Sinhalese language, also spelled Singhalese or Cingalese, also called Sinhala, Indo-Aryan language, one of the two official languages of Sri Lanka. It was taken there by colonists from northern India about the 5th century BC. Because of its isolation from the other Indo-Aryan tongues of mainland India, Sinhalese developed along independent lines. It was influenced by Pāli, the sacred language of the Sri Lankan Buddhists, and to a lesser degree by Sanskrit. It has borrowed a considerable number of words from the Dravidian languages, mostly from Tamil, which is also spoken in Sri Lanka.