143 



On the 'Origin of the Sinhalese language? Read bejore the 

 Ceylon R. A. Society on the 3\st October, 1863. — By 

 James Alwis, Esq., m. r. a. s. 



When twelve years ago I published the Sidatsangara, and entered 

 into an investigation of the question as to the orgin of the Sinhala 

 language, I intimated my belief,* that it belonged to the Arian 

 or Northern family, as contradistinguished from the Dravidian, or 

 the Southern class of languages. My sentiments on many a colla- 

 teral subject have since undergone change. I have discovered errors 

 upon several points on which I then wrote. I find I have assumed 

 facts which have no foundation. I have drawn inferences which 

 are untenable. But the main question, the belief of which I then 

 expressed, has only received confirmatory proof in the course of 

 my later researches ; and they enable me, moreover, with due de- 

 ference, but great confidence to disprove the statement in Sir Emer- 

 son Tennent's History of Ceylon, — that 'the Sinhalese, as it is spoken 

 at the present day, and still more strikingly as it exists as a writ- 

 ten language in the literature of the Island, presents unequivocal 

 proof of an affinity with the group of languages still in use in the 

 Dakken ; — Tamil, Telingu and Malay alim.'f 



Sir Emerson Tennent was, probably, indebted for this information 

 to Professor Las sen ,J and he to Professor Rask of Copenhagen — 

 all of whom were not conversant with the Sinhalese. § 



* See Introd. to tlie Sidatsangara, p. xlvi. 

 f Sir Emerson Tennent's Ceylon, p. 328. 

 X See his S. Ind. Alterthumsk, p. 363. 



§ Professor Bachtlingk, lays down as a philological axiom that "it is dangerous 

 to write of languages of which we do not possess the most accurate knowledge." 



