Sinhala
1
7.9
- noun
- /sɪnˈhɑːlə/
- About 95 percent of the Katunayake FTZ workers are Sinhala in ethnicity, the majority of them Buddhist.
- Sinhala, the language
- Sinhala-speaking
- Sinhala-dominated
Examples
-
She learned Sinhala to better communicate with her relatives in Sri Lanka.
-
A little bit of Sinhala goes a long way.
Blog text (25) -
As for its practical uses, I definitely practice my best Sinhala when I am alone in tuk-tuks!
Blog text (25) -
For one, it's not very common for foreigners to speak Sinhala here.
Blog text (25) -
The most explosive issue was the question of making Sinhala, the language of the ethnic majority, the Sinhalese, the national language.
Academic text (1997) -
The majority of the population in Sri Lanka speaks Sinhala as their first language.
-
After years of study, he finally spoke Sinhala fluently during his visit to Colombo.
Synonyms
1
9.3
The language spoken by Sri Lanka's largest group, called Sinhala
1
7.3
The official language of Sri Lanka spoken by most people
1
9.8
A language spoken by the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka
1
6.7
The main language spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
A language most people in Sri Lanka speak
Compounds
Surface Forms
Etymology
Sinhala comes from an old Indian word siṃha meaning 'lion', so it first meant the 'people of the lion' on the island now called Sri Lanka. That's why Sinhala is the name of the language most of those people speak today.