15 Ways Sri Lankans are Killing English

We as a nation, the “Democretic” Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, are notoriously bad when it comes to spelling. You see evidence of our sickness everywhere – in our newspapers, at bus stops and on tuk-tuks, on sign boards, at official ceremonies, at restaurants, bakeries and toilets, in your supermarket bill…you name it. There is a certain romance to it, an underlying genetic fault that is almost national. It’s a trait that binds us all together, and that is our immunity to dictionaries, spell-check and other modern nuisances.

Every breath you take, every line you read is packed with a good laugh; found in abundance on Typo in Colombo and Sri Lankan Spelling. Here are few of the better ones:

Maybe there’s an innate connection between cricket and crying?

An all-time low for Sri Lanka…

Everything is justified for the sake of “hair

You can still live your childhood dream of owning a “pooni”

And here we thought “Tin Tin” was a fictional character…

We don’t even…

We Sri Lankans love our “igliyas”, don’t we?

Sri Lankan newspapers…creating new job titles since printing was invented.

In case you decide to have your annual “prohibit” “barth”

Chee…shame shame…

Somethings are best left to the imagination…

“Chopey” and spicy pasts

An “Aales” Convention for your inner viking? Not bad Sri Lanka…

After all this, you have to admit, we Sri Lankans are an endearing and straight forward lot – we spell it how we hear it. It’s our post-colonial revenge on the illogical language that has conquered the world. Rest In Peace, English.

Image Courtesy: Typo in Colombo and Sri Lankan Spelling