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<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000">Dear
Colleagues:</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000">I am resending
this because I found that I had made one of those e-mail-plaguing
errors the first time (in addition to my computer losing the date). I
had used the angled bracket notation (CAP . and ,) for written
forms, as I usually do, but when I looked over the copy that was
reflected to me, I found that the program had taken this to mean
'address' or something, so that all those examples were eliminated
(the servers must be looking for some very exotic addresses).
Unfortunately, the variety characterizations remained, so that some
spoken forms might appear to be marked as "literary". Since
Sinhala is strongly diglossic,this could lead to confusion. I
replaced the angled brackets with curly brackets and am resending.
Hopefully, the system will not find some other interpretation of that
notation as well. Bad enough to lose the italics and not have the
schwa!.</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000">I apologize for
any inconvenience that this might have caused.</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000">James W.
Gair</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"><br>
Sinhala does make a distinction between types of heat that resembles
the phenomena that Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm describes. The quickest
way for me to lead into this is to quote from our Sinhala text
Readings in Colloquial Sinhala (James W. Gair, W.S Karunatillake and
John Paolillo, Sinha Books and Cornell South Asia Pprogram
1987).<br>
<br>
I have converted the Sinhala script in the examples to Romanized
transcription. @ represents schwa,but may be replaced by /a/ for
transliteration since schwa is nearly though not quite completely
predictable. Doubling of vowels is length.{S} is Sinhala script (and
Sanskrit} retroflex s.<br>
<br>
"/usn@/ Sinhala has more than one equivalent for English
'heat' or hot". They designate different kinds of heat,
and are difficult to define. /usn@/ generally refers to
"intrinsic" heat, that is, heat which is a property of
something as opposed to "accidental, induced or short term"
heat, (as for, example, the heat induced in food or some other
substance by heating it) for which the usual term is /rasne/. /rasne/
is also used when referring to the (hot) weather on a particular day.
When applied to food,/usn@ as opposed to /siit@l@/ 'cool', has a
special sense relating to the traditional medical system and system
of beliefs about food and the way in which they are classified in
relation to their interaction with the body". (Reading 2,
Grammar p. 7.)<br>
<br>
There are still more forms in this field. The adjectival (and
stem) form of /usne/ is /usn@/ spelled {usSNa}--diglossia enters
here. The related form /unu/ (spelled with retroflex {N}, but
not distinct from /n/ is 'warm. hot', and occurs in such
collocations as /unu watur@/ 'hot/warm water'. Note also the
noun form /un@/ 'fever'.<br>
<br>
/rat/ related to /rasne/ occurs in the collocation /rat k@r@n@wa/ '
hot+make/ heat (something)', generally of substances. /rat wen@wa/
'hot+become' is the intransitive equivalent, as in /rat wee-g@n@
en@wa/ 'hot become-get-PPL come/ 'it's getting to be hot (as of
food in cooking'. /unu k@r@n@wa/ is 'heat (trans.), liquefy, distill'
, with /unu wen@wa/ as the intransitive form.<br>
<br>
my impression is that the /unu/ forms are more used with liquids and
the /rat/ ones with solids, but I am sure that there is more to it
than that.<br>
<br>
Though the heat terms are not extended as such into the domain of
chillies/spiciness, there is a kind of extension of the domain, in
that "hot" foods are referred to as those that 'burn the
mouth" /kaT@ dan@/ but also as /saer@/, roughly 'strong' without
the heat component.<br>
<br>
<br>
There is a form /griisme/ (literary {griiSmaya}) adjective/stem form
/griism@/ used in climate contexts, as in /griism@ kaale/
'hot season'. However, bodily experienced heat would be expressed as
/rasne daenen@wa/ 'heat+ experience (vb.)' (='get to know
involuntarily).<br>
<br>
There is also a more formal form {taapaya} /taape/, occuring in
technical contexts such as {aapeeks.ika taapaya} 'specific heat', but
I am not sure of its total range. (cf. Sanskrit taapa: and related
forms)</font></div>
<div><font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"><br>
<br>
I hope that this is of some help, and will be hapy for any
elaborations/emendations. I have been trying to avoid referring to
this as a 'hot topic", but certainly the general lexical
and conceptual field could use investigation in Sinhala as elsewhere.
Perhaps someone will comment on terms like {garam} in
Hindi/Urdu, which crosses dimensions including sensation/taste
and physical as well as, I believe, the "inherent property"
one.</font><br>
<font face="Geneva" size="-1" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font size="-1">å</font></div>
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