SINHALESE VOICE OVER TALENTS NATIVE SPEAKERS - PAGE 1

Sinhalese language
Native to: Sri Lanka
Native speakers: 16 million
Writing system: Sinhala alhabet (Brahmic)
Capital city: Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
Currency: Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)
Dialing code: +94
Country code: LK
Population: 20,277,597
Sinhala is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 16 million Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka. It also used as a second language by another 3 million people belonging to other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, where it is one of the official and national languages, along with Tamil. There are also considerable numbers of Sinhala speakers in Singapore, Thailand, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Sinhala is also known as Sinhalese or Singhala - the latter version is closer to the pronunciation native name. The native name of the language is ????? (Si?h?la), which comes from Sanskrit and could be translated as "lion-seizer", "lion-killer" or "lion blood", which refer to the legendary founder of the Sinhala people, Prince Vijaya, a descendant of Sinhabahu/S?hab?hu ("Lion-arms"), the son of a princess of the Vanga Kingdom and a lion. The Sinhala alphabet, a descendent of the Brahmi script, started to appear in Prakrit inscriptions during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Both the alphabet and the language have changed considerably since then. The earliest surviving literature in Sinhala dates from the 9th century AD. The Sinhala alphabet is also used to write Pali and Sanskrit in Sri Lanka.