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<body><><><><><><><><><><><><>--This is the Language List--<><><><><><><><><><><><><><BR>
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I clipped the following from this website. I want to make some off-the-cuff
comments (later).<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://members.tripod.com/~hettiarachchi/sinhala.html">http://members.tripod.com/~hettiarachchi/sinhala.html</a><br>
<font size="+1"><br>
For example, in Sanskrit, the sound r takes more prominence, appearing in
many words. This is not so in Prakrit (Pali) which has a tendency to eliminate
this sound. In turn Pali words possessed a high proportion of double consonants,
a feature that was eliminated in Sinhala. This had taken place by the 3rd
century B.C. as borne out by the earliest cave inscriptions.</font>
<p><font face="Courier New,Courier"><font size="+1"> Sanskrit
Pali Sinhala<br>
karman kamma kam (work)<br>
marga magga maga (path )<br>
<br>
Other sound changes include the change of ch to s, which took place during
the 8th century A.C. and became regular by the 10th century.<br>
<br>
Pali Sinhala<br>
gachach gasa (tree)<br>
kuchchi kusa (womb)<br>
<br>
The change of p to v which occured between the 1st-2nd centuries A.C.<br>
<br>
Pali Sinhala<br>
rupa ruva (form) <br>
papa pau (sin)<br>
<br>
The change of j to d, which first took place in the 4th century A.C. and
became regular by</font></font> <br>
<font face="Courier New,Courier"><font size="+1">the 9th century.<br>
<br>
Pali Sinhala<br>
vejja vedha (physician)<br>
ajja adha (today)<br>
<br>
and the change of t to l, which as the renowned German philologist, Wilhelm
Geiger has noted, took place through an intermediate d. This occured sometime
between the 6th-10th centuries A.C.<br>
<br>
Pali Sinhala<br>
putavi polova (earth)<br>
mata mala (dead)</font></font> </p>
<p><font size="+1">There also exist a number of other sound changes that characterize
Sinhala and distinguish it from its North Indian sister languages. The change
of Sanskrit s to h and the latterÕs eventual disappearance is unique to Sinhala
amongst Aryan languages, although such changes have occured in other Indo-European
languages such as Greek and Armenian. We know from ancient Sinhalese inscriptions
that the Sanskrit surya (sun) had become hir by the 9th century and hira
by the end of the 12th century. This in turn became the present day ira by
the 15th century. Owing to its geographical isolation, Sinhala has also preserved
a number of old Aryan archaisms not found in any of the North Indian vernaculars.
For example, whereas Sinhala, like Pali, has preserved the initial y of old
Indo-Aryan, this has been changed to j in all the modern North Indian languages
derived from Sanskrit.</font> </p>
<p><font size="+1"> Sanskrit yati (go), Hindi jana, Bengali jay, Sinhala yanna.
Some Sinhala words have however died out and been replaced by Pali or Sanskrit.
For example, the old sinhala la (heart) occuring the Sigiri graffiti (8th-10
centuries) as la-kol hellambuyun (heart shattering fair damsels) is today
extinct and has been replaced by the Pali hada. Similarly, the old Sinhala
ag (fire) has been replaced by the Pali gini. The old Sinhala term for horse,
as today exists only in compound terms such as as-val (horse-hair), as-hala
(stable) and as-govva (horse-keeper) and has been superseded by the Sanskrit
ashva.</font> </p>
<p><font size="+1"> Such old Sinhala words like dana (people), rada (king),
and pungul (person) have to all, intents and purposes ceased to exist, and
have been superseded by their respective Sanskrit equivalents, jana, raja
and pudgala. But by no means is pure Sinhala or Elu(as it is known in literary
circles) confined to Sri Lanka. The speech of the Maldivian islanders, Divehi
bas, is in fact a dialect of Sinhala, which branched off from the parent
language sometime between the 4th-8th centuries.</font></p>
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