242 journal, r.a.s. (ceylon). [Yol. II., Part II. 



Introductory Remarks. 



It is not easy to explain the reason why so little attention 

 is paid to the study of Elu by the Sinhalese. Many are 

 the conjectures on this subject. Whilst some, it is said, 

 have not the necessary time at their disposal, others com- 

 plain of a want of teachers and books. Numbers having 

 the means and time necessary for its study deprecate it as 

 little less than useless* Others, though possessed of all the 

 desirable advantages, devote their time to the study exclu- 

 sively of the dead languages, ill-acquainted with, if not 

 ignorant of, their own. 



It is matter for regret to the writer that the Sinhalese 

 should so far neglect their own language ; that though they 

 use it in their everyday intercourse, and thereby shut them- 

 selves out from the possibility of acquiring a correct 

 idiomatic knowledge of a foreign tongue, they, or at least 

 the greater portion of the rising generation, should yet be 

 incapable of carrying on an intercourse for any length of 

 time without introducing Portuguese, Dutch, or English 

 terms — a practice which, I regret, is gaining ground in the 

 towns of this Island. I am however free to admit that with 

 the introduction of European institutions, manufactures, 

 <fec, European words and names before unknown to the 

 Sinhalese must necessarily obtain amongst them : as for 

 instance, ©d^Q^ege), Portuguese, 1 a watch' ; <^q@>(J,boedel 

 in Dutch, ' estate' ; s^d^i^s^SBca, English, ' custom- 

 house,' &c. But how can anyone therefore justify the admix- 

 ture of pure English words with the Sinhalese— 0. g., 



C3S3 trick &sa-ssf play z&dB for Q<q c2C3 gc^cstocSisj' zsd&, 

 ' He has played a nice trick.' The writer has with 

 regret observed the ridicule and contempt with which Euro- 

 peans have frequently treated language such as the above, 

 and that to his readers will furnish a satisfactory apology for 

 the introduction of the subject in these pages, besides an 



