236 



JOUBNAL R. A. s, (ceylon). [Vol. VII., Pt. III. 



colloquial is 3»<§o, Jcald. This too having no inflections to shew 

 the number or person, the pronouns have to be prefixed : — ^2)© 

 Vtygp, mama kald, " I did" ; qg8 25)<gp, api "we did" ; 



(5°) S55@D, ^ &a/a, "he did," &c. We have here both the inflec- 

 tional and analytical stages. Thus by classification Sinhalese 

 must be grouped under the Indo-Grermanic family. "But," it 

 is said " classification is not in itself sufficient for purposes of 

 analysis" Let us therefore, look for other peculiarities. In 

 the Turanian group, it is said that nouns are not distinct from 

 verbs. In Sinhalese they are : 335(5, Jcara, CO. ya, <§^, de, &Q, 

 siti, &c.,— are always verbs and never nouns ; nor could a noun 

 be converted into a verb except by the addition of a verb, as 

 et(3855d®, pelaharamij "I grow" ; £c0<^6)£, diyaveyi, " it be- 

 comes liquid" ; §c03»d©, diyakarami, "I liquify." 



Another characteristic of the Aryan language, says Mr. 

 Beanies, is " that the noun possesses three numbers, singular, 

 dual and plural ; and numerous cases each distinguished by a 

 peculiar and inseparable termination." 



We have in Sinhalese only the singular and the plural 

 numbers, the dual is lost, as in English. The case endings are 

 inseparable, that is to say, if separated from the stem, as 0, ta, 

 in ®C), mata, "to me," they have no meaning in themselves, and 

 here the ta, when separated has no meaning in itself. 



We have the following terminations in nouns : — ■ 



Masculine 

 $&erf, minis, " Mim." 

 Singular Piural 



Norn. 



g»» 



d 





hu 



Ace. 





d 





un 



Inst. 





d ( visin ) 





un ( visin ) 



Aux. 











Vat. 





dta 





unta 



AM. 





dgcn 





ungen 



Gen. 





age 





unge 



Loc. 











Voc, 





% ' 





uni 



