Fairbanks Gairs. Colloquial Sinhalese Vol. 1

Author: Fairbanks
Publisher: Cornell University
Publication date: 1968
Number of pages: 674This volume introductory course in Sinhalese (also spelled Singhalese) is based on a standard variety of the official language of Ceylon as spoken by educated speakers of the South-Western coastal regions. Each of the lesson units (24 in Part I and 12 in Part II) has a conversation, a grammar section, and a set of exercises. Every fourth unit is followed by a review unit. The material is designed to be practiced orally and emphasizes developing fluency in manipulating Sinhalese patterns, making use of the vocabulary introduced in the conversations. The Sinhalese script is introduced gradually beginning in Lesson 5, and is used exclusively from Lesson 13 on. The phonology, presented in the Introduction, appears in phonemic transcription. A reference list of inflected forms and cumulative Sinhalese-English and English-Sinhalese glossaries are included in Part II.