THE OR,IGIN OF THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE r09
panndsa whereas pacas in Gujarati, Hindi and Nepali, pancas, 1n
The Origin of the Sinhalese Language
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah, M.A., B.L., Dipl.Phon., D.Litt. (Paris).
Chief Ed,itor, Bengal Academy, President, Pakistan Asiatic Society,
Dacca, East Pakistan
Sinhalese is undoubtedly derived from a Middle Indo-Aryan
dialect. The question is rvhether it was an eastern or a r,vestern dialect.
In my article 'First Aryan Colonisation of Ceylon' (Indian Historical
Quarterly, Vol. IX, 1933, pp. 742 sq.).I tried to shor'v that both traditio-
nally and philologically Sinhalese is to be derived from an Eastern middle
Ind6-Aryan dialect spoken in western Bengal (Lala rattha). The late
Dr. Wilhelm Geiger took great pains to refute my arguments in the
preface o{ his learned Grammar of the Sinhalese Language (Colombo,
i93B). But his arguments have left me unshaken in my viervs.
As regards the phonology Dr. Geiger considered the presenration
of the initiai z, in Sinhalese as pointing to its rvestern Indian Origin.
"This zr is preserved in Kashmiri, Sindhi, Lahnda, Gujarati, Nlarathi,
but changid into b in Hindi, Nepali, Bihari, Bengali, Assamese
and Oriya" (preface, p.ix) .From this he concluded that Sinhalese
belongs to the Western branch of Indo-Aryan language. But we knor,v
from the Inscriptions of A6oka that this development of b from z did
not take place in any of the Indo-Aryan dialects in earl1' l\{iddle Indo-
Aryan. Where is the proof of his statement that in Eastern Nliddie
Indo-Aryan the initialz was pronounced as b, "though the changewasnot
recorded in the inscriptions?" In fact the change of u to b is later than
the separation of Sinhalese from the parent speech which had l, as is
clear from the records of the inscriptions. It is quite possible, nay
natural, for a ianguage to retain its original pronunciation, although
its dialects might have a later changed pronunciation. The modern
westernBengalidialecthas keptthe pronunciation o{ d (r) s (for original.4,
s, s) and initial/e,, although the Eastern Bengali dialects pronounce_them
as r, h, and elision respectively. 'lhus r've can easily understand rvhy
Sinhalese did not share later development of tr to b of Bengali' The
retention of the original y initially in Sinhalese and its change to 7 in
all the modern Indo-Arvan vernaculars except Kashmiri can be cxplai-
ned in the same rvay. The treatment of the original rz is similar. It has
been preserved in Lahnda, Sindhi, Gujarati and Marathi, but changed
to n in Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Nepali etc.
As regards the vocabulary, Geiger compared Sinhalese t'anas with
pannas in Marathi and a sub-dialect of Gujarathi (p. xii). Here I
must observe that Marathi and a Gujarathi dialect have preserved
the original lvord representing Prakrit p:tnntLsa'm, pannasa, Pali
I
Bengali and panjah in Panjabi and Sindhi show a later analogous for-
mation from the word denoting hve in those languages. So Sinhalese
panas proves nothing but the preservation of the Original in the deri-
vative word.
It is admitted that the Sinhalese change of c to s (also in Xfarathi,
Assamese and Eastern Bengali), s to /z (also to Assamese and Eastern
Bengali dialects), the elision oI h and the deaspiration of sonant aspi-
rates (both alsoin Eastern Bengali dialects) are quite independent
later developments and prove nothing as regards the origin of these
languages.
Dr. Geiger did not bring any morphological argument to prove
the western origin of Sinhalese, although according to philologists this
is the most important point for the affiliation of languages. So I shall
enumerate some grammatical affrnities r'vhich point to its eastern origin.
In old Sinhalese the nom. sing. masc. and neut. of a stems had the
affix.-e, which became
-l the
case in znd, 3rd and 4th centuries; e.g.
old Sinh. pwte. in Maharaje, Nliddle Srnh. puti, Maharaji (Skt. pwtrah.
makarajah) (p SS).This-e affrx is found in the Eastern Inscriptions
of ASoka, in Magadhi and Ardha-Magadhi. 'Ihe nom. pl. ol -rz stems
in old Sinh. was aho ahw. It is the same in Magadhi for Voc. Pl. (Pis-
chel para 372).The suffix of loc. and gen., Sing. neut. in Sinh. is ahi,
later also contracted to e-a. Dr. Geiger is right in not deriving
it -ehi,
from Pali amhi (Skt. asmin).
He thought that "it is more probable that the loc. of-as stems
(Pk. P. Sl<t. manasi) was generalised in Sinhalese" (p.roS).But rve
know that the eastern Inscriptions of Asoka had-asi (-assi) as the
loc. sufftx and the rvcstern b.ad am,hi. I derive Sinh.-ahi-ehi from the
eastern Asokan-asl (-assi). This is also the opinionof Dr. Frank (Pali
ancl Sanskrit, p. rz8).
neut.is-la in modern
The case-endingof dat. Sing. andpl. masc. and
Sinh. and-ata, ataya (-a{aye) in old Sinh. (rst cent. AD ), (p. ro8).
This is to be derived from the Eastern Lsokan-athaye{Skt.-arthaya
e.g. Eastern ASokan supatltitye, Western A6okan (Girnar.) supatkaya
'for cooking' (Skt. Supartkaya).
For the pronouns rvc havc in Sinh. api'we' (old, also af, a!),
topi, tepi 'you'. They are er.idently derived from the eastern A(okan
at'/re, twpke (p. rz:). Here Geiger admits that "the immigrants rvho
brought these forms, api etc. to Ceylon had come from tlie I(alinga
Country" (p. ,z+).\Ve should observe that it is most unusual to borrorv
pronouns.
In Sinh. the plural of nor-rns denoting relationship is formed by the
suffix-la to the stem e.g. ayyala 'elder brothers' , dula 'daughters'.
This also occurs in the pronominal declension e.g. ut'nbalu'you' (p. to3).
ItO JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) VoI. VIII, Pa,rt I (Neu Sefi.es), 1962
Dr. Geiger asks "has the termination-ld any connection with the
plural affix-rii, of. tlre Bengali languages? (p.rz+).I shall answer yes.
The suffrx-l,d in lact occurs in some Bengali dialects. So the pliral
affix-rd{-l,Alloa1Skt. lokak. Kalidasa :uses lokd.h to denote plural,
al jivalokdli 'animals' (Raghw, v. 35), rajalokah, 'Kings' (Ibid,i.64.
This usage presupposes the vernacular use of. I,oka in ttre plural ci.
Fastern Hindi pl. suffix-log, e.g. tum log 'you' Assamese totnalok
'you', old Bengali tutnhe-loa,'yott' , paragilnoi loa 'those who go across'.
In Sinh. if the substantive denotes an animate object it precedes
the numeral and to the latter the word d.ena "the peison" is afftxed
(p. tzz). In Bengali the corresponding word 7 ana is sirnllarly used after
numer-als preceded by the substantive denoting an animate object.
Sinh. d.aruao tun-dend,Beng. Ckhele tin jan or jana-'the three chitdien' .
In Sinh. (Mod. and Old) the present gerund suffix is This
is to be derived from the Eastern .lsokan-mina (Skt. mdna) -min.
whereas
the Western Asokan suffix was mdna.
The gerundial form of Modern Sinh. Kota, old Sinh. katu, later
p9[u ts to be traced to the Eastern Asokan katw (-kattu), Ardha
Magadhi kattu. Skt. krtua (p. r59). Old Sinh. zs'rZ, Modern Sinh. vri
'been' is to be derived from the Eastern A3,'(Skt.
h&ta )hd,alulwulvd
with prothetic w, v, as inuotw (otu) 'carrrel' wstra),'uotinu, oiunu
(crown). It cannot be derived from the west. Asokan bhdta as there is
no instance of. bh2v in Sinh.
The Sinh. words for two and three show its eastern origin. Sinh.
d.e, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Nepali, d,wilE;astetn ASokan duve{
Skt. d,ae; whereas Hindi. Panjabi, Lah. dol Western ASokan duo<lSkt.
d,aau, Gtlerati ue and SindhibbalPkt. be do not agree with Sinh. in the
initial consonant. Old Slnh. tini Modern Sinh. twn agrees with eastern
vernaculars e.g. Bengali, Nepali tin, Assamese, Orya tini and disagrees
with western, e.g. Gujerati tyin. Sindhi, tre, Lah. tre (p. rrg).-The
Eastern A6okan is timni and the Western ASokan (Girnar) tri, ti, Sinh.
d.olosa agrees with i.{orthern ASokan d.wtalasa d.wudSash and d.iffers
from the Western ASokan (Girnar) dbdd,asa.
In the treatment of the original vowel r, the Eastern and Western
ASokan Inscriptions show characteristic difference. Whereas the Western
has simply a, the Eastern has a or i. In this respect Sinh. agrees with
the Eastern ASokan e.g., Skt., norga, Western ASokan tnaga, Eastern
A6okan miga, Sinh. muaa{*mia (a deer); Skt. ffptha, Stnh. pita,
Bengali, Hindi etc. pT,tha, pitin but Marathi patk (the back). Skt.
hrta, Western ASokan kata,EasternASokan kata, Sinh. kala.That in old
Sinhalese instead of s often .4 is written (p. r) (although Pali has only
s) is a proof of its eastern origin.
Geiger observes: "Among the Prakrit dialects Ardha-Magadhi
is most advanced in cerebralisation and is therefore most similar to
Sinhalese" (p SZ). In this respect Sinh. agrees also with the Eastern
THE OR,IGIN OF TTIE SINHALESE LANGUAGE I 11
A3okan, e.g. Sinh. hala, 'done' (Skt. krta), East. AS. kata. West.
AS. (Girnar) kata. Sinh. noala'dead', East. AS. (Kalsi) mata, (Ardha-
Magadhi maQaa). West. AS. (Girnar) rnata; (Skt. mlta). Sinh. aitala,
East. AS. uithala, West. AS. (Girnar) vistata, (Skt. uistrta, 'spread.'.
Ardha-Magadhi is undoubtedly an eastern dialect.
In some other words also Sinh. shows the cerebral and thus agrees
with the Eastern Indian. Sinh. mciti. (Skt. noi"ttikit) 'earth', Beng., Assa-
mese, Oriya, mdli, but Mar. mafi,Sinh.1/&at- (Skt. krnatti)'to spin'.
Beng. Assamese, /kat Oriya, 1/kat;bfi Hindi, Mar. Kat, Guj., Mar.
kat, Pan|., Lahuda katt, Slndhi kat. Sinh. tota 'f.ord' , Oriya, tutha, Skt.
tirtha. Sinh. cannot be derived from Pali tittha; it goes back to the
Primitive Indo-Aryan tFtha which is representedby Pkt. twha. Sinh.
,hd'he,she, it' maybe compared to Pkt. aha'that' in three genders
(Pischel,,,Para. $2). Dr. Geiger proposes to compare it to Ardha-Maga-
dhi sa, Magadhi sa, 'he', (p. rzS).
As regards the vocabulary we find that Sinhalese agrees with the
Eastern Indian vernaculars in some cases where later importation wiil
not explain easiiy, these words being in every day use. Sinh. uses the
rcotsdak 'tosee'andhit 'tostand'. These agree to the Eastern ASokan
d,akh (d,akkh) and cith (citth), the West A6okan having pai ,to see, and
tist 'to stand'. Cf Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Nepali. Hindj root dekh,
but Panj., Sindhi, Mar. pekh (evidently Panj., Mar., Gq. dekh, Lahuda,
Sindhi d.ekb arc later loan words). Sinh. aeyi, ze 'he becomes' cannot be
derived from Western bhaaati, but from an Eastern haaatiS*auai.
Sinh. scila, hcil a istobe derived from the Eastern A fiokan s dl,ika,'the mynah
bird'. It has been preserved in Bengali salik. (contra Hindi Mar. etc.
s,dri). Sinh. g-atlt'tiver'is to be derived ftom Gangd, the river Ganges.
Even in Mod. Bengali gdng means a river. This shows that the original
speakers of Sinhalese came from a country near the Ganges. Sinh.
gasa 'tree', Pali gaccha, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali gdch, contra Sindhi
aanu, Grj., Mar. jhad,.
the syntax we-notice similarity between Sinh. and Beng. e,g.
Sinh. nrE gah.a ara galo1ta uad,d usa-yi, Beng. ei gdchh ai gachi theEe
bara ilcu, 'this tree is bigger (lit. mor-e big) tfian tfrat tree'."
A1l the above philological facts go to prove that the ancestors of
the Sinhalese speaking people migrated from Eastern India and the
tradition of Sinhalese people corroborates this. The presence of such
words as ali 'we' , topi 'you', dak 'to see', vaild 'mbre', gasa ,tree',
piin'water' etc. sho"vs that like the Modern Indo-Arvan Vernaculars
Sinhalese is descended from a Primitive Eastern prat<rit somewhat
akin to Vedic and Sanskrit but not identical with them. Like Hindi,
Beng. etc. it uses for the present tense the root yd'to go,, but lor the
past the root gam as gtyd 'gone'. Sinhalese should havia place in any
omparative Grammar of Indo-Aryan languages.