Zeylan

Zeylan
ලංකාව
Capital	Kolamba
Largest City	Kolamba
Government Type	Constitutional diarchy
Languages	Sinhalese (official) Dutch (official) Creole (lingua franca) Tamil Malayalam
Currency	Guilder

Zeylan (Sinhalese: ලංකාව Lankava, Tamil: ஈழம் Ijlam) is a teardrop-shaped island nation in southern Asia. It is a constitutional diarchy, having the Dutch monarch (as a constituent of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) and the Kandyan monarch as joint heads of state.

Demographics

Ethnicity

Sinhala

The majority of Zeylanese people are of Sinhala origin, making up around 3/5ths of the population. They are overwhelmingly Theravada Buddhist and have been the dominant ethnicity in Zeylan for over two millennia. A large part of their identity is tied to the canonical Kandyan monarchy, the eighth Sinhalese kingdom in history.

Tamils

Most Zeylanese Tamils are descendants of ancient migrants from the Triumvirate, with the last migrants arriving in the 18th century. The Jaffna kingdom was the main Tamil political force in Zeylan until Portuguese conquest in 1619. Tamils, making up around 10% of the population, are concentrated in the eastern and northern parts of the island and are usually Shaivites.

Burghers

Ethnogenesis of the Burghers began in the 17th century with the arrival of Portuguese and Dutch colonialists who married local Sinhala and Tamil women, forming a creole people. Numbering less than a million people, majority of them live in coastal urban areas, practice Christianity, and speak Creole. Many have also emigrated to the Netherlands and New Batavia.

Others

The Moors, of Indian, Arab, & Persian origin, are characterized by their Muslim religion and Tamil language. Zeylanese Javanese & Malay people, despite being Muslim too, are classified separately since they speak their own language. Chinese people have also settled in Zeylan since the 17th century. A community of Taulanders, numbering a few thousand people, live in Kolamba and Galle. The Afro-Zeylanese came from Mozambique, the Cape, & Abyssinia as slaves or immigrants from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Language

A majority of Zeylanese people are multilingual, speaking their mother tongue and one or two other languages. Creole serves as the lingua franca in urban areas, Sinhalese as the predominant mother tongue, and Dutch as the language of formal diplomacy and international business.

Zeylanese Creole

The language began as a pidgin in the 16th century between Portuguese traders and the Sinhala. By the late 17th century under Dutch rule, the pidgin developed into a fully formed creole. It is Portuguese-based and is a mixture of Dutch, Sinhalese, Tamil, Malay, southern varieties of Chinese, Javanese, & Tauaans. It is used as a vernacular lingua franca throughout most of the coast and is spoken (or at least understood) by approximately 5/6ths of the population.