No. 5.-1850.] 



THE ELU LANGUAGE. 



245 



that the ancient books were written in Elu and not in 

 Sinhalese. The " Sidatsangarawa," an Elu work (assum- 

 ing that the ancientness of its date is the criterion which 

 should decide the question) — a ^ork indeed written in the most 

 concise ancient style— designates the language of which 

 it treats ©2adQ^cgBc3o)e3, "the colloquial Sinhalese" ; and 

 "Namawaliya" (which is a vocabulary of terms contained 

 in all confessedly Elu works) calls the language of which 

 it is a dictionary " the Sinhalese." 



&q o) z q -sScs© >2£)3®3e)(3c3 8o2£(2>. 



" I sing in rhyme Namawali Sinhalese.'" 



Now, those who maintain that an ancient obsolete dialect 

 was the different from the 80^(3, will not deny that 

 the two books above quoted are in that so-called dialect.* 

 How then will they who give the two words different mean- 

 ings, reconcile their opinion with the positive assertion of 

 the learned writers themselves as above cited, both of 

 whom designate the language of which they wrote "the 

 Sinhalese " ? 



Some writers have also defined the word £)<6 to be that 

 dialect in which the poetical works of the Sinhalese are 

 written,! doubtless intending to draw a distinction between 

 the poets of old and those of a comparatively recent date. 

 This is incorrect also. Any one who will be at the trouble 



" €8q£tfe3GOd)£) or €BSi>2>^e3ocg)fioc3 — A Grammar of the Elu or 

 Ancient Language of Ceylon." 



"At a much later stage of my proceedings another native production 

 came into my possession, the £03® ©gos* a vocabulary of Elu nouns.'* 

 — Clough's " Dictionary," preface, vol. II., p. xix., p. 733. 



f " Their scientific writings are generally to be found in Sanskrit ; 

 their religious writings in Pali ; whilst their poetry is in a dialect of its 

 own, the Elu." — C. A. S. Journal, vol. I., p. 36. 



" <p803(5)§c9 had been composed to facilitate the study of the 

 purest Elu authors, especially the poets."— Clcugh, I. c, vol. II., p. xix. 



I 2 



