THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



II 



ii. Fdpan, 'holy father,' Tarn. ;=bapa 'holy father,' Sinhalese, 

 The Tamil word here given is the abbreviation of prdppan, [the 

 addition pra being the Sanskrit inseparable preposition denoting 

 '^re-eminence,'] 'one higher than a full father'. The Sinhalese 

 lappa means ' uncle,' and not ' holy father;' and it is derived from 

 bdla ' young,' and appa, ' sire.' 



iii. Kudappd, the Sinhalese word for ' paternal uncle ' is com- 

 pared with the Telagu kakkd, signifying the same. Now, in the 

 primary Dravidian dialect, the Tamil kakkd means 6 peddler;' but 

 the Sinhalese kudappd has no relation to either the Telagu or the 

 Tamil words, the former being, like bdppd, a compound of kudd, 

 * young,' and appd t ' sire.' 



iv. Adi, Tamil, ' foot;'=ad«, Sinhalese, ' foot.' The correct word 

 for 'foot' in Sinhalese is pd; see in/ra. But adt is found in the 

 vernacular to signify the ' substratum ' of one's feet, or of any other 

 object; and I believe it comes from the Pali particle adha, ' under- 

 neath.' Adi is also used to denote a measure of twelve inches. 

 In this sense it is clearly an imported word like many a word 

 expressive of modern arts, inventions, &c. 



v. Perm, ' bear a child,' and petta pillei, 'own child,' in the 

 Tamil, are compared with phaddh, bad, ' the belly, the womb,' 

 Sinhalese. I am not aware that phaddh is a Sinhalese word; 

 but the word bada has no relation whatever to the Tamil words 

 given above. — See list under the head of Names, — infra. In refer- 

 ence to the general list of Dr. Stevenson, and particularly as regards 

 the words under this head, Caldwell remarks: — " In many instances 

 Dr. Stevenson's lexical analogies are illusory, and disappear alto- 

 gether on a little investigation. Thus, he supposes the north-Indian 

 'pet,' the belly, the ivomb, to be allied to the first word in the Tamil 

 compound 'petta pillei,' own child. That word should have been 

 written 'pettra' in English, to accord with the pronunciation of the 

 Tamil word: the Tamil spelling of it, however, is ' pepjia.' It is the 

 preterit relative participle of peR-u,' to bear, to obtain, signifying 

 that was borne. ' PeR-u,' to obtain, has no connexion with any 



