Countries
Sri Lanka
  
Zimbabwe
  
National Language
Sri Lanka
  
Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe
  
Second Language
Sri Lanka
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Speaking Continents
Asia
  
Africa
  
Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Regulated By
Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)
  
Not Available
  
Interesting Facts
- In Sinhalese language, there are many loanwords from Dravidian languages mainly Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
- Sinhalese language has it own script/ writing system.
  
- Shona language is tonal language.
- The African people in Zimbabwe is made of 10 ethnic groups, each speaking a different languages, shona is spoken by 60 percent of population.
  
Similar To
Maldivian Language
  
Kalanga and Nambya Language
  
Derived From
Sanskrit Language
  
Not Available
  
Alphabets in
Sinhalese-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Shona-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Alphabets
Not Available
  
Phonology
  
  
Scripts
Sinhala alphabet
  
Latin
  
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
  
Not Available
  
Hard to Learn
  
  
Time Taken to Learn
Not Available
  
Hello
හලෝ (halō)
  
Mhoro
  
Thank You
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)
  
Waita zvako
  
How Are You?
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)
  
Wakadini zvako?
  
Good Night
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)
  
Urare zvakanaka
  
Good Evening
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)
  
Manheru
  
Good Afternoon
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)
  
Masikati
  
Good Morning
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)
  
Mangwanani
  
Please
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)
  
Ndinokumbirawo
  
Sorry
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)
  
Ndineurombo
  
Bye
බායි (bāyi)
  
bye
  
I Love You
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)
  
Ndinokuda
  
Excuse Me
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)
  
Pamusoro
  
Dialect 1
Vedda
  
Hwesa
  
Where They Speak
Sri Lanka
  
Zimbabwe
  
Dialect 2
Not Available
  
Karanga
  
Where They Speak
Not Available
  
southern Zimbabwe
  
Dialect 3
Not Available
  
Zezuru
  
Where They Speak
Not Available
  
central Zimbabwe, Mashonaland
  
How Many People Speak?
16.00 million
  
99+
25.00 million
  
40
Native Speakers
16.00 million
  
39
8.30 million
  
99+
Second Language Speakers
2.00 million
  
34
Not Available
  
Native Name
සිංහල (sĩhala)
  
Not Available
  
Alternative Names
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala
  
Chishona, “Swina” (pej.), Zezuru
  
French Name
singhalais
  
shona
  
German Name
Singhalesisch
  
Schona-Sprache
  
Pronunciation
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Ethnicity
Sinhalese people
  
Not Available
  
Origin
3
  
20th century
  
Language Family
Indo-European Family
  
Niger-Congo Family
  
Subgroup
Indo-Iranian
  
Benue-Congo
  
Branch
Indic
  
Bantu
  
Language Forms
  
  
Early Forms
Sinhalese Prakrit
  
Not Available
  
Standard Forms
Modern Sinhalese
  
Not Available
  
Signed Forms
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Scope
Individual
  
Individual
  
ISO 639 1
si
  
sn
  
ISO 639 2
  
  
ISO 639 2/T
sin
  
sna
  
ISO 639 2/B
sin
  
sna
  
ISO 639 3
sin
  
sna
  
ISO 639 6
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Glottocode
sinh1246
  
core1255
  
Linguasphere
No data available
  
99-AUT-a
  
Types of Language
  
  
Language Type
Living
  
Living
  
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb
  
Not Available
  
Language Morphological Typology
Fusional
  
Not Available
  
Sinhalese and Shona 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 Sinhalese and Shona greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Sinhalese and Shona language. Sinhalese word for "Hello" is හලෝ (halō) or Shona word for "Thank You" is Waita zvako. Find more of such common Sinhalese Greetings and Shona Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Sinhalese vs Shona Difficulty
The Sinhalese vs Shona difficulty level basically depends on the number of Sinhalese Alphabets and Shona 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 Sinhalese and Shona are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Sinhalese and Shona, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Sinhalese is 44 weeks while to learn Shona time required is Not Available.