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



aspirate eliding the first letter of the conjunct consonant, 

 and we get <Q^)^(3, nubatala. Prakrit, naa, 44 nine," 

 Sinhalese, ^e) nava ; Prakrit , visai, "twenty," Sinhalese, ©63, 

 visi. 



13. The Sinhalese sound QSi, e, comes into play when a 

 long cp, a, or e, is shortened, or a nexus preceded by a, is 

 elided, e. </., <^S£>3;b, dshddha, ''name of a month (June and 

 July)," q^esg, fsa/a ; ©85^*553, makshiM, "fly," mesi; 

 (£)OXd2S*), hastin, "elephant," qp^s^, ; ^^S, shashti, " sixty" 

 Aeta. It is also a substitute for 6, e, as v^ZZi, "creeper" 

 Sinhalese 6>j vel. Though in Bengali and other vernaculars 

 of India there is no letter corresponding to the Sinhalese t$z, e, 

 yet Mr. Beames says: — "In some instances in Bengali the vowel 

 O, e, has a short harsh sound, like that of English a in hat. 

 Thus ek, "one," sounds yah or aclc." This is just what the Sinha- 

 lese ($1, e, is : the vowel changes entirely depend upon the 

 preceding or succeeding vowels of a word. 



The following examples will shew that a large number of 

 words with slight modifications, is common to all. I work on 

 the materials supplied by Beames. 



Skr.* karkataka " crab ;" Pali, kakkata ; S. kankido ; H. 

 kekar'a ; Sin. kakulu, " sea crab." 



Skr. karkatika ; " cucumber ;" Pa. kakkari ; S. kakidi ; 

 H. kakadi ; 0., B. kakudi ; Sin. kekiri. 



Skr. karbura, " variegated ;" S. kubiro ; H. kabara, kaba- 

 ra ; Sin. kabara. 



Skr. kshana ; " moment ;" S. khina ; H. khana, khana, 

 chhana; Sin. kena, sena. Here kena comes by the elision of the 

 lingual sh, and sena by eliding the k and dentalizing the 

 lingual sh. 



Skr. kshama, " pardon ;" S. khima ; H. chhama, khima ; 

 P. chhima ; Sin. kama, sama. 



Skr. vanka, " crooked ;" S. vingu ; H. banka, banka ; 

 Sin. vak. 



* S. stands for Sindhi ; B. Bengali ; H. Hindi ; 0. Oriya ; P. Pan- 

 jabi ; M. Mfharathi ; G. Gajurathi ; Sin. Sinhalese ; Pr. Prakrit ; Pa. 

 Pali ; Skr. Sanskrit. 



