THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE, 



selves also governing an accusative. Similarly rptfifum pravritia 

 ■ she began to weep;' and mahin jetun arebhe, 'he began to conquer 

 the earth,' where mahijayan arebhe 'he began the conquest of the 

 earth ' would be equally correct* All that is here said of (he Sans- 

 krit equally applies to the Sinhalese: and, when we moreover learn 

 from the authority already quoted, that 'infinitives in the Veda may 

 also be formed by simply adding the usual case terminations,' we 

 oeed no longer hesitate to account for the existence of the da- 

 tive and accusative sign in the Sinhalese infinitive, and to trace its 

 cause to the genias of that language, the Sanskrit, in which 'the 

 infinitive most Commonly involves,' as the Sinhalese dees, ' a sense 

 which belongs especially to the Sanskrit dative viz., that of the 

 end or purpose for which any thing is done;' and in which, as in 

 the cases above given, it would be equally correct to substitute the 

 dative for the infiuitive.f 



There is yet another peculiarity, to which Dr. Stevenson ha;? called 

 attention, and which it is convenient to notice here. It is that of 

 * nouns being used w r ith the verb ' * to do, ' 'give,' ' take,' &c. This does 

 not possess a characteristic by any means distinguishable from the 

 ■Sanskrit. What is here described as norms are verbal derivatives. 

 Though they present all the appearance of nouns, yet they are 

 -deduced from, and are clearly traceable to, verbs; e. g., horakan 

 kald 'he made steatAng.' Now, as remarked by Bopp, "the 

 Sanskrit verbs of the tenth class, and all derivative verbs, peri- 

 phrastically express the reduplicated preterite by one of the auxi- 

 liary verbs — kri, ' to make,' as and bhu, 'to be.'J E. g., chora- 

 yunch&kara 1 lie made stealing.' The Sanskrit also uses ' go' as 

 an auxiliary, as v ap u s h tarn art h a m v arm/ am pracliakran.uh, ' they 

 went to a solicitation.' So likewise in the Sinhalese, as well as in 



* Mon. William's Sanskrit Grammar, p. 367, 

 f ib. p. 368 ; also Siflatsaiigara, § 30. p. 35, 

 % Also see Pacini, jii. 1. 35 aeq. 



