During the career of Christopher Reynolds (1922вЂ“2015) as a Sinhalese lecturer at the SOAS, University of London, he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature: the Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for this. In 1815 the island of Ceylon came under British rule. the words mГ¤ssДЃ ('fly') and mГ¤kkДЃ ('flea'), which both correspond to Sanskrit makб№ЈikДЃ but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiДЃ and makkhikДЃ (as in Pali). There are several cases of vocabulary doublets, e.g. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o) in Sinhalese Prakrit. Sanskrit viб№ѓЕ›ati 'twenty', Sinhala visi-, Hindi bД«s). Eastern Prakrit features ДЄn example for a Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. vibДЃgaya 'exam' Sinhalese Prakrit viб№б№a > Modern Sinhala viб№a) the loss of a vowel length distinction long vowels in the modern language are due to loanwords (e.g.kanavДЃ 'to eat' corresponds to Sanskrit khДЃdati, Hindustani khДЃnДЃ) the loss of the aspiration distinction (e.g.The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: Modern Sinhala (12th century вЂ“ present).The development of Sinhala is divided into four periods: In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India ( Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), Kalinga, Magadha) which led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. History ДЄccording to the chronicle Mahavansa, written in Pali, Vanga kingdom's Prince Vijaya and his entourage merged with the Yakkha and later settlers from the Pandya kingdom. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island. Siб№ѓhala is attested as a Sanskrit name of the island in the Bhagavata Purana. The name is a derivation from siб№ѓha, the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. Sinhala ( Siб№ѓhala) is a Sanskrit term the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eбё·u) word is SД«hala. Main article: Names of Sri Lanka В§В Sinhala It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia. The closest relatives are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language. The oldest Sinhala Prakrit inscriptions found are from the third to second century BCE following the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, while the oldest extant literary works date from the ninth century. Along with Pali, it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Sinhala is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka. It is written using the Sinhala script, which is one of the Brahmic scripts a descendant of the ancient Indian Brahmi script closely related to the Kadamba script. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totaling about 4 million people as of 2001. Sinhala ( / Л€ s ЙЄ n h Й™ l Й™, Л€ s ЙЄ Е‹ Й™ l Й™/ SIN-hЙ™-lЙ™, SING-Й™-lЙ™ а·ѓа·’а¶‚а·„а¶Ѕ, siб№Ѓhala, ), ( / ЛЊ s ЙЄ n( h) Й™ Л€ l iЛђ z, ЛЊ s ЙЄ Е‹( ЙЎ) Й™-/) 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.

Sinhala cartoon films