No. 29.— 1884.] THRESHING— FLO OK. 



239 



many of these conventional words as possible should be 

 recorded before they are quite forgotten. Every word of 

 this kind, however primitive or uncouth, may have its use 

 in the study of the development and philology of the 

 Sinhalese language. With this object, I have added some 

 words used in the Districts of Balapitiya and Tangalla to the 

 vocabularies of Mr. levers and Mr. Bell already printed, 

 and I append also a list of Tamil words from the different 

 divisions of the Jaffna District, I have endeavoured where 

 possible to show the meanings and derivations of the 

 words.* 



I annex also some goyiya songs from Balapitiya District, 

 with free translations. 



From an examination of these lists the following remarks 

 are suggested : — 



1 . It may be inferred from the fact that the same words, 

 or words very similar, are used with the same meanings in 

 districts wide apart from one another, that there is an estab- 

 lished conventional language used by all Sinhalese cultiva- 

 tors, and that this language is not of recent origin. 



2. Most of the words appear to be merely nicknames 

 coined for the purpose, generally from some peculiarity or 

 characteristic of the objects to which they are applied, f 

 This is especially the case with the names given to animals, 

 some of which are comical enough. Thus, a grey monkey 

 is a 'tree stag,' while a brown one is ' the cougher.' A 

 chetah appears to be ' the old man of the woods ' \bedde 

 mutta]. It is not clear why, in Tangalla, the bear should 



* An explanation of the meanings of most of the words in the 

 K6galla List appeared in the Ceylon Observer of 5th December, 1882. 



f Thus, in Sinhalese : ' whiteness ' [suduvd] for ' chunam ' ; 

 ' sweetness' [rahatiyd] for 'jaggery' ; 'redness' [ratio] for 'fire'; ' the 

 intoxicator' [matkarannd] for ' tobacco' ; ' black- water' [kalu vatura\ 

 for 'arrack'; 'white-water' [sudu vaturd], or 'sediment-water' 

 [bora vatura], for 'toddy'; 'the cutter' [kapannd] for 'knife,' &c. ; 

 and in Tamil: 'the runner' [oddakkdrun] for 'chaff'; ' the inflamer ' 

 [sulliduvdn] for chunam; 'the rustler' [sarasarappan] 'for mat'; 

 'the joiner' [aduodn] for 'rope'; 'the accountant' [kanakkan] for 

 ' lacham measure.' 



