Script Sensitivity B
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Full listing name: Script Sensitivity: Benchmarking Language Models on Unicode, Romanized and Mixed-Script Sinhala
What is Script Sensitivity?
The performance of Language Models (LMs) on low-resource, morphologically rich languages like Sinhala remains largely unexplored, particularly regarding script variation in digital communication. Sinhala exhibits script duality, with Unicode used in formal contexts and Romanized text dominating social media, while mixed-script usage is common in practice. This paper benchmarks 24 open-source LMs on Unicode, Romanized and mixed-script Sinhala using perplexity evaluation across diverse text sources. Results reveal substantial script sensitivity, with median performance degradation exceeding 300 times from Unicode to Romanized text. Critically, model size shows no correlation with script-handling competence, as smaller models often outperform architectures 28 times larger. Unicode performance strongly predicts mixed-script robustness but not Romanized capability, demonstrating that single-script evaluation substantially underestimates real-world deployment challenges. These findings establish baseline LM capabilities for Sinhala and provide practical guidance for model selection in multi-script low-resource environments.
Tier B
Established: 15 or more models scored, or curated RL directories rate it.
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- 24 models scored
- in curated RL directories (1 pt)
How we got to tier B
- Adoption: 24 models scored. Tier B.
- Not yet read on X.
- In curated RL directories: 1 point, a floor of none.
- Not yet confirmed by a line from its own site or paper.
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Next: browse all benchmarks. Entry from the RL Research daily scrape of public sources, 2026-10-11 snapshot.