Origin of the Sinhalese composite verbs: a comparative study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the origin of Sinhalese composite verbs with reference to other Middle Indo Aryan Languages and Tamil language. The origin of Sinhalese composite verbs is extremely controversial. A number of scholars argue that the origin of these verbs should be a result of Tamil language contact into Sinhalese language. There are also a number of scholars who think that the origin of those verbs should be a result of Indo Aryan Languages contact because there are many languages in which composite verbs exist. This study tries to comparatively analyse the origin of Sinhalese composite verbs with regards to composite verbs in other M.I.A. languages and Tamil language. In brief, this study is on whether they are derived from Tamil language or Indo Aryan Languages. To study the derivation of composite verbs, comparative method has been used here objectively. Specially, in M.I.A languages like Pali, Prakrit languages, these verbs have been used to convey the meaning instead of one verb. It is true about Tamil language too. These verbs are compared to justify the origin of composite verbs by identifying the differences and similarities.This study reveals that the composite verbs are derived from M.I.A languages most probably from Pali. Morphologically, these verbs are used as word sequences like N+V, Adv+v, Adj+V, V+V etc. Which do not exist in Tamil language. In fact, the notion is very clear that the composite verbs in Sinhalese language are derived not because of Tamil language contact but because of M.I.A languages.