Languages of Sri Lanka
There are three main languages spoken in Sri Lanka.
Sinhalese is spoken by most of the people, while Tamil
is spoken in the north and east of the country and by
many in the Muslim community. Finally, as in India,
English is the main language of communication of the
educated middle classes and wealthy families. Pronounced
with a distinctive accent, it is a Sri Lankan version
of English in its own right, full of expressions translated
from Sinhalese and anglicised words. This linguistic
co-existence can be observed on signposts and on banknotes.
Sinhalese, or Sinhala, is the official language of Sri
Lanka, used in public administration and in education.
It belongs to the family of Indo-European languages,
but underwent a different evolution to other languages
in the group (Hindi, for example) from the 5th century
onwards. Its grammar and script, which is a beautiful
succession of arabesques and bubbles, were established
in the 13th century. Over the years the Sinhalese vocabulary
has borrowed many terms from Pali and Sanskrit, the
main media of Buddhist texts, as well as from Tamil
and, from the 16th century onwards, from Western European
languages, particularly Portuguese, Dutch and English.
Here and there odd words betray these European influences,
such as the Portuguese mese for table or pan for bread.
Between 20% and 25% of the population speak Tamil, which
is spoken by over 60 million people around the world.
It is mainly the official language of the state of Tamil
Nadu and of the Territorial Union of Pondicherry in
southern India. In Sri Lanka, where it is spoken by
the Tamil minority, and by numerous Muslims, it was
given the status of an official language in 1988.
Tamil belongs to the family of Dravidian languages
of southern India. Having remained virtually unchanged
for 2,500 years, it has a rich profane and religious
literary tradition. The Tamil script, which employs
elegant angular letters and characters, dotted with
punctuation marks, and alphabet were established during
the 11th and 12th centuries.
|
