Sri Lanka (previously known as Ceylon) is an island in the Indian Ocean with a population of 22 million people. The main ethnic groups living in Sri Lanka are the Sinhalese, Tamils, Sri Lankan Moors and Eurasians known as Burghers. Sinhala (Sinhalese) language is the most widely spoken language in Sri Lanka. Tamil and English are the other main languages spoken in the country. Interestingly, due to the Portuguese and Dutch influence historically there are many Sri Lankans with surnames such as Perera, Silva, Fernando and de Vos. Similarly, the main religions prevalent in the island; Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam have influenced the names of the people in Sri Lanka.
Sinhala which is also known as Sinhalese language is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka. This language is primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka who make up the largest ethnic group on the island. Stone inscriptions provide evidence to confirm that this language evolved from “Prakrutha which is also known as Prakrit” a verbal language used by the residents of north-east and north-west parts of India during the era of 5th century of B.C. As Sinhala language separated from the other Indo-Aryan languages that prevailed in India, it evolved to its current status as an independent language. The origin of Sinhala script (letters) had been Brahmic scripts which had been used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. The development of Sinhala is divided into four epochs known as Sinhala Prakrit, Proto-Sinhala, Medieval Sinhala and Modern Sinhala. The complete alphabet consists of 60 letters, 18 vowels and 42 consonants. However, only 57 (16 vowels and 41 consonants) are required for writing colloquial spoken Sinhala (suddha Sinhala).
Tamil language, which is also an official language of Sri Lanka is a Dravidian language which is spoken primarily by the Tamil people of the Indian Subcontinent and the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka. In the hill country of Sri Lanka too there are large numbers of Tamils of Indian origin who speak Tamil.
Whilst some Sri Lankans follow the European method of given names followed by surnames, most Sinhalese use a prename followed by the given names. Although the prenames are long, they are useful to trace one’s ancestry and which village the person originated from. Some Tamils use the first name of the father as their surname.
People of Sri Lankan descent live in many parts of the world. For foreigners to interact with Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka and people of Sri Lankan descent living overseas, it is important to know how to pronounce Sri Lankan names. Several other areas where pronunciation of Sri Lankan names becomes important are when Sri Lankan professionals represent, present at international fora and in the sports field. This website will assist presenters, commentators, and journalists etc. to pronounce names correctly.
Srilankannames.com website attempts to serve this long felt need. You can type a name you want to pronounce, and you can hear the voice clip with correct pronunciation. Our team will endeavor to add as many names as practically possible. Languages are dynamic, as such new names will be added from time to time. However, once the basics are understood it is not difficult to figure out how to pronounce Sri Lankan names. Most names are masculine or feminine whereas some are gender neutral. Some names are used by the Sinhalese ethnic group as well as Tamils with the same pronunciation e.g. Ranjan, Padma.
The concept of this website came from Prasad Kumarasinghe in Perth, Australia and the initial IT support was from Shihan Wijayabahu and Gehan Jasinghe. The Perth Sinhala School has kindly agreed to continue this endeavor.
Your comments are welcome to improve website and the free service we are offering. We hope to improve the website as we build up the database of Sri Lankan names. Our hope is that this will be a great resource for those who want to pronounce Sri Lankan names correctly.
Management Team
How to Pronounce Sri Lankan Names Project
Srilankannames.com