80 



ON THE ORIGIN OF 



is indeed remarkable, that it accords with the Pali or Sanskrit on 

 the one hand, or with the Latin or Greek on the other. 



E. g., In the Dravidian as well as in the North -Indian dialects 

 including the Sinhalese, the adjective precedes the substantive 

 which it qualifies: so it does in Pali,* Sanskrit, Latin, and English. 



2. — The adverb precedes the verb: so likewise in Latin, and Pali. 



3. — The genitive precedes its governing nouu: so it does in Sans- 

 krit. 4. — The relative participle precede* the noun on which it 

 depends. Here the relative participial adjiTt ive is evidently meant, for 

 there is no relative in the Dravidian dialects. In the use of th© 

 relative participial adjective not only the Latin and Greek, but the 

 Pali and the Sanskrit are equally agreed with the Sinhalese. \ 

 5. — The noun which is governed by a verb precedes the latter: so 

 likewise in the Latin and Pali; 6. — The finite verb takes the last place 

 in the sentence: so it does in the Pali and Sanskrit.} And 7, the 

 negative branch of a sentence precedes the affirmative. This, I 

 admit, is generally the case in the Sinhalese; but there are excep- 

 tions to the rule: and an exceptional rendering in one of the 

 examples given below is not the less elegant on that account, like 

 the English sentence—' Not that I loved Csesar less — but that I 

 loved Rome more/ 



Let us, in the next place, examine these f highly characteristic 

 peculiarities ' of construction in Dravidian dialects, with reference 

 to the Syntax of a Pali, as compared with a Sinhalese, sen- 

 tence. If, by such comparison I can shew that the Sinhalese ap- 

 proaches very nearly to a very ancient type of the Sanskrit, of 

 undoubted Northern origin, I believe it will be unnecessary to 

 examine the construction of the Dravidian. Proceeding therefore 



* Agahita visesana buddhi visessamhi na-uppajjatiti visesanam pubban hoti 

 ■^-B-dla-vatara. i. e. 'The mind unembued with the attribute comprehends not 

 the substantive: wherefore the adjective precedes (the noun.) ' 

 f Vide supra, p. 77, 

 % Vide remarks infra. 



