Do Sinhalese people understand Tamil?

I have seen that many Sinhalese there can speak decent Tamil and vise versa. Some areas in Colombo such as Wellawatte (Colombo 6), Mattakuliya and Kotahena (Colombo 13) are dominantly Tamil speaking areas (both Tamils & Muslims speak Tamil). Sinhalese living in these area can speak decent Tamil.

Should I learn Sinhala Tamil?

The official languages If you must choose to learn only one before your trip to Sri Lanka, it should be Sinhala. You therefore have more chance to use it than Tamil, which is spoken by only 25\% of Sri Lankans.

Is Tamil safe in Sri Lanka?

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) latest country report from 2019 says Tamils in Sri Lanka “face a low risk of official or societal discrimination” and “a low risk of torture overall” — an assessment starkly at odds with those of the UN, US and EU.

Is Sri Lankan Sinhalese Tamil?

Sri Lanka is 74.9 percent Sinhalese and 11.2 percent Sri Lankan Tamil. Within these two groups, Sinhalese tend to be Buddhist and Tamils tend to be Hindu, displaying significant linguistic and religious divisions.

Is Sinhalese similar to Tamil?

Tamils and Sinhalese are not two races or offspring of two races. This is same in the case of the Muslims. They are ethnic communities and in that sense there are recognizable differences. In the case of the Tamils (including South Indian) and the Sinhalese, at present time, these influences are more less the same.

Is Sinhala a beautiful language?

The Sinhala alphabet has been selected among the five most beautiful languages among the hundreds of languages in the world.

What language do Sinhalese speak?

Sinhala (/ˈsɪnhələ, ˈsɪŋələ/ SIN-hə-lə, SING-ə-lə; සිංහල, siṁhala, [ˈsiŋɦələ]), (/ˌsɪn(h)əˈliːz, ˌsɪŋ(ɡ)ə-/) 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.

Which Indian language is closest to Sinhala?

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.

Is Sinhala easy to learn?

Sinhala or Sinhalese, earlier referred to as Singhalese, is the language of the Sinhalese. Spoken Sinhala is easier to learn and use because it is so much relaxed in grammatical formality and rigidity. Sinhala is spoken by about 19 million people in Sri Lanka, about 16 million of them are native speakers.

Who speaks Sinhalese?

Sri Lanka
Sinhalese people

සිංහල ජනතාව
c. 17 million
Regions with significant populations
Sri Lanka 16.2 million (74.9\%) (2012)
Australia	109,849 (2016)