LingoflySinhala and Tamil: how they differ
Both are official in Sri Lanka, and those moving there choose between them. In short: the choice is purely geographic: you need the one of the place you live in. Learning both at once is a bad idea — the scripts will tangle.
Side by side
| Sinhala | Tamil | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Indo-European family, Indo-Aryan group | Dravidian family |
| Script | the Sinhala script: rounded signs where a vowel is written as a mark on the consonant | the Tamil script: 12 vowels, 18 consonants and their combinations |
| Speakers | about 17 million speakers (Ethnologue) | about 80 million speakers (Ethnologue) |
| Official in | Sri Lanka | India (Tamil Nadu), Sri Lanka and Singapore |
| The hardest part | a script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language | a syllabic script and a noticeable gap between written and spoken language |
| What comes easily | no grammatical gender in everyday speech, a simple word order with the verb usually last | no gender for things, strict word order, one rule decides when a letter is voiced |
Point by point
Kinship
They are not related at all. Sinhala is Indo-European, Tamil is Dravidian — different language families. What they share comes from being neighbours, not from kinship: borrowed words and scripts from the same ancient Indian root.
Script
Both are written in their own syllabic scripts, where a vowel is a mark attached to a consonant. Each has to be learned separately.
Where each one is
Sinhala is the language of the majority and of the island's south, including Colombo and the resort coast. Tamil is the north, the east and the plantation districts, as well as Tamil Nadu in India and Singapore.
Practical reach
Tamil reaches further: about 80 million speakers against Sinhala's 17 million. But in Colombo and on the southern coast Sinhala is the useful one.
Which to choose
The choice is purely geographic: you need the one of the place you live in. Learning both at once is a bad idea — the scripts will tangle.
Frequently asked
Which is easier: Sinhala or Tamil?
Comparing them by difficulty is almost pointless: each has its own hard part. Sinhala: a script with syllabic logic and the gap between written and spoken language. Tamil: a syllabic script and a noticeable gap between written and spoken language. The choice is purely geographic: you need the one of the place you live in. Learning both at once is a bad idea — the scripts will tangle.
Are Sinhala and Tamil similar languages?
They are not related at all. Sinhala is Indo-European, Tamil is Dravidian — different language families. What they share comes from being neighbours, not from kinship: borrowed words and scripts from the same ancient Indian root.