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Languages

Languages of Sri Lanka

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Languages, writing systems and language context

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව
COUNTRY LANGUAGE PROFILE
සිංහල
Sinhala
Text direction: LTR

Sinhala and Tamil are Sri Lanka's official and national languages, while English is the link language under the Constitution.

Sinhala
First listed core language
Not a speaker-share estimate
2
Writing systems represented
Across the core language set
LTR
Primary text direction
Additional directions noted below

Language Overview

SinhalaTamil

Read the Characters

Sinhala · 59 characters

Sinhala · 59 characters
අ
a
ආ
aa
ඇ
ae
ඈ
aae
ඉ
i
ඊ
ii
උ
u
ඌ
uu
ඍ
r
ඎ
rr
ඏ
l
ඐ
ll
එ
e
ඒ
ee
ඓ
ai
ඔ
o
ඕ
oo
ඖ
au
ක
k
ඛ
kh
ග
g
ඝ
gh
ඞ
ng
ඟ
nng
ච
c
ඡ
ch
ජ
j
ඣ
jh
ඤ
ny
ඥ
jny
ඦ
nyj
ට
tt
ඨ
tth
ඩ
dd
ඪ
ddh
ණ
nn
ඬ
nndd
ත
t
ථ
th
ද
d
ධ
dh
න
n
ඳ
nd
ප
p
ඵ
ph
බ
b
භ
bh
ම
m
ඹ
mb
ය
y
ර
r
ල
l
ව
v
ශ
sh
ෂ
ss
ස
s
හ
h
ළ
ll
ෆ
f

How to Read the Language Landscape

PolicyLegal and administrative language status may differ between national and subnational government.
Everyday useA language can be socially dominant without being the only language used at home, school, work or in media.
Community diversityIndigenous, minority, migrant and sign languages can remain important even when they are not part of a short national headline list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What languages are used in Sri Lanka?

Sinhala and Tamil are Sri Lanka's official and national languages, while English is the link language under the Constitution.

What writing systems are used in Sri Lanka?

The represented writing system is Sinhala, Tamil and the primary direction shown is left to right.

More about Sri Lanka

Explore Sri Lanka across the other DigifyWorld country-data sections.

Public HolidaysPublic holidays 2026 and 2027→Digital AdoptionInternet, payments and digital government→Population & DemographicsPopulation, age structure and projections→Economy SnapshotGDP, trade and economic structure→Currency & ExchangeCurrency, exchange rates and money→Human DevelopmentHDI and quality-of-life indicators→Geography & EnvironmentLand, climate and environment→Practical Country InfoTime, driving, electricity and codes→EducationSchool system and education data→

Sources & methodology

View sources used for this page
Sri Lanka National Languages Division: Constitutional language provisions

Official government source confirming Sinhala and Tamil as official and national languages, with English as the link language.

Unicode CLDR: Country/Region Names

Localized country display-name reference. CLDR names are customary UI/display names, not claims about a state’s full constitutional long-form name.

Unicode: Supported Scripts

Reference for the writing-system/script families represented in the character component.

Unicode: Writing Direction and Bidirectional Text

Reference for left-to-right and right-to-left script direction and bidirectional text behavior.

Unicode Character Database: NamesList

Reference for Unicode character names used as small readout labels under selected character samples; these labels are not presented as a complete transliteration standard.