Aganthukaya,
Let me add a bit more to your educational piece of work as well.
Sri Lankans are closer to Kerala both geographically and culturally than to Tamil Nadu.
Geographically??? I am not sure but culturally, yes, even Kerala was influenced by the Mauryan Empire which influenced sri lanka?s buddhist culture.
Malayalam words are not that similar to Sinhala ones, as they might be to Tamil words, though there are overlapping areas.
Yes a Malayali said to me that 65% Malayalam is Tamil. In fact he said the Tamil and Malayalam apparently diverged over about five centuries from the ninth century on, as perhaps Kula said.
Malayalam letters U, Uu, ka, kha, ga, ya, va, sha, ma, kombuwa and elapilla are very similar to Sinhala counterparts and this similarity is even more obvious than the one between Sinhala and Tamil letters
Malayalam and Tamil are much more resembled than either of them with Sinhalese. Tamil somehow dropped elapilla but tamil's kombuwa, and everything else is similar to Malayalam than Sinhala. But some Malayalam letters are round shaped than tamil squares, so they are between Sinhala and Tamil I'd say, e.g., ya and sha.
At least three Mallu kings ruled the Kandyan kingdom, after the death of the last Sinhalese king Narendrasinghe in 1739. The Mallu influence was so high, that a version of Malayali was the official written language used in the Kandyan kingdom. Except for three, the rest of the Sinhala aristocrats including Ehelepola, signed the Kandyan convention in Malayalam.
There were many king's cousins (heirs-to-the thrown) from Malabar living on Malabar street by the side of Maligawa.
They went hiding following Kandyan convention,. otherwise,Kandy could have been a shadow Kerala today.
Mallu influence in Sinhalese food is obvious, with appa (appam), indi-appa (indi-appam) and pittu (puttu). The words given within brackets are the names they use in Kerala.
Some of them are tamil words, e.g Appa(appam). But yes there are other words that Kerala gifted to Sinhala.
I am sure even Bhumiputra's know that Sinhala is a language evolved along the lines of Brahmi, Sanskrit with the influence of most other Indian languages.
Edited By - Jillball - 21 Jul 2006 17:12:17 GMT |
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