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

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