THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



7 



vii. Here I am reminded of a peculiarity which distinguishes 

 the Dravidian from the Sinhalese. It is that whilst the Sinhalese 

 loves to conclude a word with a, as in satara, the Dravidians lose 

 no pains to get rid of it, by adopting in its stead a u or ei; e. g, 

 urn for ura, 'a village '; avei for ava, 'those,' etc. etc. 



viii. The Sinhalese d often represents the Sanskrit and Pali j.. 



Sanskrit. Pali. Sinhalese. 



rajan raja rada * king ' 



puja puja puda 'offering' 



majja majja mada 'kernel' 



ruja ruja ruda 'pain.' 



There are many other dialectic changes which unmistakebly 

 point out that the Sinhalese has proceeded from the Sanskrit; but 

 I have, I apprehend, already shown enough, without entering 

 largely into questions relating to dialectic interchanges of sounds, 

 euphonic permutation of consonants, the laws of harmonic sequence, 

 etc. etc., to prove that the Sinhalese, whilst it accords with the 

 northern dialects, essentially differs from the Tamil in its phonetic 

 system. In proving this, I believe, I prove also its difference from 

 the other affiliated Dravidian dialects; for their essential unity in 

 all important and minor matters cannot be denied. 



Section Third. 



Lexical Analogies* 



Those who maintain an opinion different from our own, refer to 

 the existence in the Sinhalese, of words of undoubted Dravidian ori- 

 gin. This can no more be denied than the existence in the undis- 

 puted Sanskrit dialects of a vast number of Dravidian words. 

 Indeed we admit the fact; and the History of Ceylon gives 

 a sufficient explanation of this; for, we know that the northern 

 provinces of this island have been, from very ancient times, held by 

 Tamil ians; and that after the fall of the great Sinha dynasty in 

 Ceylon, the island" was governed by Indian princes of undoubted 

 Dravidian origin, between whom and the Sinhalese a warfare had 



