68 



ON THE ORIGIN OF 



It may be convenient here to notice the other verbal analogies 

 to which Dr. Stevenson refers under the head of (1) Voices, (2) 

 the formation of tenses, (3) the Participle, (4) the Infinitive, (5) 

 Verbal nouns, and (6) the Relative participle. 



The Voices. 



The Negative Voice. Dr. Stevenson points out a Negative 

 Voice, in the Dra vidian as well as in the North -Indian dialects, 

 hut admits that 4 to the observations under this head, the Sinhalese 

 seems [it indeed is'] an exception, having no' affix which it adds 

 to deny the existence of the act, beyond that which is known to 

 the Sanscrit family of languages/ 



To render this more plain : — -The Dravidian dialects add a 

 negative particle between the radical and the verbal theme, e. g. 

 var-a du, 'do not come' ; whereas in the Sanskrit and the Sinha- 

 lese the mark of negation, generally na, is prefixed to the radical. 

 Thus, asti Sanskrit, and ceti Sinhalese ' it is,' become nasti and 

 nceti, respectively- in expressing ' it is not.'. 



Another peculiarity connected with the Dravidian negative verb, 

 is, that it has but one tense, which is an aorist, or is indetermi- 

 nate in point of time; e. g. pogen Tamil, ' I go not, 5 means 

 either 'I do not go,' 'I did not go,' or ' I shall not go.' There is 

 no such indefiniteness as to tense in the Sinhalese or the Sanskrit, 

 in both which the tenses are regularly formed notwithstanding 

 the negative affix; as no-yami ' I go not,' no-giyemi ' I went 

 not,' and no-yannemi ' I shall not go.' 



The Passive Voice. Many who have not thoroughly mastered 

 the Sinhalese have laboured to shew that the Sinhalese language, 

 like the Dravidian dialects, is devoid of a regular passive voice. 

 This is as much a mistake as to suppose that it has not a relative 

 pronoun, or an instrumental case. The mistake arises from a 

 careless observance of our best writers, and too much adherence to 

 the ignorant usage of illiterate men. I am free to confess'that the 



