12 Facts About Sinhala language

1.

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.

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2.

The Sinhala language of these inscriptions with long vowels and aspirated consonants is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi, a regional associate of the Middle Indian Prakrits that has been used during the time of the Buddha.

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3.

Sinhala language is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan word is Sihala.

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4.

Sinhala language cites the inscriptions of Asoka, none of which show this sound change.

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5.

Sinhala language wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815, selected by the UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon.

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6.

Loss of aspirated stops and the consistent left branching syntax in Sinhala language is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect.

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7.

Macanese Patois or Macau Creole is a creole language derived mainly from Malay, Sinhala, Cantonese, and Portuguese, which was originally spoken by the Macanese people of the Portuguese colony of Macau.

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8.

Sinhala language has different types of variations which are commonly identified as 'dialects and accents'.

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9.

In Sinhala there is distinctive diglossia, as in many languages of South Asia.

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10.

Sinhala language script is closely related to South Indian Grantha script and Khmer script taken the elements from the related Kadamba script.

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11.

Sinhala is written from left to right and Sinhala script is mainly used for Sinhala, as well as the liturgical languages Pali and Sanskrit.

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12.

In that sense, Sinhala can be called a "super pro-drop language", like Japanese.

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