Native Forms of Salutation* 



6? 



Notes on some of the Forms of Salutation and Address known 

 among the Singhalese, By the Hon, Mr. Justice Starke. 



The Singhalese have a great variety of forms of expression 

 in address, to indicate the respect or otherwise, which they 

 wish to shew to the individual ; as, in their language itself, 

 there are words and phrases appropriated to particular classes 

 of the people. 



For a considerable proportion of those various forms of 

 expression, the fundamental terms of address are, 



®ts>l (to ) and O)9o (tamo) (from the old root » ta, thou,*) 

 terms, however, which by themselves, without any honorific 

 as it is called, or affix of respect, are considered properly 

 given to inferiors only ; and the term <^«d3 (to) is now so 

 associated with such inferiority, that if addressed to others it 

 expresses the greatest contempt. Chater says that " in books 

 it conveys no idea of disrespect," Gram. p. 39 ; and in the 

 Sidath Sangarawa it is given with the examples of verbs in 

 the second person : but so early as Ruell's time, the term was 

 not used except to slaves and low caste people. 



5552)0 (tamd ) is thou ! or you ! but £>«d3 (to ) is you fellow ! 

 sirrah ! you creature ! or something lower and meaner, for 

 which we have not in English a proper equivalent. Its force 

 on the native mind probably depends on their tenaciousness 

 of birth and condition, as connected with their peculiar notions 

 of merit and demerit in a previous state of existence : sin or 

 demerit, according to Budha, determining the course of a 

 person's existence, as a bullock draws along the carriage to 

 which it is yoked. 



We have something of an illustration of this in the anecdote 

 of the countryman and the king in disguise, when they met 

 together in the jungle, how the countryman resented the 

 king's refusal to take food with him, thinking the king 

 supposed he was a low caste man ;f and the same sentiment 



See the Sidath Sangarawa by Mr. Alwis, p. 22, and his observations at pages 

 xlii., xlviL, 100, 154. 



j- See the Attanagalu wanse, Sidath Sangarawa, p, clxxxv. 



