Vedda language
Vedda | |
---|---|
Native to | Sinhalese - unknown language creole
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ved |
Glottolog | vedd1240 |
ELP | Veddah |
Vedda is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Vedda is an endangered language that is used by the indigenous
who do not strictly identify as Veddas also use words from the Vedda language in part for communication during hunting and/or for religious chants, throughout the island.When a systematic field study was conducted in 1959, the language was confined to the older generation of Veddas from
The parent Vedda language(s) is of unknown linguistic origins, while Sinhalese is part of the
History
It is unknown which languages were spoken in Sri Lanka before it was settled by
The earliest account of Vedda was written by Ryklof Van Goens (1663–1675), who served as a Director General of the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka. He wrote that the Veddas' language was much closer to Sinhalese than to Tamil.[10] Robert Knox, an Englishman held captive by a Kandyan king, wrote in 1681 that the wild and settled Veddas spoke the language of the Sinhalese people. The Portuguese friar Fernão de Queiroz, who wrote a nuanced description of Vedda in 1686, reported that the language was not mutually intelligible with other native languages.[11] Robert Percival wrote in 1803 that the Veddas, although seemingly speaking a broken dialect of Sinhalese, amongst themselves spoke a language that was known only to them.[12] But John Davies in 1831 wrote that the Veddas spoke a language that was understood by the Sinhalese except for a few words. These discrepancies in observations were clarified by Charles Pridham, who wrote in 1848 that the Veddas knew a form of Sinhalese that they were able to use in talking to outsiders, but to themselves they spoke in a language that, although influenced by Sinhalese and Tamil, was understood only by them.[13]
The first systematic attempt at studying the Vedda language was undertaken by Hugh Neville, an English civil servant in
Classification
Dialect, creole or independent language
The Vedda community or the indigenous population of Sri Lanka is said to have inhabited the island prior to the arrival of the Aryans in the 5th century B.C. and after the collapse of the dry zone civilization in the 15th century, they have extended their settlements once more in the North Central, Uva and Eastern regions. However, with the entering of the colonization schemes to the island after the 19th century, the Vedda population has shrunk to the Vedi rata or Maha vedi rata.[19] Subsequently, the Vedda language was subjected to hybridisation depending on the geographical locality of the community. For instance, the language of the Veddas[20] living in the North Central and Uva regions was affected by Sinhala, while the language of the coastal Veddas in the East was influenced by the Tamil language. However, there are still many arguments regarding the origin of the Vedda language. Ariesen Ahubudu calls the Vedda language a "dialect of Sinhala", saying that it is a creole language variety derived from Sinhala. According to him, "Veddas belong to the post Vijayan period and they use a language which has its origins in the Sinhala language."[21] He further explains this with an etymological explanation of the term vadi, that evolved from dava, meaning 'forest, timber'. This became davi, meaning 'those who live in the forest', which later transformed into vadi.
Creole based on Sinhalese
The language contact that might have occurred between the Aryan immigrants and the aboriginal inhabitants could have led either to a language shift or to the crystallization of a new language through the creation of a pidgin.[22] The first instance could have been in effect in relation to the members of the Vedda community who were absorbed into the new settlements, while in the second instance the occasional contact of the Veddas with the new settlers would have resulted in the crystallization of a new language instead of the original Vedda language. The term creole[23] refers to a linguistic medium which has crystallized in a situation of language contact and the process of this crystallization begins as a pidgin.[22] A pidgin[23] is spoken natively by an entire speech community, whose ancestors have been geographically displaced through which a rupture is created in their relationship with their original language. Such situations were often the consequences of slavery and trade that occurred from the 17th to the 19th centuries owing to the process of colonization. As far as the Vedda community is concerned, although the features of a creole are visible in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon, a number of distinctions have been identified between the Vedda language and the classic creolization[22] which occurred during the colonial period. Here it is also important to acknowledge the existence of many issues in relation to the process of creolization that remain unresolved in the domain of linguistics. Therefore, the classification of the Vedda language either as a dialect or as a creole becomes a difficult task, although it is clear that in the current context the Vedda language is not an independent language of its own. However based on recent studies conducted on the Vedda community, it has been revealed that the Vedda language is on the verge of facing extinction since the younger generation is keen on using Sinhala or Tamil as their first language, being influenced by the dominant language of the region of residence due to an array of reasons including fragmentation of settlements, economic policies, national education structure and political factors of the country.[20]
Grammar
In Sinhalese, indicative sentences are negated by adding a negative particle to the emphatic form of the verb, whereas in Vedda, the negative particle is added to the infinitive. In Sinhalese, all indicative sentences whether negative or affirmative, exhibit two tenses – past and non past, but in Vedda a three-term tense system is used in affirmative sentences, but not in negative. Sinhalese pronouns have number distinction, but Vedda does not have number distinction. The Vedda verbal and nominal inflexions are similar to Sinhalese but are not identical. Vedda also exhibits a gender classification in inanimate and animate nouns.[3]
Phonology
Labial | Dental/ | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n
|
ɲ | ŋ | |||
Stop
|
voiceless | p | t
|
ʈ | c | k | |
voiced | b | d
|
ɖ | ɟ | ɡ | ||
prenasalised | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶯɖ | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ||
Fricative
|
s | ʃ | h | ||||
Trill | r
|
||||||
Approximant
|
ʋ | l
|
j |
Front | Central | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
short | long | short | long | ||
Close | i | iː | u | uː | |
Mid | e | eː | ə | o | oː |
Open | æ | æː | a | aː |
Although in phonemic inventory Vedda is very similar to Sinhalese, in phonotactics it is very dissimilar to Sinhalese. The usage of palatal plosives ([c] and [ɟ]) is very high in Vedda. Some comparisons:[26]
English | Sinhalese | Vedda |
---|---|---|
earlier | issara | iccara |
This effect is heightened by the addition of inanimate suffixes such as pojja, gejja or raacca. These suffixes are used in tandem with borrowings from Sinhalese.[26]
English | Sinhalese | Vedda |
---|---|---|
weight | bara | barapojja |
eye | asa | ajjejja |
head | isa | ijjejja |
water | watura/diya | diyaracca |
These transformations are very similar to what is seen in other Creole languages like
Morphology
Formerly distinct Vedda nouns have two types of suffixes, one for animate and another for inanimate.
Animate nouns
The animate suffixes are –atto for personal pronouns and –laatto for all other animate nouns and –pojja and –raaccaa for personified nouns. Examples are
- deyyalaato ('god')
- pannilaatto ('worm')
- meeatto ('I' or 'we')
- irapojja ('sun')
- giniraaccaa ('fire')
These suffixes are also used in singular and plural forms based on the verbal and non-verbal context.
- botakandaa nam puccakaduvaa huura meeatto ('Sir, I killed the elephant though')
- meeattanne kiriamilaatto kalaapojjen mangaccana kota eeattanne badapojje kakulek randaala indatibaala tibenava ('When our great-grandmother was walking in the forest there was a child conceived in that one's womb.')
The dependence on verbal (and non-verbal) context for semantic specification, which is accomplished by inflectional devices by natural languages is an indication of a contact language.
Certain words that appear to be from original Vedda language do not have these suffixes; also, animate nouns also have gender distinctions, with small animals treated as feminine (i marker) and larger ones masculine (a marker).
- botakanda ('elephant')
- kankunaa ('deer')
- karia ('bear')
- hatera ('bear')
- okma ('buffalo')
- kandaarni ('bee')
- mundi ('monitor lizard')
- potti ('bee')
- makini ('spider')
- ikini ('louse')[3]
Inanimate nouns
Inanimate nouns use suffixes such as –rukula and –danda with nouns denoting body parts and other suffixes such as -pojja, -tana, and -gejja. Suffixes are used when the words are borrowed from Sinhalese.
- ayrukula ('eye')
- ugurudanda ('throat')
- veedipojja ('street')
- kirigejja ('coconut')
- kavitana ('verse')
- giniracca ('fire')[29]
There are number of forms that are from the original Vedda language that lack suffixes such as
- galrakki ('axe')
- caalava ('pot')
- bucca ('bush')[3]
Vedda inanimate nouns are formed by borrowing Sinhalese adjectives and adding a suffix. Kavi is the Sinhalese adjective for the noun Kaviya, whereas the Vedda noun is kavi-tana, where tana is a suffix.
Pronouns
Examples of pronouns are meeatto ('I'), topan ('you'), eyaba ('there'), koyba ('where?'). Compared to Sinhalese, which requires five forms to address people based on status, Vedda uses one (topan) irrespective of status. These pronouns are also used in both singular and plural denotations.
Sinhalese singular | Sinhalese plural | Vedda singular/plural[30][31] |
---|---|---|
obavahanse | obavahanselaa | topan |
ohe | ohelaa | topan |
tamuse | tamuselaa | topan |
oya | oyalaa | topan |
umba | umbala | topan |
tho | thopi | topan |
Numerals
These are found in definite and indefinite forms, for example ekama 'one' (def.) and ekamak 'once' (indef.) They count ekamay, dekamay and tunamay. Vedda also reduces the number formations found in Sinhalese.
English | Sinhalese | Vedda[32] |
---|---|---|
two persons | dennek | dekamak |
two things | dekak | dekamak |
twice | deparak | dekamak |
Negation
Another example of simplification in Vedda is the minimisation of negative meanings found in Sinhalese:[33]
English | Sinhalese | Vedda |
---|---|---|
no | naa | koduy |
don't | epaa | koduy |
can't | baa | koduy |
not | nemee | koduy |
if not | nattaN | koduy |
unable | bari | koduy |
Lexicon
Many Vedda words are directly borrowed from Sinhalese or Tamil via Sinhalese while maintaining words that are not derivable from Sinhalese or its cognate languages from the Indo-Aryan language group. Vedda also exhibits a propensity for paraphrases and it coins words from its limited lexical stock rather than borrowing words from other languages including Sinhalese. For example:[34]
Sinhalese | Vedda | English |
---|---|---|
nava | maadiyanganalle dandDukacca ('vehicle of the ocean') | ship |
vassa | uDatanin mandovena diyaracca ('water falling from above') | rain |
tuvakkuva (loan from Turkish tüfek, "rifle") | puccakazDana yamake ('shooting thing') | gun |
upadinava | baDapojjen mangaccanvaa ('come from the belly') | to be born |
padura | vaterena yamake ('sleeping thing') | bed |
pansala (loan from English) | kurukurugaccana ulpojja ('spike making kuru-kuru sound') | pencil |
Archaic terms
Vedda maintains in its lexicon archaic Sinhalese words that are no longer in daily usage. These archaic words are attested from classical Sinhalese prose from the 10th century until the 13th century, the purported period of close contact between the original Vedda language(s) and Old Sinhala leading to the development of the creole. Some examples are
- devla in Vedda means 'sky', but in a 10th-century Sinhalese exegetical work called Dhampia Atuva Getapadaya, it is used in the meaning of 'cloud'.
- diyamaccca in Vedda meaning 'fish' is similar to diyamas found in a 10th-century monastic work called Sikhavalanda.
- manda in Vedda means 'near' or 'with'. This word is attested in the 12th-century eulogy called Butsarana.
- koomantana meaning 'wearing apparel' is similar to the Sinhalese word konama found in the 13th century work Ummagga Jatakaya; alternatively komanam in Tamil is a 'loincloth', a cloth worn by early Veddas.[35]
According to research at the turn of the 20th century by British anthropologists Charles and Brenda Seligman, the use of archaic Sinhalese words in Vedda may have arisen from the need to communicate freely in the presence of Sinhalese speakers without being understood. They claimed that this need encouraged the development of a code internal to the Vedda language that included archaic Sinhalese words (as well as mispronounced and invented words) in order to intentionally obfuscate meaning.[36]
Substratum influence in Sinhalese
According to Geiger and Gair, Sinhalese language has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of parent stock of the Vedda language.[37] Sinhalese has many words that are only found in Sinhalese or it is shared between Sinhalese and Vedda and cannot be etymologically derived from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Common examples are kola in Sinhalese and Vedda for 'leaf' (although others suggest a Dravidian origin for this word.[38][39][40]), dola in Sinhalese for 'pig' and 'offering' in Vedda. Other common words are rera for 'wild duck' and gala for 'stones' in toponyms found throughout the island (although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin).[41][42][43] There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhalese such as oluva for 'head', kakula for 'leg', bella for 'neck' and kalava for 'thighs' that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka.[44] The author of the oldest Sinhalese grammar, Sidatsangarava, written in the 13th century has recognized a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhalese. It lists naramba ('to see') and kolamba ('ford' or 'harbour') as belonging to an indigenous source. Kolamba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo.[45][46]
See also
- Vedda
- Balangoda Man
- Fa Hien Cave
- Indo-Portuguese creole
- Ceylon Portuguese creole
- Lists of endangered languages
- List of endangered languages in Asia
Notes
- bilingualin Vedda and Tamil, but that is no longer the case.
- ^ In the late 1800s, Veddas of Anuradhapura did not identify themselves as Veddas to Parker and other British ethnologists. They self identified themselves as Vanniyas or people of the forest. But to James Brow an anthropologists who studied them in the 1970s they readily identified themselves as Veddas. Parker recorded number of hunting terms used by the Vanniyas that were similar to what the Veddas of Bintanne region used.
References
- ^ Vedda language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2017-12-25.
- ^ a b c d Van Driem 2002, p. 229–230
- ^ "Vedda". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
- ^ "வேடன் | அகராதி". Tamil Dictionary. University of Madras. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
- ^ Boyle 2004, p. [page needed].
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 217
- ^ a b Van Driem 2002, p. 242
- ^ International Labour Office 1953, p. 190
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 218
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 222
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 219
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 223
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 225
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 226
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 227
- ^ Van Driem 2002, pp. 227–228
- ^ Samarasinghe 1990, p. 73
- ^ Premakumara, De Silva (2011). "Struggle for Survival: Case of Veddas Culture in Sri Lanka". SAARC Culture. 2. Colombo: SAARC Cultural Centre: 127–174.
- ^ a b De Silva & Punchihewa 2011.
- ^ "Vedda language - A regional dialect of Sinhala". WWW Virtual Library. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
- ^ a b c Dharmadasa 1974.
- ^ a b Holm 2000, p. [page needed].
- ^ Dharmadasa 1974, p. 96
- ^ a b Weerasekara, R.A.D. Priyanka (August 2020). "The Linguistic Study of the Contemporary Context of Vedda Language with Special Reference to Dambana, Sri Lanka". International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. 4 (8): 737–741.
- ^ a b Samarasinghe 1990, p. 87
- ^ Dharmadasa 1974, p. 81
- ^ Dharmadasa 1974, p. 82
- ^ Samarasinghe 1990, p. 88
- ^ Samarasinghe 1990, p. 89
- ^ Samarasinghe 1990, p. 94
- ^ Samarasinghe 1990, p. 92
- ^ Dharmadasa 1974, p. 88
- ^ Samarasinghe 1990, p. 96
- ^ Dharmadasa 1974, pp. 92–93
- ^ Seligman & Seligman 1911, pp. 384–385.
- ^ Gair 1998, p. 4
- ^ M.H. Peter Silva, Influence of Dravida on Sinhalese, University of Oxford. Faculty of Oriental Studies 1961, Thesis (D.Phil.) p. 152
- ^ University of Madras Tamil Lexicon, "குழை kuḻai".
- ^ TamilNet, Know the Etymology: 334, Place Name of the Day: 23 March 2014, "Kola-munna, Anguna-kola-pelessa".
- ^ "kal (kaṟ-, kaṉ-)". A Dravidian Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on Feb 2, 2022.
- doi:10.2307/290412.
- ^ Van Driem 2002, p. 230
- ^ Indrapala 2007, p. 45
- ^ Indrapala 2007, p. 70
- ^ Gair 1998, p. 5
Cited literature
- Boyle, Richard (2004). Knox's Words: A Study of the Words of Sri Lankan Origin Or Association First Used in English Literature by Robert Knox and Recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary. Visidunu Publication. ISBN 9789559170679.
- De Silva, Premakumara; Punchihewa, Asitha (August 2011). "Socio- Anthropological Research Project on Vedda Community in Sri Lanka". Retrieved 2019-04-10.
- Holm, John A. (2000). An introduction to pidgin and creoles. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 56409399.
- Indrapala, Karthigesu (2007). The evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils in Sri Lanka C. 300 BCE to C. 1200 CE. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa. ISBN 978-955-1266-72-1.
- International Labour Office (1953). Indigenous peoples: living and working conditions of aboriginal populations. Geneva: International Labour Office. LCCN l54000004.
- Dharmadasa, K.N.O (February 1974). "The Creolization of an Aboriginal language:The case of Vedda in Sri Lanka (Ceylon)". Anthropological Linguistics. 16 (2). JSTOR 30029514.
- Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A (1990). The Vanishing aborigines : Sri Lanka's Veddas in transition. International Centre for Ethnic Studies in association with NORAD and Vikas Pub. House. ISBN 978-0-7069-5298-8.
- Gair, James (1998). Studies in South Asian Linguistics. ISBN 978-0-19-509521-0.
- Van Driem, George (Jan 15, 2002). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-10390-0.
- Blundell, David (2006). "Revisiting cultural heritage in Sri Lanka: The Vedda (Vanniyaletto)". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 26. .
- Seligman, C.G.; Seligman, B.Z. (1911). The Veddas. Cambridge University Press.