2 



ON THE ORIGIN OF 



result, since both Alphabets are derived from the Deva Nagari,* 

 and since also the peculiarities which distinguish the Sinhalese from 

 the Tamil are such as to render it very probable that each had an 

 independent origin. Before proceeding however to point them out, 

 it may be stated that the Sinhalese alphabet now in current use was 

 not the one employed in the third century, since the earliest unmis- 

 takeable record of a royal grant engraved on a rock about A. D. 

 261, intended to be read by the Sinhalese of after-generations, and 

 therefore written in the Sinhalese language, is in the Deva Nagari 

 character.! 



To the Telagu, Can are se, and the Tamil, as well as to the Sinha- 

 lese, are known a short e and o ; but these have been of compara- 

 tively recent introduction into the Sinhalese; for our alphabet itself, 

 like the Deva Nagari, does not give any symbols for the long sounds. 



The Tamil has no characters corresponding to the ri, lri, au, 

 and all ; nor has it adopted the obscure anusvara.J Though 

 all these are found in the Sinhalese alphabet, yet it is only the last 

 which is necessary to express the Sinhalese, the other letters being 

 used for the purpose of expressing either Pali or Sanskrit words. 

 Among the Sinhalese vowels there are also two characters not found 

 in the Deva Nagari. These are ae and he. It is true they are not 

 given in our alphabet, which is in every respect identical, as re- 

 gards sounds, with the Deva Nagari; and that they are not found in 

 the Sidatsangara. But, whether or not we regard them as modifica- 

 tions of the a and a, it is important to bear in mind that there are in 

 the Sinhalese many hundred words whose initials begin with these 

 sounds, whilst it is impossible to say how frequently they occur as 

 medials, as a in 'bat' or a in * stand'. Now it is very remarkable 

 that, whilst this se is deficient in all the South-Indian Alphabets, no 



* Caldwell's Drav. Grammar, p. 93 et seq. 

 \ See the Ceylon Almanac for 1834. 



% 'There is nothing in any of the Dravidian Languages which corresponds 

 to the use of the obscure nasal Anusvdra as a final, in Hindi and in the north- 

 ern vernaculars.'— CaldicelVs Comp. Grammar, p. 108. 



