48 



ON THE ORIGIN OJT 



from it is sure to fail in recognizing the intention which was not 

 carried out in practice; and in its endeavour to simplify Gramma- 

 tical forms, is likely, as the Sinhalese has done, to make a distri- 

 bution of all nature into two classes, the male and female. The 

 rationale of this is to be found in various other parts of our Gram- 

 matical System. 



It appears very plainly that this absence of the neuter gender is 

 owing to an effort on the part of the Sinhalese to simplify the 

 difficult process of discriminating the genders in the Sanskrit, and 

 to adopt itself to circumstances, one of which is the absence in the 

 Sinhalese of that simple termination which the Sanskrit has adopted 

 for the neuter as distinguishable from the masculine and feminine. 

 Now, according to the formation of words in the Sinhalese, no 

 system of Grammar or philology can devise a rational plan by which 

 the neuter may be distinguished from the two natural genders. If 

 the neuter was confined to inanimate nature alone, this would be 

 possible; but when the greater part of names expressive of inanimate 

 nature are found as masculines and feminines, there was no alter- 

 native but to ignore the neuter altogether. This reasoning would 

 be inadmissible but for the undoubted testimony which this very 

 department of Grammar furnishes us as to the Sinhalese being a 

 derivative of the Pali and Sanskrit. I here allude to the rule by 

 which all Sanskrit and Pali neuter names are regarded in the 

 Sinhalese as masculine. See note (f) at p. 20 of the Sidatsangara. 

 The formation too, of the two natural genders is precisely in accor- 

 dance wiih the development of the Sanskrit, the feminine marking 

 its distinction by broader and more sonant vowels. 



When, however, we look to the Tamil which has all the three 

 genders, and therefore is different from the Sinhalese, we observe 

 that not only are all nouns denoting inanimate objects and irrational 

 beings, placed in the neuter gender; but in most cases separate 

 words denoting male or female are added to neuter nouns. It would 

 also seem, that the long i, which constitutes the rule in the formation 

 of the Sinhalese and the Sanskrit feminine, forms the exception in 

 the Dra vidian dialects. See Caldwtll, p. 181. 



