A Comparative Study on the Use of Meanings of Sinhalese Ablative Case and Locative Case in Written Tamil Language

Abstract

The term case (vibhakti) is defined as 'vibhatti' in Pāli and 'vibat' in Sinhalese. 'Vibhajīyantīti vibhattiyō', that is, case means 'division'. Vibhakti is a feminine participle formed by adding the participle suffix 'Ktin' (ti) to the root bhaj with 'vi' prefix. The author of the Sidat Saňgarawa said, 'namin para vä bedanu labanuyē vibat nam'; vibhakti is the suffix that helps a noun stem to divide its meaning into agent, objective, instrument, etc. Further, it has been analysed in Tamil texts that the change of grammatical function of the nouns in a sentence is called the case. Grammatical function refers to the sentence rule between the noun and the verb in a sentence. The Sinhala native speaker is constantly faced with the problem of how to use methods of using cases appropriately when learning Tamil as a second language. Accordingly, Sinhala Bhāshā Vyākaraṇaya written by Prof. W.S. Karunathilake and Aḍippaḍait Tamiḷ Ilakkaṇam (mbg;gilj; jkpo; ,yf;fzk;) by Professor M.A. Nuhman have been used as primary sources, and a comparative study of the use of meanings of Sinhala Ablative Case and Locative case in written Tamil was conducted. According to the results of this study, it can be pointed out that while there are two cases in Sinhalese that are Ablative and Locative case, the fact that a single case suffix is used to express the meanings of those two cases in Tamil, is a major factor affecting Sinhala native speakers who study Tamil as a second language. Moreover, it can be emphasised here that when Sinhala native speakers directly translate their ideas into the Tamil language, having a correct understanding of the use of Sinhala cases itself will assist in using and understanding the methods of using cases in Tamil accurately.