Arabic to Sinhala: a formal source does not choose every target register detail
Treat Sinhala written and conversational forms as complete systems
Arabic readers may recognise a distinction between formal written usage and everyday spoken varieties. Sinhala also has a substantial written-versus-spoken distinction, but its particular pronouns and grammatical choices are its own. A source written in standard Arabic does not by itself prove that the target should sound like a literary public proclamation.
For an Arabic customer chat, the intended conversational function matters even if the source spelling is formal. For an announcement, a coherent written Sinhala register may be appropriate. Formal ඔහු, he, and ඇය, she, illustrate person-reference forms associated with written usage. Their presence should be judged alongside the rest of the target clause. Do not mix a formal pronoun with an unrelated conversational pattern simply because both independently match dictionary meanings. Preserve the source’s audience and purpose while making consistent choices within Sinhala.
A person experiencing something may take dative marking
Arabic subject and object relationships cannot be transferred into Sinhala by matching each case name mechanically. Research on Sinhala grammatical relations shows that dative-marked expressions can include experiencers and possessors, rather than only a recipient equivalent to English to someone. The target construction can organise a state differently from an ordinary action.
For an Arabic description of hunger, memory, liking, or possession, identify who experiences the state and what the state concerns. A Sinhala dative form does not automatically mean that the person has become the recipient of another actor’s action. Likewise, not every Arabic predicate describing a person’s condition needs an identical target pattern. Check the selected Sinhala predicate with its participants. This is useful in a message explaining why someone cannot attend: the person feeling unwell should remain the experiencer, rather than accidentally become someone to whom a separate illness-related action is directed.
Sinhala vowel signs are not optional Arabic-style vocalisation
Arabic text often omits short-vowel marks in ordinary writing. Sinhala’s script encodes its vowels through independent letters and signs associated with consonants, including distinctions in vowel length. Removing an unfamiliar target sign to imitate an unvocalised Arabic word is therefore not a harmless simplification.
Some Sinhala vowel signs have visible pieces on both sides of a consonant even though they form one written unit. Copy the complete target word instead of rearranging its marks to match their apparent positions. Sinhala runs left to right, so an Arabic name embedded in a Sinhala sentence can also create a mixed-direction display. Preserve the name’s actual characters while letting the surrounding Sinhala retain its normal writing order. A personal name may need its established representation; ordinary Sinhala vocabulary needs its own spelling. Keep those decisions separate when checking an Arabic-to-Sinhala message, especially if the result will later be moved into a form or a document with different text-direction settings.
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