The Contribution of Cumaratunga Munidasa as a Neologist

Abstract

CumaratungaMunidasa (25th July 1887 - 02nd March 1944) was one of the greatest classical Sinhalese scholars of the recent times, remembered over years owing to the remarkable service rendered by him in a number of disciplines. He isadmired by many as the first individual to recognise the need of new Sinhalese technical terms capable of imparting the knowledge of modern technical and scientific concepts introduced to the Sinhalese speech community during the past century. Still, no commendable attempt has been made to examine his role as a neologist. Therefore this study attempts to undertake the task. An adequate corpus ofdata was collected for examination by referring toa number of books and paper articles written by Cumaratunga. It was observed thathe had followed many a morphological processes in coining neologisms, which reflect a number of salient features that one should take into consideration in coining Sinhalese technical terms. Since a great mass of neologisms coined by Cumaratnga have gained currency in the day-to-day discourses, further studies should be encouraged, concerning the morphological processes and standards maintained by him as a neologist.