A Study of the Opinions Expressed about the Origin of the Sinhala

Abstract

Language is a means of communication unique to mankind. Although it is not possible to say exactly when and how the Sinhala language originated, the linguists who research the language have presented different opinions about it. Accordingly, the objective of this research is to explore the scientific and historical information and conduct a study based on some of the main opinions given about the origin of the Sinhala language. The research problem is to investigate how the Sinhala language originated based on the opinions given by linguists about the Sinhala language. Opinions on the origin of the Sinhala language were studied using books, articles, and magazines that contain relevant information as primary and secondary sources under the qualitative research method. Here scholars such as James Cordinor, Wilhelm Geiger, and Senarath Paranawithana have presented grammatical and lexical facts on the origin of the Sinhala language as an Indo-Aryan language, and based on the Dravidian features in the Sinhala lexicon, Theodore G. Perera and Rees David have stated that it belongs to the category of non-Indo Aryan languages. Moreover, due to the occurrence of words derived from the Sinhala language, it is also suggested that Sinhala is a native language. According to the results of this research, it can be presented that although the Sinhala language is more influenced by India, it was born as a pure language in the Sinhalese land itself, and based on the social facts that arose later, it became the current state of use, mixing both Indo-Aryan and non-Indo Aryan characteristics.