Fsi Sinhala Basic course

[learn0]

Fsi Sinhala Basic course has also audio material ? If the audio exists is in public domain ?

[Speakeasy]

FSI Sinhala Course
Welcome to the Forum! In answer to your specific question, I would assume that the audio recordings for the FSI Sinhala Course, if they exist, are in the public domain. I conducted a quick G-Search of the How-To-Learn-Any-Language (HTLAL) website and came up with the following discussion thread that seems rather interesting! http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... 40181&PN=4 Perhaps DemiPuppet, Juan, Ericounet, Random Review, other others might be of some help. I did notice that there are a couple of offers for Sinhala courses on EBay that include three PDF textbooks, without audio, which I suspect are the FSI course books.

Other Materials
I have not studied Sinhala. However, many forum members are interested in Indo-Aryan languages and, hopefully, will reply with suggestions of additional study materials. You might wish to communicate with the University of Michigan's Language Resource Center and ask them if they have any materials. Recently, they began providing links, free-of-charge, to the audio recordings that they once offered for sale. Here's the link: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lrc/sales Just send them an Email. If they respond by sending the link to some audio recordings, you will likely be able to locate the corresponding textbook on Amazon, EBay, etcetera.

Colloquial Sinhalese
In the meantime, I would direct your attention to the course Colloquial Sinhalese by Fairbanks, Gair, Da Silva. Spoken Language Services offers both volumes of the textbook along with the original cassette recordings. Here is the LINK to their offering: http://pro.spidergraphics.com/spo/spo_s ... ce=30E4504 If you experience difficulties with their online ordering system, which is rather quirky, just give them a call and they'll be pleased to process your order. And, yes, they sell cassettes, not CDs. I mention this work for two reasons. First, I noticed an offer on Ebay for Volume of the textbook: http://www.ebay.com/itm/COLLOQUIAL-SINH ... Swo6lWJYxs and, from viewing the images, I am left with the impression that this course just might be one of the better, initial, attempts at producing an audio-lingual method for teaching this language; that is, the approach would be similar to that of the FSI courses. Second, as many, if not most, of the courses sold by Spoken Language Services are the older audio-lingual courses, this reinforces my impression. I notice that there is an offer on Amazon.com for the Volume I of this course, with 19 CDs: http://www.amazon.com/Sinhalese-Basic-C ... 5F5H6QC02W Given the prices, if I were interested in this course, I would purchase the entire package from Spoken Language Services and simply convert the cassettes to MP3 format and split the files into more workable segments.

Enjoy your studies!

[learn0]

Hi,
thank you very much for your advice. Colloquial Sinhalese seems very good but the price for me is too high. I read the thread you linked, the forum of that website (HTLAL) is still active ? Sinhala language is really interesting but is very difficult to find audio material at a decent price if you need any tips for Italian I am a native speaker.

[Speakeasy]

Hello Learn0,

To answer your question, the original "How-To-Learn-Any-Language" (HTLAL) is still "operational", but the activity has declined. THIS forum was created as an alternate owing to the difficulties associated with the technical and administrative maintenance of the HTLAL. Many of the "more active" members of the HTLAL have registered on THIS forum, where much of the discussions now take place and, as a result, the HTLAL has become "less active". You can still register on the HTLAL, if you wish; although the "search" capabilities are somewhat limited, the archived discussion threads make for very interesting reading.

I am sorry that I cannot assist you further with your study of Sinhala; as I noted above, this is not a language that I have studied. Hopefully, other members with an interest in this language will offer advice on how to obtain low-cost or free materials.

[learn0]

I thank you very much.

[aravinda]

Hi,
...Sinhala language is really interesting but is very difficult to find audio material ...

Yes, it's very difficult to find resources for learning Sinhala as a second language. However, if you are still interested in learning Sinhala let me know.

[Daristani]

There's some Sinhala material, with audio, available for download on the Yojik website:

https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/language ... nhala.html

[n_j_f]

Hi,
...Sinhala language is really interesting but is very difficult to find audio material ...

Yes, it's very difficult to find resources for learning Sinhala as a second language. However, if you are still interested in learning Sinhala let me know.

I haven't reviewed the course material, but there's also Spoken Sinhala (Spoken Language Services) although the publisher is defunct. The Central Institute of Indian Languages may well have a course — and before anyone corrects me, I am aware that the language is spoken in Sri Lankan and not India — due to the many Indic languages they provide courses for. CIIL publishes what must be the only Malayalam language course in English.
http://www.ciil.org/PubBook.aspx

I thought that Glossika was working on a Sinhala course, but having checked their schedule, there is no mention of it. One day, maybe.

[aravinda]

...The Central Institute of Indian Languages may well have a course — and before anyone corrects me, I am aware that the language is spoken in Sri Lankan and not India — due to the many Indic languages they provide courses for. CIIL publishes what must be the only Malayalam language course in English.
http://www.ciil.org/PubBook.aspx

I thought that Glossika was working on a Sinhala course, but having checked their schedule, there is no mention of it. One day, maybe.

Regarding Malayalam courses in English, there's one by Rodney Moag: Malayalam: A university course and reference grammar
https://www.amazon.com/Malayalam-univer ... odney+Moag
Audio recordings for the book is available to download:
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/malayalam/index.html
The book is out of print and diificult to get hold of but if you're in the US, you might be able to get it here:
http://www.jennscopies.com
When I checked couple of months back, they were selling it for a reasonable price.

A Course in Colloquial Malayalam is another (older) book by the same author and it's available to download on ERIC:
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED030093

P.S.
As far as I know CIIL never had a Sinhala course. I just checked their current and out of print lists of publications. I couldn't find anything for Sinhala.

[n_j_f]

...The Central Institute of Indian Languages may well have a course — and before anyone corrects me, I am aware that the language is spoken in Sri Lankan and not India — due to the many Indic languages they provide courses for. CIIL publishes what must be the only Malayalam language course in English.
http://www.ciil.org/PubBook.aspx

I thought that Glossika was working on a Sinhala course, but having checked their schedule, there is no mention of it. One day, maybe.

Regarding Malayalam courses in English, there's one by Rodney Moag: Malayalam: A university course and reference grammar
https://www.amazon.com/Malayalam-univer ... odney+Moag
Audio recordings for the book is available to download:
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/malayalam/index.html
The book is out of print and diificult to get hold of but if you're in the US, you might be able to get it here:
http://www.jennscopies.com
When I checked couple of months back, they were selling it for a reasonable price.

A Course in Colloquial Malayalam is another (older) book by the same author and it's available to download on ERIC:
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED030093

P.S.
As far as I know CIIL never had a Sinhala course. I just checked their current and out of print lists of publications. I couldn't find anything for Sinhala.

You're quite right. I remember now that it was Malayalam course material I was looking into and not Sinhalese.
Thanks for the other links. I was aware of the Moag course but didn't know there was audio available.