තවත් අපූරු ඡන්දයක් නිම විය. එය කරුණු රැසක් නිසා අපූර්ව වේ. සමහරු කියන පරිදි රදලයන්ගේ දේශපාලනයේ අවසානයක් (තාවකාලිකව හෝ) ඉන් සිදු විය. වැඩ කරන ජනයාගේ, නිර්ධන පංතියේ නායකයෙකු හා පක්ෂයක් බලයට පත් වීමද සුවිශේෂී වේ. රටේ මෙතෙක් සිදු වූ සකල විධ අපරාධ, දූෂන, භීෂන සොයා දඩුවම් කරනවා යැයි සමස්ථ රටවැසියා විශ්වාස කරන පාලනයක් ඇති විය. තවද, බහුතර කැමැත්ත නැති (එනම් 43%ක කැමැත්ත ඇති) ජනපතිවරයකු පත් විය. ජවිපෙ නායකයෙක් "තෙරුවන් සරණයි" කියා පැවසීමත් පුදුමය. මේ සියල්ල ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ පලමු වරට සිදු වූ අපූරු දේශපාලන සංසිද්ධි වේ. මාද විවිධ හේතුන් මත අනුරට විරුද්ධව මෙවර තර්ක විතර්ක, සංවාද විවාද, හා "මඩ" යහමින් ගැසූ තත්වයක් මත වුවද, ඔහු දැන් රටේ ජනපති බැවින් ඔහුට පලමුව සුබ පතමි. ඔහුට විරුද්ධව වැඩ කලත්, මා (කිසිදා) කිසිදු පක්ෂයකට හෝ පුද්ගලයකුට කඩේ ගියේද නැති අතර අඩුම ගණනේ මාගේ ඡන්දය ප්රකාශ කිරීමටවත් ඡන්ද පොලට ගියෙ නැත (ජීවිතයේ පලමු වරට ඡන්ද වර්ජනයක). උපතේ සිටම වාමාංශික දේශපාලනය සක්රියව යෙදුනු පවුලක හැදී වැඩී, විප්ලවවාදි අදහස්වලින් මෙතෙක් කල් දක්වා සිටි මා පලමු වරට සාම්ප්රදායික (කන්සර්වටිව්
So far in the
lessons, I made sure not to use plural nouns (except plural forms of
pronouns). In Sinhala, nouns are somewhat complicated than in
English. In English, almost all nouns are automatically singular, and
you make plural of them by appending “s” or “es” at the end
of the noun. However, in Sinhala both the singular and plural nouns
are formed from “noun stems/roots”. Learning about noun roots,
and deriving various forms out of them is deep and complicated, and
even the native Sinhala speaker doesn’t know anything about it. So,
we will keep that linguistically correct way of learning about nouns
aside. Let’s take a different approach.
I suggest you to
study both singular and plural forms when you study Sinhala words in
the initial stage of learning. At once, it would seem like a daunting
task, but it is not. There is an intuitive relationship between the
singular and plural forms of a noun, and you will grasp it gradually.
There are a set of grammatical rules on how to relate the two forms
(of noun) to each other. However, I feel it is not required or
important to know all these rules; it will not do any good. I will
list some nouns in both forms.
Singular | Plural |
Mala (flower) | Mal (flowers) |
Gala (stone) | Gal (stones) |
Potha (book) | Poth (books) |
Paena (pen) | Paen (pens) |
Gasa (tree) | Gas (trees) |
Paensala (pencil) | Paensal (pencils) |
Balla: (dog) | Ballo: / Ballan (dogs) |
Pu:sa: (cat) | Pu:so: / Pu:san (cats) |
Mi:ya: (rat) | Mi:yo: / Mi:yan (rats) |
Ka:kka: (crow) | Ka:kko: / Ka:kkan (crows) |
Kurulla: (bird) | Kurullo: / Kurullan (birds) |
Lamaya: (child) | Lamayi / Lamayin (children) |
Samanalaya: (butterfly) | Samanalayo: / Samanalayan (butterflies) |
Maessa: (fly) | Maesso: / Maessan (flies) |
Miniha: , Minisa: (man) | Minissu / Minisun (men) |
Gaehaeniya, Gaehaeni (woman) | Gaehaenu, Gaehaenun (women) |
Pihiya (knife) | Pihi (knives) |
Kadaya (shop) | Kada (shops) |
Putuva (chair) | Putu (chairs) |
Me:saya (table) | Me:sa (tables) |
Ka:maraya (room) | Ka:mara (rooms) |
Geya (house) | Geval (houses) |
Putha: (son) | Putha:la: / Puththu / Puthun (sons) |
Duva (daughter) | Duvala: (daughters) |
Amma: (mother) | Ammala: (mothers) |
Tha:ththa: (father) | Tha:ththala: (fathers) |
Si:ya: (grandfather) | Si:yala: (grandfathers) |
A:chchi (grandmother) | A:chchila: (grandmothers) |
Ayya: (elder brother) | Ayyala: (elder brothers) |
Akka: (elder sister) | Akkala: (elder sisters) |
Malli (younger brother) | Mallila: (younger brothers) |
Nangi (younger sister) | Nangila: (younger sisters) |
Ma:ma: (uncle) | Ma:mala: (uncles) |
Naenda: (aunty) | Naendala: (aunties) |
Atha (hand) | Ath (hands) |
Kakula (leg) | Kakul (legs) |
Muhuna (face) | Muhunu (faces) |
Kana (ear) | Kan (ears) |
Aesa (eye) | Aes (eyes) |
Kata (mouth) | Kataval (mouths) |
Datha (tooth) | Dath (teeth) |
Bada (stomach/belly) | Badaval (bellies) |
Nahaya (nose) | Nahayaval (noses) |
Oluva (head) | Olu / Oluvaval (heads) |
Kalisama (pair of trousers) | Kalisam (pairs of trousers) |
Bo:thalaya (bottle) | Bo:thal (bottles) |
Vaththa (garden) | Vathu, Vaththaval (gardens) |
Pa:ra (road) | Pa:raval (roads) |
Guruvaraya: (teacher) | Guruvaru / Guruvarun (teachers) |
Aemathivaraya: (minister) | Aemathivaru / Aeathivarun (ministers) |
Rata (country) | Rataval (countries) |
Nagaraya (city) | Nagara / Nagaraval (cities) |
Gama (village) | Gam, Gamaval (villages) |
Mula (root) | Mul (roots) |
Study and memorize
the above nouns (both singular and plural forms). Then, you will see
some patterns. The more nouns you learn, the clearer and easier the
pattern will be. Trust me. Anyway, I very briefly point out the
mostly used patterns.
1. The ending vowel in the singular noun is omitted. Sometimes nouns
ending with “ya” or “wa” lose it too.
Mala, Gala, Mula, Pihiya, Putuva
2. “-val” is suffixed to the singular noun to make it plural.
While doing so, some nouns (specially ones ending with “ya”)
loses the ending syllable.
Pa:ra, Bada, Nagaraya
3. The ending vowel of some nouns changed to “o:” or “an” to
make it plural.
Balla:, Pu:sa:, mi:ya:
4. All the nouns ending with “varaya:” are made plural by
changing it to “varu” or “varun”.
Guruvaraya:, Aemathivaraya:
5. “-la” is suffixed to make plural. While doing so, the
stretched/long vowel sound at the end of the singular noun is made
short too.
Ayya:, Nangi, Malli
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In English, a noun can be either definite (with the article “the”) or indefinite (with the article “a/an” in the singular case or without any article in the plural case). Sinhala has this definite/indefinite distinction only in singular nouns. In plural, the same plural noun form is used in either definite or indefinite meaning. Automatically the singular noun is definite. To make it indefinite you append “-ek” (for animate nouns) or “-ak” (for inanimate nouns) to the singular noun. Just as English “a/an” has the meaning of “one”, Sinhala “-ek / -ak” has the same meaning.
Lamaya: (the child)→ Lamayek (a child)
Miniha: (the man) → Minihek (a man)
Mala (the flower) → Malak (a flower)
Paena (the pen) → Paenak (a pen)
As you can see the
last syllable of some nouns is modified so that the word is easily
soundable/pronounceable. Actually, to ease pronunciation, it is done
so in any language. It is a linguistic norm. When you get familiar
with the language, you will intuitively do it.
Note that in the
spoken Sinhala, there is no difference in nominative case (when a
noun is used as a subject) and objective case (when a noun is used as
an object).
Now let’s learn
about Sinhala prepositions (like on, in, from, to, etc).
Clearly there are Sinhala prepositions, some of which I list below.
You must memorize these words first.
Preposition
|
Meaning |
Uda, Matha | On |
Gaena | About (as in “information about you”) |
yata | under |
Paeththen | beside |
Udin, Ihalin | Above, Over |
Issarahin , Idiriyen | In front of |
Pitipassen, Pitupasin | Behind |
Athara | Between, Among |
Ekka, Sama’mga | With |
Naethiva, Haera | Without, Except |
Pamana, Vithara | About (as in “about 100 dollars”) |
Vate:ta | Around (as in “around the table”) |
Sa’mdaha: | For |
Venuven | On behalf of, For |
Thulin | Through |
Thek, Venakal, Thuru | Till/Until (a time), as far as (a place) |
Pura: , Pura:vata | During |
Pera, Issara | Before, Ago |
Thula, Aethule: , -e: | In |
Thulata, Aethulata | Into |
Eliyata, Pitathata | Outside |
Harahata | Across |
Dhige: | Along |
Visin, Magin | By |
Vetha, Dhesa | At |
La’mga, Asala | Near, At (as in “he is waiting at the gate”) |
Sita | From (a place), Since (a time) |
-gen , -en/-in | From (a person or place) |
-ge: , -e: | Of |
Vage: | Like |
Vasayen | As |
-ta | To |
Vethata | Towards |
Like in English, the
preposition does not change with respect to noun, but unlike in
English, there are some differences when using Sinhala prepositions.
Sinhala prepositions are placed after the noun (but in English it is
put in front of a noun).
Me:saya uda – On the table
Me:sayak uda – On a table
Me:sa uda – On the tables / On tables
Moreover, some of
the prepositions are suffixed to the noun. In the above list, I have
shown them clearly with a hyphen (like “-en”).
Sherin + -gen → Sheringen (from Sherin)
Anne + -ge → Annege (of Anne)
Gasa + -en → Gasen (from the tree)
Gasak + -in → Gasakin (from a tree)
Ahasa + -e: → Ahase: (in the sky or of the sky)
Atha + -e: → Athe: (in the hand or of the hand)
Earlier I told you
that many English words (both nouns and verbs; but only nouns are
considered now) are used in Sinhala. There are some implicit
rules/norms when you use those English nouns, and there is a good
underpinning for those rules.
Almost all English
nouns (and other words too) don’t end with a vowel sound (that is,
they are constant-sounding). However, most Sinhala words end with a
vowel (that is, they are vowel-sounding). This is actually a very
crucial factor because a person who is accustomed to speak/pronounce
English (or another language sounded like English) may find difficult
to pronounce/speak Sinhala, and vice versa.
Usually almost all
Sinhala verbs (in whatever modified forms) end with a vowel sound.
Almost all singular Sinhala nouns end so. Many plural Sinhala nouns
also end with a vowel sound (and many end with constant sound too).
So do most of other types of words (like prepositions, adjectives).
Therefore,
constant-sounding singular English nouns are not used as it is. To
make it more compatible with the usual Sinhala pronunciation, we put
“eka” (definite noun) or “ekak” (indefinite)
after the English noun.
Phone eka (the phone)
Phone ekak (a phone)
Bus eka (the bus)
Bus ekak (a bus)
Car eka (the car)
Car ekak (a car)
However, sometimes
some English nouns are treated like normal Sinhala nouns; specially
those nouns which end with a vowel sound. Only a few such nouns
exist, you don’t have to worry much about them. One such example is
“sofa”.
So:fa:va (the sofa)
So:fa:vak (a sofa)
So:fa: (the sofas or sofas)
However, because
constant-sounding plural nouns are common and familiar in Sinhala,
you just use the singular English noun, as it is, in the plural
meaning. You don’t put “s” or “es” to make the English noun
plural here (it is not right to apply grammar of another language
even if you may borrow words from it); automatically almost all
English nouns are considered plural within Sinhala (it is due to the
fact that they end with a constant sound).
Bus (the buses or buses)
Car (the cars or cars)
Phone (the phones or phones)
Now let’s make
some sentences with English nouns.
Shaun phone eka gannava: . (Shaun takes the phone.)
Amma: car ekak elavanava: . (The mother drives a car.)