Natural death, or murder??
Sinhala is a dying language; not due to ageing, nor due to natural causes, nor due to natural disasters. It is being killed off - murdered wilfully, while many look on, without realising, blind to the facts.
By whom? There is much concern and sadness, as well as anger towards what is happening in Sri Lanka at the present moment. There is a call to patriotism to save the nation, as well as the language.
From whom? The implication is the LTTE.
Is that the whole truth? Sinhala is being killed off by none other than the Sinhalese themselves. The fact that this not is being written in English is clear proof of that fact!
Does that mean that the expatriate Sri Lankans are to blame?
The decay has been going on for centuries. The language has forever being "softened" for easier use, by the "common" man, for the common man. The soft, musical, delicate, soothing language form that we all cherish and value is a corrupted version of some previous high brow, high level version of it, in use among the contemporary intelligentsia.
What is happening now? What do we witness now? A gradual transformation of the language - propelled towards another "pidgin" language we hear sometimes - spoken among tiny islanders all over the world. Not that Sri Lanka is big, as islands go, by the way.
Sinhala is not the preferred language of the Nation, although officially it is. Has anyone ever witnessed Sinhalese greeting each other in Sinhala?
Perhaps a simple survey could get us some numbers. No, not on a national scale, or in such grand projects. Something one can do in private. The results to be kept secret by you. This is how I suggest it be done:
Note the number of times you speak in Sinhala.
You can make this exercise more sophisticated if you introduce such factors as the depth of vocabulary, the percentage of English in the dialogue etc.
Note the number of times you write in Sinhala.
You can make this exercise more sophisticated if you introduce such factors as the depth of vocabulary, the percentage of English in the text etc.
Do it at work, at home, among friends, strangers, shopping, or whatever other occasion you wish to cover.
What do you think you will discover?
The interaction of Sinhala and technology...
Or, the lack of it. There had been many voices in favour of 'reviewing' the alphabet. For example, to iron out the complications raised by the twin letters which represent the sound 'N'. Also, the 'L' sound. How can the language survive in the IT age?
Sinhala numerical system?
Did you know there had been a Sinhala numeral system? I keep hearing of such a system and I am looking for any information on it. There must have been one: how did the citizens of pre-European era record dates?