Lankan sign languages
Keyboard layout	QWERTY, Sinhala keyboard, Tamil 99

The main languages spoken in Sri Lanka are Sinhala and Tamil. Several languages are spoken in Sri Lanka within the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, and Austronesian[citation needed] families. Sri Lanka accords official status to Sinhala and Tamil, with English as a recognised language. The languages spoken on the island nation are deeply influenced by the various languages in India, Europe and Southeast Asia. Arab settlers and the colonial powers of Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain have also influenced the development of modern languages in Sri Lanka. See below for the most-spoken languages of Sri Lanka.[1]

020406080100LanguageSinhalaTamilEnglishLanguages in Percentage. View chart definition.

Native and indigenous languages

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As per 2016, the Sinhala language is mostly spoken by the Sinhalese people, who constitute approximately 74.9% of the national population and total about 16.6 million. However, around 92% of the population are able to speak Sinhalese.[2] It uses the Sinhala abugida script, which is derived from the ancient Brahmi script. About 300 of the Veddah people, totaling barely 2,500 in 2002,[3] speak the Veddah language, of which the origin is debated. The Tamil language is spoken by native Sri Lankan Tamils and is also spoken by Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka and by most Sri Lankan Moors. Tamil speakers number around 3.8 million (19% of the population), making it the second largest language in Sri Lanka. There are more than 40,000 speakers of the Sri Lankan Malay language.

Languages of foreign origin

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English in Sri Lanka is fluently spoken by approximately 23.8%[4] of the population, and widely used for official and commercial purposes. It is the native language of approximately 74,000 people, mainly in urban areas. A handful of the 3,400 people of Portuguese descent speak Sri Lankan Portuguese creole.[5]

References

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1. ^ "Sri Lanka – language". Retrieved 20 June 2014.
2. ^ "Census of population and housing of Sri Lanka 2012, Table A32" (PDF). Department of Census & Statistics, Sri Lanka. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-24.
3. ^ Veddah at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
4. ^ "Sri Lanka – language". Retrieved 20 June 2014.
5. ^ Indo-Portuguese (Sri Lanka) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

Further reading

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• Mendis, Dushyanthi; Rambukwella, Harshana. "Sri Lankan Englishes" (PDF). The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. London: Routledge. pp. 181–196.

External links

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• Ministry of National Languages and Social Integration, Sri Lanka
• Department of Official Languages, Sri Lanka Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Ethnologue report for Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka Country Studies

v t e Languages of Sri Lanka
Official languages	Sinhala Tamil
Semiofficial language	Sri Lankan English1
Others	Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Malay Pali2 Sri Lankan Portuguese creole Vedda Sri Lankan sign languages
Formerly spoken and extinct	Arwi Ceylon Creole Dutch Rodiya3
1Recognized as a "link" language 2a liturgical language 3a dialect of Sinhala

v t e Major languages of South Asia
Languages of	Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India list by number of speakers scheduled classical Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka
Contemporarylanguages	Great Andamanese Aka-Jeru Aka-Bo Dravidian Brahui Kannada Malayalam Tamil Telugu Tulu Germanic English Bangladeshi Indian Nepalese Pakistani Sri Lankan Indo-Aryan Angika Assamese Bhojpuri Bengali Chakma Chittagonian Dhivehi Dogri Gujarati Hindustani Hindi Urdu Hinglish Hindko Kashmiri Konkani Kumaoni Magahi Mahal Maithili Marathi Nepali Odia Punjabi Rajasthani Rangpuri Sanskrit Saraiki Sindhi Sinhala Sylheti Iranian Balochi Dari Pashto Wakhi Isolates Burushaski Nihali Kusunda Khasic Khasi Lyngngam Pnar War Malay creoles Sri Lankan Creole Malay Munda Ho Korku Mundari Santali Sora Nicobaric Car Central Nicobarese Chaura Southern Nicobarese Teressa Ongan Önge Jarawa Romance French Portuguese Sino-Tibetan Ao Balti Bodo Dzongkha Garo Hajong Ladakhi Limbu Meitei Mizo Nepal Bhasa Sikkimese Tenyidie Tibetan Tripuri Turkic Turkmen Uzbek
Scripts	Historical Brahmi (Abugida) Greek Indus (Undeciphered) Kharosthi Arabic Arabi Malayalam Arwi Nastaliq Shahmukhi Brahmic Devanagari Bengali Gujarati Gurmukhi Malayalam Kannada Odia Ranjana Sinhala Tamil Telugu Old Italic Latin Other Thaana
Prestige language-influence	Englishisation Hinglish Perso-Arabization Urdu Sanskritisation
Activism	Bengali movement Hela Havula Meitei associate official language movement Meitei classical language movement Meitei linguistic purism movement Newar movement Nepali movement Punjabi Movement Pure Tamil movement Sanskrit revival Urdu movement