DOCSLIB.ORG

Sinhala and Tamil: a Case of Contact-Induced Restructuring

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sinhala and Tamil: a Case of Contact-Induced Restructuring Sinhala and Tamil: A Case of Contact-Induced Restructuring Harold Dharmasenan Thampoe Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the regulations for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Newcastle University September 2016 © Harold D. Thampoe 2016 All rights reserved Abstract The dissertation presents a comparative synchronic study of the morphosyntactic features of modern spoken Sinhala and Tamil, the two main languages of Sri Lanka. The main motivation of the research is that Sinhala and Tamil, two languages of diverse origins—New Indo-Aryan (NIA) and Dravidian respectively—share a wide spectrum of morphosyntactic features. Sinhala has long been isolated from other NIA languages and co-existed with Tamil in Sri Lanka ever since both reached Sri Lanka from India. This coexistence, it is believed, led to what is known as contact-induced restructuring that Sinhala morphosyntax has undergone on the model of Tamil, while retaining its NIA lexicon. Moreover, as languages of South Asia, the two languages share the areal features of this region. The research seeks to address the following questions: (i) What features do the two languages share and what features do they not share?; (ii) Are the features that they share areal features of the region or those diffused into one another owing to contact?; (iii) If the features that they share are due to contact, has diffusion taken place unidirectionally or bidirectionally?; and (iv) Does contact have any role to play with respect to features that they do not share? The claim that this research intends to substantiate is that Sinhala has undergone morphosyntactic restructuring on the model of Tamil. The research, therefore, attempts to answer another question: (v) Can the morphosyntactic restructuring that Sinhala has undergone be explained in syntactic terms? The morphosyntactic features of the two languages are analyzed at macro- and micro-levels. At the macro-level, a wide range of morphosyntactic features of Tamil and Sinhala, and those of seven other languages of the region are compared with a view to determining the origins of these features and showing the large scale morphosyntactic convergence between Sinhala and Tamil and the divergence between Sinhala and other NIA languages. At the micro-level the dissertation analyzes in detail two morphosyntactic phenomena, namely null arguments and focus constructions. It examines whether subject/verb agreement, which is different across the two languages, plays a role in the licensing of null arguments in each language. It also examines the nature of the changes Sinhala morphosyntax has undergone because of the two kinds of Tamil focus constructions that Sinhala has replicated. It is hoped, that this dissertation will make a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the morphosyntax of the two languages, the effects of language contact on morphosyntax, and more generally, the nature of linguistic variation. i Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to God Almighty—the Father, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit— for His abundant grace, provision, strength and wisdom, and my wife Grace for her love, care, patience and understanding without whom I would never have been able to start, continue or complete successfully my PhD. ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the following who have contributed to the completion of my Doctoral studies. From the depths of my heart I thank Professor Anders Holmberg, one of my supervisors, for suggesting this fascinating topic. His inspiration, guidance, support and patience made this dissertation possible. I would also like to thank sincerely Dr. William van der Wurff, my other supervisor, for his encouragement, advice support and patience. His subtle insights and good humoured criticism have significantly enhanced the quality of my dissertation. I feel incredibly privileged to have you both as my supervisors, for you have made my research a rewarding and memorable experience. I wish to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Professor Maggie Tallerman, Newcastle University, and Prof. Andrew Nevins, University College London, my panel of examiners, for their very useful questions, comments and suggestions at the viva and their comprehensive report, raising diverse issues which helped me immensely to improve my dissertation. I am ever grateful to Professor Anders Holmberg, Professor Noel Burton-Roberts, Professor Maggie Tallerman, Professor Martha Young-Scholten, Professor Karen Corrigan, Professor Steve Walsh, Dr. S. J Hannahs, Dr. Geoffrey Poole, Dr. Joel Wallenberg, Dr. William van der Wurff, Dr. Marie-Claude Tremblay, Dr. Cristina Dye, Dr. Hermann Moisl, Dr. Dawn Knight, Dr. Francis Jones and Mr. Scott Windeatt who taught me during the two year taught component of my PhD program. I gratefully acknowledge the grant awarded to me under the Scholarship Programme of the Higher Education for the Twenty First Century (HETC) Project, Ministry of Higher Education, Sri Lanka, without which I would not have been able to do my PhD. A special word of thanks goes to Professor Lalith Munasinghe, HRD Consultant, and his efficient team for all their assistance. I am also very thankful to Dr. D. M. S. Munasinghe and Dr. M. Alfred who acted as sureties to the bond for my study leave. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles in Sri Lanka and in the UK for their invaluable prayers, encouragement, support, help in all its forms and for just being there always. I am greatly indebted to my wife, Grace, for the many sacrifices she has made for me. Her intuitions in the two languages have helped me analyze various morphosyntactic features of the two languages. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to God for His manifold mercies, not only for giving me this great opportunity in life, but for all He has done to help me finish it successfully. iii iv Table of contents Abstract i Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Table of contents v List of abbreviations ix List of tables xiii List of figures xiv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Research aim and objectives 1 1.2 Language classification 2 1.3 Contact-induced restructuring 6 1.4 Linguistic and areal typology 14 1.5 Languages in contact: Sinhala and Tamil 19 1.6 Methodology 27 Chapter 2 Features related to word order 33 2.1 Preliminaries 33 2.2 Features related to word order: a comparison 34 2.2.1 Order of subject, object, and verb 34 2.2.2 Order of subject and verb 34 2.2.3 Order of object and verb 34 2.2.4 Order of object, oblique, and verb 35 2.2.5 Order of adposition and noun phrase 35 2.2.6 Order of genitive and noun 36 2.2.7 Order of adjective and noun 36 2.2.8 Order of demonstrative and noun 37 2.2.9 Order of numeral and noun 37 2.2.10 Order of relative clause and noun 37 2.2.11 Order of degree word and adjective 38 2.2.12 Position of polar question particles 38 2.2.13 Position of interrogative phrases in content questions 39 2.2.14 Order of adverbial subordinator and clause 39 2.2.15 Relationship between the order of object and verb and the order of adposition and noun phrase 40 2.2.16 Relationship between the order of object and verb and the order of relative clause and noun 40 v 2.2.17 Relationship between the order of object and verb and the order of adjective and noun 41 2.3 Discussion 41 2.3.1 Features related to word order: implications of the comparison 42 2.3.1.1 Other word order issues: numerals, indefinite marker and negative marker 46 2.3.1.2 (In)definiteness 52 2.3.1.3 Prenominal relative clauses 56 2.3.1.4 Correlative clauses 57 2.1.3.5 The Sinhala question particle: a diachronic study 58 2.3.1.6 Interrogatives 60 2.3.1.7 Subordinate clauses 63 2.4 Conclusion 65 Chapter 3 Features related to simple clauses 67 3.1 Preliminaries 67 3.2 Features related to case and agreement: a comparison 68 3.2.1 Alignment of case marking of full noun phrases 68 3.2.2 Alignment of case marking of pronouns 69 3.2.3 Alignment of verbal person marking 69 3.2.4 Expression of pronominal subjects 70 3.2.5 Verbal person marking 71 3.2.6 Third person zero of verbal person marking 71 3.2.7 Order of person markers on the verb 72 3.2.8 Ditransitive constructions: the verb ‘give’ 72 3.3 Features related to valence and voice: a comparison 73 3.3.1 Reciprocal constructions 73 3.3.2 Passive constructions 74 3.3.3 Antipassive constructions 74 3.3.4 Applicative constructions 74 3.3.5 Periphrastic causative constructions 75 3.3.6 Nonperiphrastic causative constructions 76 3.4 Features related to negation and questions: a comparison 76 3.4.1 Negative morphemes 76 3.4.2 Order of negative morpheme and verb 77 3.4.3 Position of negative morpheme with respect to subject, object, and verb 78 3.4.4 Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation 78 vi 3.4.5 Subtypes of asymmetric standard negation 80 3.4.6 Negative indefinite pronouns and predicate negation 81 3.4.7 Polar questions 81 3.5 Features related to predication: a comparison 82 3.5.1 Predicative possession 82 3.5.2 Predicative adjectives 82 3.5.3 Nominal and locational predication 83 3.5.4 Zero copula for predicate nominals 84 3.5.5 Comparative constructions 84 3.6 Discussion 85 3.6.1 Features related to case and agreement: implications of the comparison 85 3.6.1.1 Case system 87 3.6.1.2 Agreement system 95 3.6.2 Features related to valence and voice: implications of the comparison 103 3.6.3 Features related to negation and question: implications of the comparison 107
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna's Middle
    Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna’s Middle Way 1994 Jonah Winters About this Book Any research into a school of thought whose texts are in a foreign language encounters certain difficulties in deciding which words to translate and which ones to leave in the original. It is all the more of an issue when the texts in question are from a language ancient and quite unlike our own. Most of the texts on which this thesis are based were written in two languages: the earliest texts of Buddhism were written in a simplified form of Sanskrit called Pali, and most Indian texts of Madhyamika were written in either classical or “hybrid” Sanskrit. Terms in these two languages are often different but recognizable, e.g. “dhamma” in Pali and “dharma” in Sanskrit. For the sake of coherency, all such terms are given in their Sanskrit form, even when that may entail changing a term when presenting a quote from Pali. Since this thesis is not intended to be a specialized research document for a select audience, terms have been translated whenever possible,even when the subtletiesof the Sanskrit term are lost in translation.In a research paper as limited as this, those subtleties are often almost irrelevant.For example, it is sufficient to translate “dharma” as either “Law” or “elements” without delving into its multiplicity of meanings in Sanskrit. Only four terms have been left consistently untranslated. “Karma” and “nirvana” are now to be found in any English dictionary, and so their translation or italicization is unnecessary. Similarly, “Buddha,” while literally a Sanskrit term meaning “awakened,” is left untranslated and unitalicized due to its titular nature and its familiarity.
    [Show full text]
  • Proposal for Generation Panel for Sinhala Script Label
    Proposal for the Generation Panel for the Sinhala Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root Zone 1 General information Sinhala belongs to the Indo-European language family with its roots deeply associated with Indo-Aryan sub family to which the languages such as Persian and Hindi belong. Although it is not very clear whether people in Sri Lanka spoke a dialect of Prakrit at the time of arrival of Buddhism in the island, there is enough evidence that Sinhala evolved from mixing of Sanskrit, Magadi (the language which was spoken in Magada Province of India where Lord Buddha was born) and local language which was spoken by people of Sri Lanka prior to the arrival of Vijaya, the founder of Sinhala Kingdom. It is also surmised that Sinhala had evolved from an ancient variant of Apabramsa (middle Indic) which is known as ‘Elu’. When tracing history of Elu, it was preceded by Hela or Pali Sihala. Sinhala though has close relationships with Indo Aryan languages which are spoken primarily in the north, north eastern and central India, was very much influenced by Tamil which belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. Though Sinhala is related closely to Indic languages, it also has its own unique characteristics: Sinhala has symbols for two vowels which are not found in any other Indic languages in India: ‘æ’ (ඇ) and ‘æ:’ (ඈ). Sinhala script had evolved from Southern Brahmi script from which almost all the Southern Indic Scripts such as Telugu and Oriya had evolved. Later Sinhala was influenced by Pallava Grantha writing of Southern India.
    [Show full text]
  • GRAMMAR of OLD TAMIL for STUDENTS 1 St Edition Eva Wilden
    GRAMMAR OF OLD TAMIL FOR STUDENTS 1 st Edition Eva Wilden To cite this version: Eva Wilden. GRAMMAR OF OLD TAMIL FOR STUDENTS 1 st Edition. Eva Wilden. Institut français de Pondichéry; École française d’Extrême-Orient, 137, 2018, Collection Indologie. halshs- 01892342v2 HAL Id: halshs-01892342 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01892342v2 Submitted on 24 Jan 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. GRAMMAR OF OLD TAMIL FOR STUDENTS 1st Edition L’Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP), UMIFRE 21 CNRS-MAE, est un établissement à autonomie financière sous la double tutelle du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (MAE) et du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Il est partie intégrante du réseau des 27 centres de recherche de ce Ministère. Avec le Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) à New Delhi, il forme l’USR 3330 du CNRS « Savoirs et Mondes Indiens ». Il remplit des missions de recherche, d’expertise et de formation en Sciences Humaines et Sociales et en Écologie dans le Sud et le Sud- est asiatiques. Il s’intéresse particulièrement aux savoirs et patrimoines culturels indiens (langue et littérature sanskrites, histoire des religions, études tamoules…), aux dynamiques sociales contemporaines, et aux ecosystèmes naturels de l’Inde du Sud.
    [Show full text]
  • Common Spoken Tamil Made Easy
    COMMON SPOKEN TAMIL MADE EASY Third Edition by T. V. ADIKESAVALU Digital Version CHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE VELLORE Adi’s Book. COMMON SPOKEN TAMIL MADE EASY Third Edition by T. V. ADIKESAVALU Digital Version 2007 This book was prepared for the staff and students of Christian Medical College Vellore, for use in the Tamil Study Programme. No part may be reproduced without permission of the General Superintendent. 2 Adi’s Book. CONTENTS FOREWORD. 6 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 7 THIRD EDITION: UPDATE. 8 I. NOTES FOR PRONUNCIATION & KEY FOR ABBREVIATIONS. 9 II. GRAMMAR LESSONS: Lesson No. Page. 1. Greetings and Forms of Address. 10 2. Pronouns, Interrogative and Demonstrative. 12 3. Pronouns, Personal. 15 4. The Verb ‘to be’, implied. 17 5. Cardinal Numbers 1 to 10, and Verbs - introduction. 19 6. Verbs - Positive Imperatives. 21 7. Verbs - Negative Imperatives, Weak & Strong Verbs, & Medials. 23 8. Nouns - forming the plural. 28 9. Nouns and Personal Pronouns - Accusative (Object) case. 30 10. Nouns and Personal Pronouns - Genitive (Possessive) Case. 34 11. Review, (Revision) No.I. 38 12. Verbs - Infinitives. 40 13. Nouns and Personal Pronouns, Dative Case, ‘to’ or ‘for’ & Verbs - Defective. 43 14. Verbs - defective (continued). 47 15. Cardinal Numbers 11 to 1000 & Time. 50 16. Verbs - Present tense, Positive. 54 17. Adjectives and Adverbs. 58 18. Post-Positions. 61 19. Nouns - Locative Case, 'at' or 'in'. 64 20. Post positions, (Continued). 67 21. Verbs - Future Tense, Positive, and Ordinal Numbers. 70 3 Adi’s Book. 22. Verbs - Present and Past, Negative, Page. and Potential Form to express 'may' 75 23.
    [Show full text]
  • Ueber Den Ältesten Arischen Bestandtheil Des Singhalesischen Wortschatzes 399-434 Fgl Bayer
    ZOBODAT - www.zobodat.at Zoologisch-Botanische Datenbank/Zoological-Botanical Database Digitale Literatur/Digital Literature Zeitschrift/Journal: Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologische und historische Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften München Jahr/Year: 1879 Band/Volume: 1879-2 Autor(en)/Author(s): Kuhn Ernst Artikel/Article: Ueber den ältesten arischen Bestandtheil des singhalesischen Wortschatzes 399-434 fgL Bayer. Akademie to Wissenschaften der philosophisch-philologischen und historischen Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften z n M ünchen. Jahrgang 1879. Zweiter Band. X M ü n c h e n . Akademische Buchdructerei von F. Straub. 1879. In Commission bei G. Franz. ; '1 Nachträglich zur Sitzung vom 5. Juli 1879. ｾＧ＠ , f ( . Herr Kuhn trug vor: "Ueber den ältesten arischen Beshndtheil des s ingha les ischen ·Worts ch atze s." [Vorläufiger Abriss einer später in erweiterter Form zu veröffentlichenuen Abhandlung.] Von den hervorragenderen und literarisch ausgebillle- teren Sprachen Indiens ist es die singhalesische allein, der eine feste SteUung innerhalb eines der grösseren Sprach- stämme noch nicht mit Sicherheit angewiesen werden konnte. Während Uask sie dem dravilJischen Stamme ohne weitere ￟･ｾｲｮ､ｵｮｧ＠ zuzählt (Singalesisk Skriftlrere. Vorrede p. 1), F. Müller in dem linguistischen Theile ues Novarawerkes p. 203 eine entfernte verwandtschaftliche Beziehung zu den DravitJa-Idiomen anzunehmen geneigt ist und in der All- gemeinen Ethnographie i p. 466 noch entschiedener den Grundstock des Singhalesischen als dravilJisch bezeichnet, Haas (ZDMG. 30, p. 668) ｾ･ｮｩｧｳｴ･ｮｳ＠ einen Einfluss des Tamulischen auf die Ausbildung der Sprache behauptet, wird eine directe Verwandtschaft zwischen Tamulisch und Singhalesisch von einem Kenner wie Caldwell (Cornp. Gramm.\! p. 111 der Einleitung) kurz in Abrede gestellt.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Oldest Aryan Element of the Sinhalese Vocabulary.1 2
    [Reprinted from the “ Indian Antiquary 4 <Z 2$r / < 2831 /7>'V 'C~~Z- L ^y ^ 7 'Y-> <8 spy 1 ON THE OLDEST ARYAN ELEMENT OP THE SINHALESE VOCABULARY. BY PROFESSOR E. KUHN. TRANSLATED BY DONALD FERGUSON. * 61600 ON THE OLDEST ARYAN ELEMENT OF THE SINHALESE VOCABULARY.1 2 Among the more prominent languages of Tndin. which have had a literary culture, the Sinhalese is the only one to which it has not yet been possible to assign a fixed place in one of the great families of language. - While Rask, without adducing any reasons, assigns it a place in the Dravidian family (Singalesisk Skriftlcere, Preface, p. 1), and F. Muller in the linguistic portion of the work of the Novara, p. 203, is inclined to assume a remote family relationship to the Dravidian idioms, and in the Allgemeine Ethnogr aphie* p. 466, even more decidedly indicates the basis of the Sinha¬ lese as Dravidian, and Haas (Z. d. M. G. 30, p. 668) maintains at least an influence by the Tamil on the development of the language, any direct relation between Tamil and Sinhalese is brusquely set aside by such a scholar as Caldwell (Comp. Gramm. (2d. ed.) p. Ill of the Preface). More recently the opinion that Sinhalese deserves a place among the Aryan dialects is that which has received 1 Translated from the Munich Sitzungsberichte der philo s.-philol. hist. Classe der lc. Akademie der Wis- &enschaften, 1879, vol. II, pt. iii, pp. 399-434. 2 Cf. the same writer in the Transactions of the Philological Society, 1875-6, Part i, p.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages
    World Classical Tamil Conference- June 2010 51 A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF THE DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES Rt. Rev. R.Caldwell * Rev. Caldwell's Comparative Grammar is based on four decades of his deep study and research on the Dravidian languages. He observes that Tamil language contains a common repository of Dravidian forms and roots. His prefatory note to his voluminous work is reproduced here. Preface to the Second Edition It is now nearly nineteen years since the first edition of this book was published, and a second edition ought to have appeared long ere this. The first edition was, soon exhausted, and the desirableness of bringing out a second edition was often suggested to me. But as the book was a first attempt in a new field of research and necessarily very imperfect, I could not bring myself to allow a second edition to appear without a thorough revision. It was evident, however, that the preparation of a thoroughly revised edition, with the addition of new matter wherever it seemed to be necessary, would entail upon me more labour than I was likely for a long time to be able to undertake. .The duties devolving upon me in India left me very little leisure for extraneous work, and the exhaustion arising from long residence in a tropical climate left me very little surplus strength. For eleven years, in addition to my other duties, I took part in the Revision of the Tamil Bible, and after that great work had come to. an end, it fell to my lot to take part for one year more in the Revision of the Tamil Book of, * Source: A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages , Rt.Rev.
    [Show full text]
  • Comparison Between the Grammar of Greek Sapphic and Tamil Seppal Songs
    Athens Journal of Philology - Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2020 – Pages 147-170 Comparison between the Grammar of Greek Sapphic and Tamil Seppal Songs By D Pugazhendhi* Sapphic stanza is a peculiar poetic form in Greek literary world. It gives more important to the structure. This form was tried in many languages; but this form was grammatically explained only at the later period. Resemblance with this format is also seen in Tamil literary world, and the grammar book also belongs to the same period as that of Sapphic stanza. So the grammar that is explained in this Tamil grammar book is compared with the grammar of Sapphic stanza. The comparison is made in different perspectives such as the letter count, light and heavy syllables, formats of the syllable, sequences between two syllables, syllable formation in a line, the length of each line and the lyric. It highlights that the Greek Sapphic stanza seems to resemble one type of seppal songs which are mentioned in the grammar book. Comparing the Greek literature with the grammar book of same era will lead to better understanding and clarify the concepts that were misunderstood and spread by the later critics. Keywords: comparison, grammar, Sapphic, seppal, structure. Introduction The Greek literature includes prose, poetry and dramas. In the Greek field of poetry comprises of various form of poems among which the Sappic stanza stands unique from others in its forms. This Sapphic stanza originated from the Greek poetess Sappho of Lesbos who lived sometime around 630 BC. It was written in vernacular form of Greek, the Lesbian-Aeolic dialect.
    [Show full text]
  • B E Aai 3Efi
    B E aai 3Efi rLBOROUQH-8 SELF-TAUGHT series [arT\U Grammar Self-Taught. (In Tamil and Roman Charaotebs.) Second Edition BY Don M. de ZILVA WICKREMASFNQHE, io Epigraphist the Ceylon Governvtent ; Librarian and Assisiatit Keeper of the Indian Institute^ Oxford. Author of " " Tamil Self-Taught," and Sinhalese Self-Taught."" Companion Volume; "Tamil Self-Taught. *» London : MARLBOROUGH & Co., 51, Old Bailey, E.G. 4. tAlt Rights Reserved.] TO Te^ Eev. G. U. pope, m.a., d.d., I DEDICATE THESE PAGES AS A TOKEN OF SINCERE GRATITUDE FOR ASSISTANCE RECEIVED IN MY TAMIL AND TELUGU STUDIES. M. DE Z. WiCKREMASINGHE. Pi Li^c;-^ PREFACE. )°l^h The present work is chiefly intended for the use of those who wish to acquire a knowledge of the grammar of colloquial Tamil within a comparatively short time, either Tor practical purposes or as the preliminary to a thorough study of the language. Particularly bearing in mind students who work without a teacher, I have devoted some pages wholly to the subject of pronunciation, and have given the transliteration of all the Tamil words occurring in the grammar, side by side with the native character. This will enable the beginner gradually to acquire the Tamil character as he proceeds with the study of the grammar itself, thereby avoiding a needless waste of time and trouble. The chapter on euphonic changes will specially appeal to those who ha\e a philological turn of mind ; for this gives the key to the solution of many difficulties that beset an ordinary student in the way of analysing Tamil words and sentences and of mastering their relationship to one another.
    [Show full text]
  • Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India
    Language of the Snakes Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India Andrew Ollett Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 ©2015 Andrew Ollett All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Language of the Snakes Andrew Ollett Language of the Snakes is a biography of Prakrit, one of premodern India’s most important and most neglected literary languages. Prakrit was the language of a literary tradition that flourished om roughly the 1st to the 12th century . During this period, it served as a counterpart to Sanskrit, the preeminent language of literature and learning in India. Together, Sanskrit and Prakrit were the foundation for an enduring “language order” that governed the way that people thought of and used language. Language of the Snakes traces the history of this language order through the historical articulations of Prakrit, which are set out here for the first time: its invention and cultivation among the royal courts of central India around the 1st century , its representation in classical Sanskrit and Prakrit texts, the ways it is made into an object of systematic knowledge, and ultimately its displacement om the language practices of literature. Prakrit is shown to have played a critical role in the establishment of the cultural-political formation now called the “Sanskrit cosmopolis,” as shown through a genealogy of its two key practices, courtly literature (kāvya-) and royal eulogy (praśasti-). It played a similarly critical role in the emergence of vernacular textuality, as it provided a model for language practices that diverged om Sanskrit but nevertheless possessed an identity and regularity of their own.
    [Show full text]
  • Art. III.— Notes on the Sinhalese Language No. 1.— on The
    35 ART. III.—Notes on the Sinhalese Language. No. 1.—On the Formation of the Plural of Neuter Nouns. By R. C. CHILDERS, late of the Ceylon Civil Service. THE Sinhalese is one of the Aryan vernaculars of India, and is spoken by the descendants of a people who migrated from Magadha to Ceylon at a very remote period. The tradition recorded in Mahavansa is that Ceylon was colonised, by a prince of Lala, a district of Magadha, who landed in the island with seven hundred followers on the day of Gautama Buddha's death. Accepting this tradition, and comparing it with the tradition that Pali was a Magadha dialect, we should expect to find a close resemblance between Pali and Sinhalese. And such in fact is the case. With a few exceptions, Sinhalese follows Pali so closely that at first sight one might feel inclined to say that the former was derived from the latter. As a general rule, where Pali differs from the other Prakrits, the Sinhalese agrees with it; and this is the case not only with words but with gramma- tical forms.1 And there are several words not found in the other Prakrits or Sanskrit which are found in both Pali and Sinhalese. I have alluded to exceptions, and these deserve full consideration; but they are such as may be explained by the circumstance, to which the Buddhist traditions clearly point, that the language of Buddha's sermons was the dialect of one district of Magadha, and the language spoken by the colonisers of Ceylon that of another district.
    [Show full text]
  • English to Tamil Letter Translation
    English To Tamil Letter Translation Brian is nepotistic: she whisper equanimously and harmonise her mutton-head. Modernist and touchier Rory telegraphs his bontebok espy unbuckle tautly. Selby manumits eerily. We have a recognized university, to english words properly even in return, which also predict if this homeland, with a video lectures spread across language Learn Tamil MONTHS OF use YEAR Match is following English. Try and letters combined together form a passion for a word conversion and. English to Tamil translation Tamil to English translation. ENGLISH TO TAMIL MACHINE TRANSLATION SYSTEM. Tamil Language Trying to Keep Up interpret the Times The World. Tamil English translation online dictionaries and resources. The Tamil alphabet has 12 vowels 1 consonants 12 vowels by 1 consonants 1 unique character totalling 247 letters Letter Name IPA Transliterated as. In indian languages for letter standing next generation of different. Use several free failure to vigor the definition of chest in Tamil and enable the definition of who in English Also outweigh the translation in Tamil or translation in English. The time or script known as long as it also offers a new file, such limits of expertise both personal relationships. Online English to Tamil Translation Typing in Unicode Powered by Google Transliteration The tool produces Unicode text which makes it very easy with post on. Cognitive Services Translator supports the following languages for chap to. The work haven been translated into 'acceptable' Tamil but in the process a lost. Easy work usually derive a lot of mediocre and English writing. Higher the translation rate the example a translation from English to Japanese will cost.
    [Show full text]