Preface
Abbreviations
The Sinhalese Alphabet
[page iii]
PREFACE.
THE late Rev. CHARLES CARTER, Compiler of this Dictionary, arrived in Ceylon, as a Missionary of the Baptist Missionary Society, on 22nd September, 1853. He set himself at once to acquire a knowledge of the language, in which he made rapid progress, and was able to preach his first sermon in Sinhalese at Biyanwila four months after arrival. During his Missionary career he attained such a command of the language as has been rarely or ever equalled by Europeans. His English-Sinhalese Dictionary, printed at the Government Press, is the best of its kind and is in general use. He is the author of various works for the acquisition of the language; Lesson Books, both for English and Sinhalese Students; Sinhalese Verbs reduced to Conjugations; and a Grammar Book. His aim in all these labours has been service to Ceylon. Of the present work he wrote from New Zealand, where he died on 6th July, 1914: “I willingly render it as an offering to our gracious Master, for the benefit of Ceylon, especially for Missionary work.”
The author, who commenced the work in 1892, has put into the compilation what would equal ten years’ consecutive labour.
The manuscript has been subjected to the scrutiny of competent Sinhalese scholars, who contributed valuable suggestions and corrected the work at the press, viz. the late Mudaliyar Simon de Silva, with the assistance of the late High Priest Dharmarama of Vidyalankara Oriental College, and the late Mr. S. de Saram, Literary Adviser to the Baptist Missionary Society.
We also acknowledge the valuable assistance rendered by Mr. T. Petch, Botanist and Mycologist of Peradeniya, in the correction of the Appendix of Botanical Names.
The omission of Romanised characters after the Sinhalese word will, we hope, be met to some extent by the alphabet at the beginning, for those who are unacquainted with the Sinhalese characters. To the definition in English of classical Sinhalese words not in ordinary use, there is added the ordinary Sinhalese word, making it useful to the Sinhalese reader, as well as supplying the English reader with the best word for ordinary use, at the same time showing that the word defined is not the ordinary word.
Mudaliyar A. Mendis Gunasekera, late of the Registrar-General’s Office, Editor of the “Jnanadarsaya,” and author of a “Comprehensive Grammar of the Sinhalese Language,” to whom the manuscript was submitted, states that “The work is much fuller and more valuable than any other Dictionary of the language yet published, and will supply to a great extent the want of a good Dictionary much felt at present.”
The work is the property of the Baptist Missionary Society, which purchased the rights from the Compiler before his death.
We are indebted to the generosity of the late Mr. G. B. Leechman, which has made it possible to publish the work.
JOHN A. EWING.
BAPTIST MISSION HOUSE,
COLOMBO. 21st May, 1924.[page iv]
ABBREVIATIONS.
a. or adj. ... adjective abs. ... abstract acc. ... accusative case act. ... active voice ad. ... adverb aff. ... affix alg. ... algebra anat. ... anatomy ap. ... appellation arch. ... a[r]chitecture arith. ... arithmetic ast. ... astronomy astro. ... astrology B. ... Buddhist, or in Buddhism B.P. ... Buddhist Priest (hood) Ben. ... Bengali biol. ... biology bot. ... in botany, or botanical list cau. ... causative C. En. ... Ceylon endemic ch. ... church ch. E. ... Church of England chem. ... chemistry Chr. ... Christianity, or Christian usage cl. ... classical c. n. ... concrete col. ... colloquial coll. ... collective comp. ... in composition conch. ... conchology conj. ... conjunction const. ... constellation cont. ... contracted, or contraction of cor. ... correctly cp. ... compare D. ... Dutch dat. ... (with) dative case desid. ... desiderative form E. ... Elu emp. ... emphatic Eng. ... English eng. ... engineering ep. ... epithet er. ... erroneous(ly) E. S. ... English-Sinhalese Dictionary exel. ... exclamation exp. ... expletive fem. ... feminine fr. ... from fig. ... figuratively gen. ... generally geo. ... geography geol. ... geology geom. ... geometry gram. ... grammar H. ... Hindu H. myth. ... Hindu mythology hon. ... honorific idem ... as the preceding I. ... India imp. ... imperative ind. ... indeclinable indet. ... indefinite form (as පොතක්) instr. ... instrument (al) int. ... interjection inten. ... intensive inter. ... interrogative leg. ... legal, in law (Legum.) ... Leguminosæ lit. ... literally log. ... in logic math. ... mathematics med. ... medical men. ... mental meta. ... metaphorical mil. ... military mus. ... music myth. ... mythology n. ... noun n. c. ... noun collective nat. hist. ... natural history neg. ... negative neu. ... neuter num. ... numeral obj. ... object obs. ... obsolete ord. ... ordinarily P. ... Pali paint. ... painting par. or part. ... particle pas. ... passive pers. ... personal pert. ... pertaining to ph. ... phrase phil. ... philosophy phren. ... phrenology pl. (n.) ... plural pl. (v.) ... participle poe. ... poetry Port. ... Portuguese post. ... post position (for English preposition) [page v]
p. p. or p. pl. ... perfect or past participle p. prest. ... present participle print. ... printing priv. ... privative pron. ... pronoun pron. ref. ... reflexive pronoun q. V. ... quod vide, which see R. C. ... Roman Catholic rel. ... relative res. ... respectfully rt. ... root S. ... Sinhalese Sans. ... Sanscrit sculp. ... sculpture sg. ... singular sp. ... specially sp. ... species sub. ... subject suf. ... suffix sur. ... surgery sy. ... synonym T. ... Tamil temp. ... temporal ter. ... termination v. a. (dj.) pres. ... adjectival form of the verb in the present tense (as කරන) v. a. (dj.) pret. ... the same in the preterite (as කළ) var. ... variety of v. aux. ... verb auxiliary v. c. ... verb causative v. i. ... verb intransitive v. n. ... verbal noun v. n. i. ... verbal noun intransitive v. n. t. ... verbal noun transitive voc. ... vocative case zo. or zool. ... zoology BOTANICAL SECTION.
EXPLANATIONS.
C. En. ... Ceylon endemic, used of plants peculiar to Ceylon Cp. ... Compare G. D. ... General Dictionary Hill ... (as in hill-paddy)-ගොඩබිම high or dry land, distinction from swamp Tree ... ගහ, තරුව, තුරු, දුම, ද්රැම, ද්රැමය, ද්රැව, රුක, වෘක්ෂය Creeper ... ලතාව, වැල
ABBREVIATIONS OF LATIN NAMES.
Acanth. ... Acanthaceæ Alis. ... Alismaceæ Amarant. ... Amarantaceæ Amary. ... Amaryllideæ Ampel. ... Ampelideæ Anacard. ... Anacardiaceæ Ancist. ... Ancistrocladeæ Anon. ... Anonaceæ Apocyn. ... Apocynanceæ Arali. ... Araliaceæ Aristo. ... Aristochiaceæ Asclep. ... Asclepiadeæ Auran. ... Aurantiaceæ Balan. ... Balanophoraceæ Begon. ... Begoniaceæ Berb. ... Berberideæ Bignon. ... Bignoniaceæ Bigon. ... Bigoniaceæ Bix. ... Bixineæ Borag. ... Boragineæ Burma. ... Burmanniaceæ Burser. ... Burseraceæ Cact. ... Cactaceæ Campan. ... Campanulaceæ Capparid. ... Capparideæ Capri. ... Caprifoliaceæ Caryo. ... Caryophyllaceæ Celast. ... Celastraceæ Cerato. ... Ceratophyllaceæ Chail. ... Chailletiaceæ Char. ... Characeæ Cheno. ... Chenopodiaceæ Chlor. ... Chloranthaceæ Combret. ... Combretaceæ Commel. ... Commelinaceæ Comp. ... Campositæ Connar. ... Connaraceæ Convolv. ... Convolvulaceæ Corna. ... Cornaceæ Crassu. ... Crassulaceæ Crucif. ... Cruciferæ Cucurb.(it.) ... Cucurbitaceæ Cyper. ... Cyperaceæ [page vi]
Datis. ... Datiscaceæ Dillen. ... Dillenaceæ Dioscor. ... Dioscoræceæ Dipsa. ... Dipsacaeæ Dipterocarp. ... Dipterocarpaceæ Dros. ... Droseraceæ Eben. ... Ebenaceæ Ehæag. ... Elæagnaceæ Elat. ... Elatineæ Equis. ... Equisetaceæ Eriocaul. ... Eriocauloneæ Euphorb. ... Euphorbiaceæ Fico. ... Ficoideæ Flagel. ... Flageliariaceæ Gentian. ... Gentianaceæ Geran. ... Geraniaceæ Gesner. ... Gesneraceæ Gooden. ... Goodenoviaceæ Gram. ... Gramineæ Guttif. ... Guttiferæ Hæmo. ... Gæmodoraceæ Halor. ... Halorageæ Hydro. ... Hydrocharideæ Hydroph. ... Hydrophyllaceæ Hyper. ... Hypericaceæ Ilic. ... Ilicineæ Illece. ... Ukkecevraceæ Iso. ... Isocteæ Junc. ... Joncaceæ Lab. ... Labiatæ Laur. ... Lauraceæ Legum. ... Leguminosæ Lemn. ... Lemnaceæ Lentibul. ... Lentibulariaceæ Lili. ... Liliaceæ Lina. ... Linaceæ Logan. ... Loganiaceæ Loran. ... Loranthaceæ Lycopod. ... Lycopodiaceæ Lyth. ... Lythoraceæ Magnol. ... Magnoliaceæ Malpi. ... Malpighiaceæ Malv. ... Malvaceæ Melastom. ... Melastomaceæ Meli. ... Meliaceæ Menisperm. ... Menispermaceæ Monim. ... Monimiaceæ Morin. ... Moringeæ Myris. ... Myristicaceæ Myrsi. ... Myristicaceæ Myrt. ... Myrtaceæ Naiad. ... Naiadaceæ Nepen. ... Nepenthaceæ Nyct. ... Nyctagineæ Nymph. ... Nymphæaceæ Och. ... Ochnaceæ Ola. ... Olacineæ Onag. ... Onagraceæ Orchi. ... Orchideæ Orob. ... Orobanchaceæ O. S. ... Oryza sativa Pandan. ... Pandanacæ Passi. ... Passifloracæ Pedal. ... Pedaliaceæ Phytol. ... Phytolaccaceæ Piper. ... Piperaceæ Pittospor. ... Pittosporaceæ Plan. ... Plantagineæ Plumbag. ... Plumbagineæ Podo. ... Podostemaceæ Polygal. ... Polygalaceæ Polygon. ... Polygonaceæ Ponte. ... Pontederiaceæ Portu. ... Portulaceaceæ Prim. ... Primnaceæ Prot. ... Proteaceæ Ranun. ... Ranunculaceæ Rham. ... Rhamnaceæ Rhiz. ... Rhizocarpeæ Rhizoph. ... Rhizophoraceæ Ros. ... Rosaceæ Rox. ... Roxburghiaceæ Rub. ... Rubiaceæ Rut. ... Rutaceæ Sabi. ... Sabiaceæ Salva. ... Salvadoraceæ Samy. ... Samydaceæ Sant,. ... Santalaceæ Sapind. ... Sapindaceæ Sapot. ... Sapotaceæ Saxi. ... Saxifragaceæ Scitam. ... Scitamineæ Scroph. ... Scraphutariaeæ Selag. ... Selaginellaceæ Simar. ... Simarrubaceæ Solan. ... Solanaceæ Stercul. ... Sterculiaceæ Styl. ... Stylidiaceæ Styr. ... Styraceæ Tac. ... Taccaceæ Tamar. ... Tamariscineæ, Tern. ... Ternstroemjaceæ Thym. ... Thymelæceæ Tili. ... Tiliaceæ Triu. ... Triurideæ Typh. ... Typhaceæ Umbel. ... Umbelliferæ Urti. ... Urticaceæ Vace. ... Vacciniaceæ Valer. ... Valerianaceæ Verben. ... Verbenaceæ Vio. ... Violaceæ Xyr. ... Xyrideæ Zygo. ... Zygophyllaceæ [page vii]
THE SINHALESE ALPHABET.
1. —VOWELS.
Short.
අ a, as in America. ඉ i, as in pin. උ oo, as in foot. එ e, as in men. ඔ o, as in & Co.. ඇ - Long.
ආ a, as in ah! ඉ or ඊ i, as in marine. ඌ oo, as in food. ඒ e, as in mane. ඓ ai, as in time. ඕ o, as in moan, ඖ ou, as in our. ඇ - The above are the full vowel signs, and are always initial.
II. — PRONUNCIATION OF VOWELS.
1. අ varies slightly in pronunciation, depending sometimes on the meaning or derivation, and sometimes on the consonants with which it is combined. It has the sound of o in dove, of o in not, and the clear, distinct sound obtained by shortening ah! In the absence of a living teacher, let the student choose the last of the three.
2. ඉ and ඊ have a fine, sharp sound.
3. එ and ඒ have a full, broad and—to Englishmen—vulgar sound, like the Irish pronunciation of meat = mate.
4. ඓ has the polite sound of i in time, somewhat prolonged.
5. ඔ and ඕ have the English broad, vulgar sound.
6. ඇ and ඈ. have the vowel sound of the bleating of a sheep, minus the quivering. Cat and cart, if pronounced very vulgarly, not in the direction of au in caught, but in that of a in ram, will express the sounds; and as there is no letter in English to express them, let one hyphen - represent the short vowel, and two - - the long one.
III.—THE NON-INITIAL VOWEL SIGNS.
(ආ) ා (ඉ) ි (ඊ) ී (උ) ැ and ු (ඌ) ෑ and ූ (එ) ෙ (ඒ) ේ (ඓ) ෛ (ඖ) ෞ (ඕ) ො (ඕ) ෝ (ඇ) ැ (ඈ) ෑ 1. අ has no non-initial sign, but it is in herent [sic] in every consonant, and, unless displaced by the sign of some other vowel or suppressed, is pronounced after the consonant.
2. ා is written after the consonant: as කා.
3. ි ී are written above the consonant: as කි කී මි මී.
[page viii]
4. ැ, ෑ, ු, ූ are written below the consonant: as කු කූ මු ම. ූ ැand ෑ are used only with the consonants ක ග ත භ ර ශ.
5. ෙ is written before the consonant after which it is pronounced, and lengthened by the addition of ා් ට් to the consonant: as කෙ කේ මෙ මේ.
6. ෛ also precedes the consonant: as කෛ.
7. ො The first of these precedes, and the latter follows the consonant, and is lengthened by the addition of ් to the letter: as කො කෝ.
8. ෞ The first of these, too, precedes, and the latter follows the consonant: as කෞ.
9. ැ ෑ are written after the consonant, above the position occupied by ැ ෑ: as කැ කෑ මැ මෑ.
IV.—THE SIGN ් OR ? IS USED FOR TWO PURPOSES.
1. To suppress the inherent vowel: as මක maka, මක් mak; අම ama, අම් am.
2. To lengthen the others: as කො කෝ කේ එ ඒ ඔ ඕ.
3. The form ? is attached to those letters which have their final stroke turned back to the left: as ම ම් ව ව් ඔ ඕ.
4. The joining of two consonants suppresses the inherent vowel of the first; and if ෙ accompanies the second, that is placed before the first: as ස්වල්ප = ස්වල්ප swalpa; ස්නේහ = ස්නේහ snēha.
V.—CONSONANTS.
┌──────── ────────┐ ┌──────── ────────┐ Unaspirated. Aspirated. Unaspirated. Aspirated. Nasal. K class ක k ඛ ග g ඝ ඩ ng Ch class ච ch ඡ ජ j ඣ ඤ ny T class ට t ඨ ඩ d ඪ ණ n Th class ත th ථ ද dh ධ න n P class ප p ඵ බ b භ ම m ය y ර r ල l ව w ං ng ශ s ෂ sh ස s හ h ළ l:ch VI.—PRONUNCIATION OF THE CONSONANTS WHICH DIFFER FROM THE ENGLISH.
1. The aspirated consonants are pronounced as if accompanied by a vocal h: e.g., ඛ is pronounced like k in back-hall, allowing the h to coalesce.
2. ග is always hard.
3. ච has less of the hissing sound than the English ch in rich.
4. ත is much lighter than the English th. It has the sound which the Irish sometimes give to t when followed by r: e.g., trick, trip, straight, pronounced something like thrick, thrip, sthraight.
5. ද This, too, is a real dental, and has the sound heard in the Irish pronunciation of d in such words as drink, drip, drop.
[page ix]
6. ර is always trilled.
7. ශ is very light, like c in cinder, and its inherent vowel is generally ඇ, not අ.
8. ෂ has less of the hissing sound than the English sh. and is often pronounced like the ordinary s ස.
9. : is the guttural k, as hard as the German ch, and never followed by a vowel in the same word.
VII.—IN SOME WORDS ය, ර, AND න ARE EXPRESSED BY OTHER SIGNS: ය BY ්ය, ර, BY ෙ, AND ්ර, න BY ?.
1. ්ය suppresses the inherent vowel of the consonant to which it is added, and is pronounced after that consonant: as මඟල්ය Mangal-ya.
2. ෙ is written on the uppor part of a consonant, and is pronounced before it with its own inherent vowel suppressed: as පෙර්වත Parwatha.
3. ්ර suppresses the inherent vowel of the consonant to which it is Joined, and is pronounced after that consonant: as පුත්රයා Poothrayah.
4. ? is used for three purposes;—
a. When joined to the aspirated consonants ඨ, ඪ, ධ, the corresponding unaspirated consonants respectively precede them: as කඪ Kat-ta, මඪ Mad-da. රුඬ Roodh-dha.
b. When joined to ච, dh (ද්) precedes the ව: as මළු madhwa.
c. When joined to any of the other consonants, it signifies that a very short sound of න් precedes them: as කඳු Kandoo.VIII.—VOWEL-CONSONANTS.
1. ඍ roo, සෲ; rōō: ඏ loo, ඏෟ lōō; ළු loo, ළූ lōō.
2. They are joined to other consonants and pronounced thus: කෘ kroo, කෲ krōō, කෟ kloo, කෟ klōō, කළු kaloo. කළූ kalōō.
IX.:—ILLUSTRATION OF THE COMBINATIOX[sic] OF VOWEL AND CONSONANT.
a.—The non-initial vowel signs are invariably pronounced after the consonant.
b.—In all Sinhalese words each syllable must be pronounced separately and distinctly, with as little accentuation as possible, even on the long vowels
1. vowel අක aka අකා akā ආක āka ආකා ākā 2. vowel ඉචි ichi ඉචී ichī ඊචි īchi ඊචී īchī — ඉපි ipi ඉති ithī ඉරී irī ඊකි īki 3. vowel උටු ootoo ඌදු ōōdhōō උගු oogoo උගු oogoo 4. vowel එබෙ ebe ඒබේ ēbē එරෙ ere ඒරේ ere 5. vowel ඓමෛ aimai අමෛ amai ඉරෛ irai ආවෛ āwai 6. vowel ඔෂො osho ඕනො ōno ඕමෝ omo ඕලෝ olo 7. vowel ඖරෞ ourou කෞරෞ kourou වෞනෞ wounou 8. vowel ඇමැ - m - ඇරැ - - ඈරූ - - roo ඈරු - - r - [page x]
X.—MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISE.
කප kapa කපා kāpā මකපි makapi එසේ esē මෙසේ mesē මානෙල් mānel මනාප manāpa අලප් alap කිපෙන kipena යුසය yoosaya රහදිය rahadhiya දුවනවා dhoowanawā ක්රමයක් kramayak කම්පාව kampāwa ස්වල්පය swalpaya පර්වත parwatha පුත්රය poothraya සන්යක sanyaka කොඪා kottā විරුද්ධ wiroodhdha ද්වීප dhwīpa ස්නේහ snēha කඳු kandhoo ලිඳවල් lindhawal ක්රළු krōōloo ක්රළූ kroolōō ක්රා krā මැ කැ කූ රැ රු රූ m - k - kōō r - roo rōō
This page was last generated on Saturday 27 February 2021 at 16:09 by dsal@uchicago.eduThe URL of this page is: https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/carter/frontmatter/frontmatter.html