Locale Si Lk

Reference data for the Sinhala (Sri Lanka) locale — endonym සිංහල (ශ්‍රී ලංකාව), written in the Sinhala script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: si-LK
• ISO 639-1: si
• ISO 639-3: sin
• Script: Sinh (Sinhala)
• Region: LK (Sri Lanka)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 18,000,000
• L2 (additional): 2,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 20,000,000

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale Si 001 (Sinhala), the base/macro locale for this language.

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).

• one — n = 0,1 or i = 0 and f = 1 (e.g. 0, 1)
• other — everything else (e.g. 2~17, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale Si 001 with the conventions of Sri Lanka.

• Context: Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages of Sri Lanka, and English is the link language; many public documents are trilingual. Keep Sinhala and Tamil versions consistent (see Locale Ta 001).
• Formats: Sri Lankan rupee (රු), dates DD/MM/YYYY; check CLDR si-LK for grouping; the Buddhist calendar and poya days affect schedules.
• Tone: polite and respectful; titles are used in public contexts.

Common pitfalls

• Using only one language in public-sector content.
• Ignoring poya days in scheduling content.
• The general pitfalls in Locale Si 001 also apply.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Unicode CLDR locale data for number grouping, calendars, and currency (https://cldr.unicode.org)