Browsing by Author "Assajithissa Thero, Kurupita"

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The Discrepancy between the Orthography and the Phonetic Representation of the Sinhalese Inscriptions: A Historical Linguistic Study
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Assajithissa Thero, Kurupita
Sinhalese is a language which has a number of inscriptions helpful in studying its evolution. Its first inscriptions, as already known belong to the 3rd century B.C. Early inscriptions are known as Brahmi Inscriptions. Attempts have been made to identify the pronunciation of those inscriptions and the scholars who studied Sinhalese inscriptions hold the standpoint that they were read as they existed. However, accordingly historical linguistic observations, this notion can not be considered accurate. This can be studied in a scientific manner. Historical linguistic theory is the basic framework of this study which is based on the pronunciation of the Sinhalese inscriptions. It is revealed that reading inscriptions of the Brahmi period was different from their writings. For an example, (Sanskrit) satva > (Pali) satta > (Sinhalese) sata is the treatment of the word „sata‟ in early Brahmi inscriptions. Views based on historical phonology of Sinhalese show that the intervocalic „t‟ sound changes into „y‟ in later period of the Sinhalese language. (gata > giya, mata > miya etc.) Nevertheless the word „sata‟ can be seen as „sat‟ in later inscriptions too. It indicates that the word was not read as it was written. The way it is read should be „satta‟ with the conjunct consonants. It is the reason for the preservation of „t‟ sound throughout the periods although it is written with a single consonant. There are much more examples to prove this point of view. In conclusion, this investigation shows that the pronunciation of the Sinhalese inscriptions was not as same as their writings.
Origin of the Sinhalese composite verbs: a comparative study
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Assajithissa Thero, Kurupita
The aim of this study is to examine the origin of Sinhalese composite verbs with reference to other Middle Indo Aryan Languages and Tamil language. The origin of Sinhalese composite verbs is extremely controversial. A number of scholars argue that the origin of these verbs should be a result of Tamil language contact into Sinhalese language. There are also a number of scholars who think that the origin of those verbs should be a result of Indo Aryan Languages contact because there are many languages in which composite verbs exist. This study tries to comparatively analyse the origin of Sinhalese composite verbs with regards to composite verbs in other M.I.A. languages and Tamil language. In brief, this study is on whether they are derived from Tamil language or Indo Aryan Languages. To study the derivation of composite verbs, comparative method has been used here objectively. Specially, in M.I.A languages like Pali, Prakrit languages, these verbs have been used to convey the meaning instead of one verb. It is true about Tamil language too. These verbs are compared to justify the origin of composite verbs by identifying the differences and similarities.This study reveals that the composite verbs are derived from M.I.A languages most probably from Pali. Morphologically, these verbs are used as word sequences like N+V, Adv+v, Adj+V, V+V etc. Which do not exist in Tamil language. In fact, the notion is very clear that the composite verbs in Sinhalese language are derived not because of Tamil language contact but because of M.I.A languages.
What is ‘Linguistic interference’? A linguistic study with special reference to the Sinhala and English languages
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Assajithissa Thero, Kurupita
When a speaker knows more than one language, because of their disparity, one language can be influenced by the other language. This is more familiar in the bilingual context. Contemporary, Sri Lanka is a bilingual country. In Sri Lanka, Sinhala, Tamil and English are used. In this research, our attention is specially only paid to Sinhala and English languages. Especially, the problem or this research is to examine how linguistic interference functions on Sinhala and English languages in Sri Lankan context. When one uses two languages together those two languages could be influenced by each other. This process is termed in Bilingualism as interference which means the influence for each other. This belongs to the use of the language. While using two languages, not only phonological but also semantic, grammatical, lexicon and cultural changes are usually made. Here, the word ‘change’ stands for interference. In this topic, what is interference, what are the types of interference are discussed with examples with special reference to Sinhala and English languages. To study the nature of the interference of above mentioned languages data have been collected by closely referencing the colloquial use of Sinhala and English languages. Sri Lanka as a bilingual society, interference can be seen in the day to day conversation. Further, it can be divided into five categories such as phonological, semantic, grammatical, lexicon and cultural interference. In conclusion, interference is not an uncommon process of the languages used in the world. So, there is no exception to Sinhala and English.