Sinhala and Tamil are the two official languages of which island nation?

Whilst several languages are spoken in Sri Lanka, the official languages are listed as Sinhala and Tamil. Approximately 87% of the population speak Sinhala, whereas only 28.5% speak Tamil. English is also spoken across the country and a handful speak Portuguese creole.

Sinhala belongs to the Indo-Aryan family of languages. Sinhala has two varieties, spoken and written, with the former being the easiest to learn. The oldest evidence of written Sinhala inscriptions date to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

Tamil is a Dravidian language, meaning it is mostly spoken by ancestors of the Dravidians (Neolithic West Asian farmers from Iran/Persia). Tamil is spoken in several countries, not just Sri Lanka. The oldest text found in Tamil is a grammatical work called the 'Tolkāppiyam', which predates 3000 BC.

Sri Lanka, or the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of Asia. It was known as Ceylon until 1972, when it change its name to highlight its independence from Great Britain. Yet, it chooses to remain a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations.