The government Sinhala dictionary project dragged on for 65 years and was finally completed in 1992. During this period, several attempts were made to produce Sinhala – Sinhala and English – Sinhala dictionaries for use in schools and government departments. With the expansion of linguistic activity in Sinhala, and the demand for Sinhala as an official language in the country, there was a need for practical dictionaries in the 1940s to 1960s. The year 1927 marked the beginning of a government-sponsored Sinhala dictionary project, which aimed to compile an etymological dictionary of Sinhala under the direction of the German Indologist, Professor Wilhelm Geiger. The linguistic endeavors of Dutch and British missionaries led to a variety of lexicographical works in Sinhala. The sixteenth century saw the initial impact of European colonial power on Sri Lanka, and the subsequent periods witnessed the compilation of dictionaries in the European tradition in Sri Lanka. The historical overview of ancient Sinhala lexicography provides a summary of oldest Sinhala lexicons ( nighaṇṭu), and the impact of Pali and Sanskrit lexicographical compilations on Sinhala. This chapter begins with an introduction to Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan and South Asian language spoken by the Sinhalese – the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka.
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