THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



§3 



Formation op Words. 



i. The Dravidian dialects differ from the Sanskrit in generally 

 using the crude root of the verb as the imperative of the second 

 person singular. This, I venture to assert, was not the principle 

 upon which that mood of the verb was originally formed in the 

 Sinhalese. The Sidatsangara gives (see p. 61) four inflexions, 

 and the Sinhalese scholar knows that in practice we use a variety 

 of other honorofic terminations to suit the peculiar position of the 

 party addressed.* Take for instance the radical ka t ' eat.' If we 

 tell one ka eka, no one will understand the ka in the sense of an 

 imperative; to convey which it would be necessary to say kanu, 

 ka-nne, ka-piya. So likewise denu, denne, diya> to form the im- 

 perative of de 'give;' karanu, karanne, karava, kara-piya, to express 

 the imperative kara, ' do;' etc. The general rule in the Sidatsan- 

 gara is that the imperative takes ' nu ' for its inflexion as karanu 

 bojanu; see § .53. There is however an occasional exception to this 

 rule, which favors the Dravidian principle when the radical ends 

 with a, as boja t * eat,' and bala, ' behold.' But this is of very rare 

 occurrence, for even in those cases the Sinhalese, in order to mark 

 the imperative mood unmistakea* ly, adds a va to the root, as balava, 

 'behold.' See Sinhalese version of Mat. cap. iii. 16, 17, given in 

 my Contributions to Oriental Literature, vol. i. p. 95. The 

 peculiarity here noticed, and which is the rule in the Dravidian 

 dialects, can therefore only be regarded as an exceptional usage 

 in the Sinhalese. 



ii. The Dravidians obtain many words for ordinary objects from 

 verbal roots. Thus adi is both ' beat ' and ' blow' ; nilam ' ground ' 

 comes from nil 'to stand;' madu 'ox,' from madu, Canarese 'to 

 do;' ddu 'sheep' from adu 'to frisk;' kurangu 'monkey,' from 

 kura Mo sound;' pakal 'day,' from pagu 'to portion;* kan 'eye,' 

 from kan 'to see;' mukku 'nose,' from mugu Canarese 'to smell,' 

 etc. etc. For all these names, I need scarcely say, we have differ- 



* See Article on Terms of Address in Ceylon. A. S. Journal for 1856—8, 



