information:extraction
Influences from neighbouring languages

In addition to many Tamil loanwords, several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of the features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are:

ඒක

ēka

it

අලුත්

aḷut

new

කියලා

kiyalā

having-said

මම

mama

I

දන්නවා

dannavā

know

ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා

ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā

it new having-said I know

"I know that it is new."

ඒක

ēka

it

අලුත්

aḷut

new

ද

da

Q

කියලා

kiyalā

having-said

මම

mama

I

දන්නේ

dannē

know- EMP

නැහැ

næhæ

not

ඒක අලුත් ද කියලා මම දන්නේ නැහැ

ēka aḷut da kiyalā mama dannē næhæ

it new Q having-said I know-EMP not

"I do not know whether it is new."