A Comparative Study of Hindi and Sinhala Idioms: With Reference to Selected Idioms in Connection with Human Body Parts

Abstract

Idioms plays an inseparable role in Hindi and Sinhala languages which are belong to Indo- Aryan language family. In these two languages there are various idioms which indicate human body parts with related to their own culture. The purpose of this study is to examine how body parts have been used in Hindi and Sinhala idioms. Dictionaries of idioms have been used as primary resource. Books and magazines related to Sinhala and Hindi literature have been used as secondary resource. This paper indicates that there are some idioms which have been based on the same human body part as well as in some causes different body parts have been used to convey the same meaning. This paper highlights that there are more Hindi Idioms which are based on human body parts rather than in Sinhala. It also highlights that some idioms based on body parts such as ‘mɑ̃g bhərnɑː’ (married woman) are difficult to understand without knowing the cultural background of the language. Another finding of this research is that there are more Hindi idioms on body parts which conveys more than one meaning but in Sinhala language it is hard to find such causes. The above mentioned findings of this paper help us to understand Hindi and Sinhala idioms based on body parts according to the cultural background of its’ own.