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Tamil
Tamil

Sinhalese
Sinhalese



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Tamil vs Sinhalese

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Countries

Countries

Malaysia, Mauritius, Puducherry, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu
Sri Lanka

Total No. Of Countries

61
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu
Sri Lanka

Second Language

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, kerala, Puducherry
Sri Lanka

Speaking Continents

Asia
Asia

Minority Language

Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles
Not spoken in any of the countries

Regulated By

Official language Commission of Government of Tamil Nadu, Thanjavur Tamil University
Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)

Interesting Facts

  • Tamil is the oldest language in the world. Tamil was spoken in South India more than 5000 years ago.
  • The first legally recognized Classical Language of India is Tamil.
  • In Sinhalese language, there are many loanwords from Dravidian languages mainly Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
  • Sinhalese language has it own script/ writing system.

Similar To

Malayalam
Maldivian Language

Derived From

-
Sanskrit Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

24754
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

1218
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

1836
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Tamil
Sinhala alphabet

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

32
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks44 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

வணக்கம் (Vanakkam)
හලෝ (halō)

Thank You

நன்றி (Naṉṟi)
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)

How Are You?

நீங்கள் எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்? (Nīṅkaḷ eppaṭi irukkiṟīrkaḷ?)
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)

Good Night

நல்ல இரவு (Good night) / irravu vanakkam (Good night)
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)

Good Evening

நல்ல மாலை (Nalla mālai)/ மாலை (irravu vanakkam)
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)

Good Afternoon

பிற்பகல் வணக்கம் (perpagal vanakkam)
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)

Good Morning

காலை வணக்கம் (Kaalai Vanakkam)
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)

Please

தயவு (Tayavu)
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)

Sorry

மன்னிக்கவும் (Maṉṉikkavum)
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)

Bye

சென்று வருகிறேன் (Sendru Varukiren)
බායි (bāyi)

I Love You

நான் உன்னை காதலிக்கிறேன் (Naan Unnai Kadalikiren)
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)

Excuse Me

என்னை மன்னியுங்கள் (Eṉṉai maṉṉiyuṅkaḷ)
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kongu
Vedda

Where They Speak

Kongu
Sri Lanka

How Many People Speak

77,000,000.0019,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Madurai Tamil
Sri Lankan Sinhala

Where They Speak

Madurai, South Tamil Nadu
-

How Many People Speak

77,000,000.0019,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Tirunelveli Tamil
Up-Country Sinhalese

Where They Speak

South Tamil Nadu, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli
-

How Many People Speak

77,000,000.0016,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

101
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

78.00 million16.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

1.06 %0.25 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

70.00 million16.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

8.00 million2.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

தமிழ்
සිංහල (sĩhala)

Alternative Names

Damulian, Tamal, Tamalsan, Tambul, Tamili
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala

French Name

tamoul
singhalais

German Name

Tamil
Singhalesisch

Pronunciation

[t̪ɐmɨɻ]
[ˈsiŋhəliːz]

Ethnicity

Tamil people or Tamilans
Sinhalese people

History

Origin

300 BC
3

Language Family

Dravidian Family
Indo-European Family

Subgroup

-
Indo-Iranian

Branch

-
Indic

Language Forms

Early Forms

Old Tamil and Middle Tamil
Sinhalese Prakrit

Standard Forms

Modern Tamil
Modern Sinhalese

Language Position

1870
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Tamil
Signed Sinhalese

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

ta
si

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

tam
sin

ISO 639 2/B

tam
sin

ISO 639 3

tam
sin

ISO 639 6

tam
sin

Glottocode

tami1289, oldt1248
sinh1246

Linguasphere

tami1289
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Object-Verb
Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

-
Fusional

Tamil vs Sinhalese Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Tamil vs Sinhalese speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Tamil or Sinhalese language.

  • Tamil is spoken as a national language in: Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu.
  • Sinhalese is spoken as a national language in: Sri Lanka.

You will also get to know the continents where Tamil and Sinhalese speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Tamil language is 18 and position of Sinhalese language is 70. Find all the information about these languages on Tamil and Sinhalese.

Tamil and Sinhalese Language History

Comparison of Tamil vs Sinhalese language history gives us differences between origin of Tamil and Sinhalese language. History of Tamil language states that this language originated in 300 BC whereas history of Sinhalese language states that this language originated in 3. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Tamil and Sinhalese Language History.

Tamil and Sinhalese Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Tamil and Sinhalese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Tamil and Sinhalese language. Tamil word for "Hello" is வணக்கம் (Vanakkam) or Sinhalese word for "Thank You" is ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi). Find more of such common Tamil Greetings and Sinhalese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Tamil vs Sinhalese Difficulty

The Tamil vs Sinhalese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Tamil Alphabets and Sinhalese Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Tamil and Sinhalese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Tamil and Sinhalese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Tamil is 44 weeks while to learn Sinhalese time required is 44 weeks.