THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE, 



49 



Number, — In turning our attention to the Number of the Sin- 

 halese noun, we again meet with evidence of an effort to simplify 

 the superabundant forms of the Sanskrit. ' The dual,' says Bopp, 

 6 like the neuter, in course of time is the first to be lost with the 

 weakening of the vitality of the view taken by the same, or is 

 more and more straitened in its use, and then replaced by the ab- 

 stract plural expressive of infinite number.' Vol, i. p. 126. ' The 

 Pali has only so much of the dual as the Latin viz., a remnant of 

 it in two words, which signify two and both.' p* 127. It is entirely 

 wanting in the Prakrits as in the Sinhalese, which does not even 

 recognize the duality of the pronoun adopted by the Tamils in com- 

 mon with the Northern vernaculars. See remarks thereon * infra. 



Declension. — The Sinhalese, like some of the Dravidian dialects, 

 is not deficient in the number of cases required to mark the relations 

 of nouns. Unlike the Sanskrit, the Sinhalese employs the crude 

 radical without inflexion,* and therefore attempts to simplify a 

 variety of forms which even the Sanskrit has declined to adopt in 

 the primary forms of compounds ; yet the rule in Sinhalese Gram- 

 mar is, as in the Sanskrit, to inflect the noun to express the 

 different relations of case. It is unnecessary to specify all the 

 modifications which nouns undergo. They are all given in the 

 Sidatsangara, p. 27.* Suffice it to present two declensions. 



Sanda=Tingel, 'Moon.' 



Singular. 



Plural. 



No. Sanda 

 Vo. Sanda 

 Acc. Sandw 



Sinhalese. 



Tamil. 

 Tingel 

 Tingal 



Sinhalese. 

 Sanda-^w 

 Sand-em" 

 Sand-zm 

 Sand-wna 

 Sand-im 



Tingel-kal 

 Tingel-kal 

 Tingel-kalei 

 Tingel-kalal 



Tamil 



Ins. Sanda/m 



Tingel-ei 

 Tingel-al 



Atix. Sanda 

 Dat. Sandafo 

 Ab. Sand-en 



Tingel-nkku 

 Tingel-enindu 

 Tingel-udei 

 Tingel-il 



Sanda-wafo 

 San da- ?? en 

 Sanda- nage 

 Sanda-w/u 



Tingel-kalukka 

 Tingel-kalinindu 

 Tingel-kal-udei 

 Tingel-kal-il 



Gen. Sand-M^e 

 Loc. Sande 



* Also see m-y Introduction to Sinhalese Grammar, p. 17. 



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