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Reading and Writing Sinhala

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Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography

Part of the book series: Literacy Studies ((LITS,volume 17))

Abstract

Sinhala is one of the two official languages in Sri Lanka spoken by about 74% of the population. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan family of languages and is written with a distinct, highly cursive akshara script. The extensive Sinhala akshara set (600 plus) is mostly consistent from akshara to sounds, and the basic literacy rates in Sri Lanka are high. Advanced literacy skills, however, require extended study due to strong diglossia: Spoken Sinhala has been open to influences from Dravidian (mainly Tamil) and European (Portuguese, Dutch, and English) languages, but Literary Sinhala has mostly maintained the classic vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. As a result, spelling and writing are complicated by significant differences between the two forms. In this chapter, we will first describe both forms of Sinhala and then review the limited existing research on Sinhala literacy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Marasinghe A. D. K. Wijaythilake

  2. Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, NSW, Sydney, Australia

    Rauno Parrila

Authors
  1. Marasinghe A. D. K. Wijaythilake
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  2. Rauno Parrila
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Correspondence to Rauno Parrila .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    R. Malatesha Joshi

  2. Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Catherine McBride

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Wijaythilake, M.A.D.K., Parrila, R. (2019). Reading and Writing Sinhala. In: Joshi, R.M., McBride, C. (eds) Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Literacy Studies, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05977-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05977-4_11

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