Sinhala
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Sinhala is a language spoken by the majority of people in Sri Lanka, belonging to the Indo-Aryan language family that also includes languages like Hindi and Bengali. It matters because it is the primary language of Sri Lanka's largest ethnic group and serves as an official language of the country.
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Sinhala (/ˈsɪnhələ, ˈsɪŋələ/ SIN-hə-lə, SING-ə-lə; Sinhala: සිංහල, siṁhala, [ˈsiŋɦələ]), sometimes called Sinhalese (/ˌsɪn(h)əˈliːz, ˌsɪŋ(ɡ)əˈliːz/ 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. It is written in the Sinhalese script.
The language has two main varieties, written and spoken, and is a notable example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia.
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Fusional languagesISO language articles citing sources other than EthnologueLanguage articles citing Ethnologue 28Language articles with Linguasphere codeLanguages of Sri LankaLanguages with ISO 639-1 codeLanguages with ISO 639-2 codeSinhala languageSouthern Indo-Aryan languagesSubject–object–verb languages