jjiH.li 



o F 



THE CEYLON BRANCH 



OF THE 



ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



On the Origin of the Sinhalese Language ; 

 By James Alwis, Esq., m. k. a. s. 



Section Second. 



In a previous paper I adverted to a fev v r historical facts in proof 

 •of the proposition, that ' the Sinhalese is an affiliated dialect of die 

 Sanskrit, and that it bears no affinity to the Dravidiau or Sooth- 

 Indian class of languages/ In the present I purpose to adduce the 

 promised proof : and here I may premise that (1) whether we 

 compare the phonetic system of the Sinhalese with that of the Dra- 

 vidians; or (2) resort to lexical analogies of the same languages; 

 or (3) compare their grammatical relations; or (4) examine the 

 syntactical arrangement of their words, we arrive at but one 

 conclusion, viz., that the Sinhalese is as independent of the Dravi- 

 dian as the latter is of the Sanskrit. 



Sounds. 



There is some- resemblance between a few of the modern Sinha- 

 lese and Tamil letters; but this does not lead to any important 



B 



