THE

SIDATH-SANGERA WE.

නමව්මිනිසරණ [1]

Bow ye to the feet of Budha.

HAVING made my heart a residence* for him who knew the end of all things, I have composed † the Sidathsangerawe, [2] in order that the learner may be instructed.

The formation of all the parts of speech and the application of words, are comformable to the usage of clever men, which it is therefore necessary to follow in all the divisions of Grammar-e, we, E, &c. &c. § This must moreover be attended to throughout the whole of this work. Grammar may be divided into the 20 following elements: viz. 11. අහම් 16. අඩු

1.

සන්

6.

පියවී

8. කිරිය

13.

දෙර

5. සමස්

10. අදෙස්

15.

වැඩි

20. අවිදුමන්.

[1] See Appendix C.

*The word

E∞ is the Elu form of the Pali expression

9, which means "Scented house "; and is generally used to signify the house or court of Budha: "end of all things" is an expression for perfection. + Compose is here rendered 'have composed.'

[2] See Introduction.

This word is explained the ignorant by some commentators.

The grammarian repeats this advice more than once; and indeed he seems to have been well aware that we must all yield to "custom". "whose arbitrary sway...words and the forms of language must obey." “Usus, quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi."— Horace.

A

CHAPTER I.

1. e, Sign (which may be rendered Orthography) is that which both by name and sign teaches or points out vowels, consonants, &c. In the practical Singhalese there are 5 short vowels, called ; and 5 long vowels, called ou; and 20 consonants. The 10 vowels are ♂ Ċ Cr⇓

ඒ ඔ& ඕ; and the 20 consonants are ක ග ජ ට ධණ ත

ඳ ප ප බ ම ය ୪ ල a es හ උ and o. [3]

The five long vowels and the last consonant o are essentially necessary for the utterance of the Singhalese; e. g. &, long life; & as in &É, swing; e as in "é, spring (of water); ♣ as in cardamoon (alpinia granam paradisi); and as in

, to cram. They are also necessary to be treated of, since they are incorporated with the consonants, e. g. p in ≈ɔ, branches; & in 2, lion; in, broth; in, shadow; and in 3, ear. The last consonant o is also necessary in the Singhalese, because in poetry and in prose it is sounded both fully and imperfectly. [4] e. g.

තමා වදනය පොමින් නොඉකතයි හැගේ:*

He thought that by reason of (his) superiority his word would not be disregarded.

නරනිඳුහුඉංගෙන් සෙමෙනද නැසි පැසැහී.

She came slowly according to the king's wish, and hid herself on one side.

[3] See Appendix C.

[4] It seems that the grammarian has entered into a consideration of the necessity for the long vowels being treated of as a part of the Singhalese alphabet, because certain Philologers had disputed the propriety of their being considered as separate characters; since they are produced by the alteration of the five short vowels. The same may be said of the o,vide Appendix C.

This is a selection from the book called, which is either scarce, or altogether lost. We have rendered the above into English with some difficulty, owing to the absence of the entire verse.

This example is extracted from the Kawoo'siloomine.-Vide Introduction,

Also or, a kind of earth. Eoqu, a shrub (justicia adhatoda)—Note that the above are examples of o being fully sounded. The following are, however, some of the words, where it has an imperfect sound. !5] e. g.

2.

óa Dano "-paint, bees, ointment.

, (which may be rendered Permutation-is the contracting of two syllables into one; or rather, the blending of the last letter of the first syllable or word with the first letter of the second syllable or word. Thus eçe, moon-like, සඳළුව්, becomes සඳෙව්; මහඋර, great-rampart, becomes මොහොර. 3. E, Gender, is a distinction (in usage) of objects by exhibiting their difference; as , this, masculine; and 3, this, feminine. feminine.

e. g., world, masculine; 8, lightning,

4. 82, Declension, is the change which nouns undergo by means of inflexions, in order to render them in different ways; as, prosperity, (from a changed into the 1st case 3, which, by another process that will hereafter be explained, becomes )—Also e, in society, is the locative case by changing es into සෙබෙහි.

8, and the last into

5. c, Combination. By it two or more words are combined together, and blended into one compound word or noun; e. g. Sod, king, is a term compounded of 3, earth, and e, nourisher; Ege a term for woman, produced by the combination of the words, blue, cd, Lotus, and que, eyes.

6. 88, Root, is the original state whence a word undergoes change. There are two kinds of roots, viz. 988, verbal roots, and 488, roots of nouns. † Verbal roots are the

[5] See Appendix C.

This is differently written in some MSS. thus ; which means extracted liquors, such as toddy.

Roots of nouns are declinable words, in their primary, bare forms, destitute of all case terminations.

very essence from whence all words are or may be derived ; and the roots of nouns are those which are rendered into various cases. Each of these may be subdivided into three classes: 1st, e, native Singhalese roots; 2nd, n, which are alike in the Elu and other languages, such as the Sanscrit, Pali, &c.; and 3rd, 20, words derived from the Sanscrit, Pali, &c. into the Singhalese, but rendered different from the original, in order to adapt them to the Singhalese. 1. EXAMPLES †

7.

3. දන win; නැගී mount ; සමර remind; කුළුර receive.

2.

ඹ

2. EXAMPLES

bay or harbour; (Colombo) 6 new cloth.

ගජ elephant; කර arm; කිරණ ray.

3. අත් hands;රුක් trees; සමබහදුරු Budha; ඇදුරු teacher; කන් ears: ඇඹුල් sour.

es, Inflection, is the result produced by adding certain particles to verbal roots (e. g. Se was-glad is produced

from and ; necessary-to-be-done from 6 and ), තුස or to roots of nouns (e. g. 8 citi-zen from

in order to render them into different parts of speech..

and *),

8. 8, Verb, is that which is neither a substantive, nor expresses a quality (an adjective); but which, being a root and associated with a substantive, exists by reason of the six

-the means by which an act is performed,' ‡ e. g. §Â(he) won, in the past tense and the third person singular; @8

By is meant, words which are found in the Singhalese similar to Pali or Sanscrit terms of the same signification, but which cannot be said to have been derived from the latter.

The first three examples illustrate the three classes of verbal roots; and the following three have reference to the roots of nouns.

Vide infra. This definition may be freely rendered thus: A verb is a word which expresses a state or act of some person, whether the third, second, or first, and at a time either the past, present, or future.

(thou) dwellest, in the present tense and the second person singular; ∞ (I) shall live, in the future tense and the first person.

9. 3, Elision, is the omission, or the lopping of letters; e. g. q,infinite, becomes by elision; ę, subking, becomes oç; 3, Mahakasoop, (a name of a priest) becomes මහසුප්; රජදූ, princess, becomes රදූ; බාහු, arm, becomes ; and e, feet, becomes ɔ.

10.

is the substitution of one sound or letter in place of another; e. g. 8, Seripooth, (a name of a priest) may be written 8; 4, ill, may be written වසබ, bull, වැගෑප්.

; and

11. . Where a letter is added between two words without taking away any of the former sounds (except so far as they are modified by the alteration), this addition is called

,

; e. g.

by the above process becomes (6) c, vacuum; on likewise becomes ou (E) form-and-without-form. 12. oo is that process by which the latter of two letters is omitted, and the former is substituted in place of

The word which we have rendered elision, is equivalent to the English word of the same sound, lop to chop short'; and answers (as will be perceived from the examples in the text) to 1st, Aphærèsis, in Greek, by taking away one or more letters from the beginning of a word, for ; secondly, Syncope, by taking away one or letters from the body of a word, as 6 for ; and thirdly, Apocòpe, by taking away one or more letters from the end of a word, as for පාද.

as

more

This is equivalent to the Latin augmentatio; in English Grammars of the Greek language written augment, which indeed may be adopted as the translation of agam. But there is yet a better term Epenthesis, e. g. in Latin se-itio, re-emo and re-eo become by the insertion of d in the middle'seditio', 'redemo', and 'redeo'. Thus - becomes 3 (6) c®.

The letters here spoken of are the two letters of two words which immediately join each other; as in and, the and are the two letters from the two words, which, when written together, join each other. By omitting the sound, and by substituting in its place the original form of the first letter, (which is the simple ) we

obtain, weaving.