IMPACT OF WAR (1983 -2009) ON JAFFNA TAMIL: ENGLISH, SINHALA AND SOME INDIAN LANGUAGES

Abstract

In this research, an attempt is made to investigate phonological, lexical and syntactic borrowing from English, Sinhala and some of the Indian Languages into Tamil Language during the period of war during 1983 to 2009 and the cases of semantic change. More specifically, the research aims to investigate the assimilative processes that took place while borrowing and how it affected the phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels of Tamil Language. This study hypothesized that Tamil Language has extensively borrowed from English, but it does borrowed limited items from Sinhala and some Indian Languages. It further hypothesized that the borrowed lexical items can be used for English language teaching. The data for this research is based on an inventory of commonly used Tamil words/phrases that are borrowed during war. Much of this qualitative analytical study was done through observation and interaction with native speakers of Tamil in everyday conversations as well as in the media such as vernacular radio, TV stations and printed materials such as newspapers, pamphlets, plays, stories etc. Public forum such as church/temple sermons and public meetings were also used. Introspection or intuition and elicitation were also used when the need arose. The data collected proved that there are phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic borrowing from English, Sinhala and some Indian Languages during the war (1983 – 2009). From this study, it is established that Tamil speakers have borrowed and nativized a significant number of war related terms from English, Sinhala and Indian Languages due to contact. The result of this study is since the borrowing is significant they can be documented and used for language teaching and learning processes.