THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



This is supposed by some to be identical with the gal in the 

 Tamil uttu-gal, ' houses.' Dr. Stevenson is of opinion that this 

 addition is an abbreviation of the Sanskrit sakala (==sagala, Ta- 

 mil) 'all/ But, says Caldwell, the root signifying all, which the 

 Dravidians have preferred to retain, viz., ell, is connected, not with 

 the [Greek] ol 'whole,' the Hebrew kol, &c, but with the Saxons 

 eal, English all. Whether it comes from the one or the other, it 

 is indeed very clear that this addition of pluralization conveys, like 

 the Sinhalese word siy-al, — 6 all.' Now in the Sinhalese only a< 

 few inanimate nouns take this val as a sign of pluralization; and 

 in some instances it is found in the oblique cases, and never in the 

 nominative; thus ata ' hand,' at 6 hands' at-vala 'in hands;' gasa 

 4 tree,' gas ' trees,' gas-vala 4 in trees.' Hence it accords well 

 with Professor Max Muller's belief of this being a compound ex- 

 pression like animal-mass for 'animals,' or stone-heap for 'stones.' 

 There is another reason which induces me to believe that this val, 

 in the sense of vana for a ' mass,' is a word by itself. It is this, — 

 that like val the Sinhalese occasionally takes vara in a few nouns 

 for the formation of the plural, as guru ' teacher,' guru-varu ' teach- 

 ers '; raja 'king,' raja-varu 'kings.' In these instances vara is 

 clearly an additional word to denote 'respect;' for it will be seen 

 that as the plural of both words is ordinarily formed by the addi- 

 tion of (h)u, as guru, guruhu; raja, rajahu, they take the same 

 u in the plural even after the addition of vara; and that this varu 

 termination is never used except in connection with masculine or 

 feminine names that deserve respect, as val is seldom used except 

 in connection with inanimate nouns implying objects that are usually 

 associated in the mind with heap or mass. 



The Sinhalese has also, like some of the Scythian tongues, a ; 

 secondary or periphrastic mode of denoting some of the relations of 

 nouns, and in. this respect it accords with, and adopts some of, the 

 words found in the North-Indian vernaculars. E, g. 

 Nominative— tenia. 

 Instrumental: — visin, ' by.' 



