Singhalese (or Sinhala or Helabasa) is spoken by the Sinhalese People, Sri Lanka’s largest ethnic group. An estimated 15 million people speak Sinhalese, including 3 million secondary sepakers. It is an Indo-European language, part of the Indo-Aryan subgroup. With Tamil, it is an official language of Sri Lanka. The script is part of the Brahmic family, descended from Indian writing in earlier times. Sinhalese is closed to the language spoken in the Maldives and Dhivehi.