Sri Lankan English belongs to the family of South Asian Englishes, of which Indian English is the best known and most established example – although Indian English itself is of course hugely diverse. Indian English and Sri Lankan English have much in common, as both varieties evolved from the English of the British colonials of the nineteenth century, and much common vocabulary developed to describe the common flora and fauna of the two countries, as well as their shared religious and cultural aspects. Both varieties include a number of words of Tamil origin, and many others derived from Sanskrit roots.

The main aims of this paper are to present the argument for the recognition of Sri Lankan English as a distinct variety of English, and to discuss some of the practical issues encountered in compiling a dictionary of this nature.