Spektator. Jaargang 5

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[Deel 4]

Dutch loan words in Sinhala
L. Peeters and B.P. Sannasgala

Summary

The present paper, the product of collaboration between Ceylonese and Dutch scholarship, may be said to rejuvenate a branch of Dutch language studies: the exploration in depth of what happened to the Dutch language in Ceylon where it was introduced, used, and nearly forgotten for a variety of purposes and reasons. Particular attention is given to the many Dutch loan words in Sinhala. This field of linguistic studies offers a composite and many-sided picture of the functions and varieties of language interference and transference.

An awareness both of the formal characteristics of the Sinhala language as well as the sociolinguistic role of the Dutch language is of major importance to the assessment of its relative influence in the last three or four centuries in Sri Lanka. A number of linguistic problems emerges from this historical point. Their scope for research into how enduring is the effect of one language on another is impressive.

To appreciate the context within which the Dutch language influenced Sinhala requires an understanding of social, political, religious and mercantile circumstances. Only in this way can its implantation and disappearance, and the presence and demands which determined its radiance and extinction be explained. Any discussion of a foreign language in another country is bound to concern itself with the position of that language in its cultural environment.

I.	Introduction 1. The Dutch Language in Sri Lanka 2. Linguistic Problems of Lexical Borrowings 3. Practical Remarks 4. Pronunciation and Spelling, Sound Systems and Phonetic Alphabet
II.	Sinhala Vocables of Dutch Origin 1. Portuguese-Dutch Loans in Sinhala 2. Semantic Classification of Sinhala Borrowings from Dutch 3. Vowels and Consonants of Dutch Loans in Sinhala
III.	The Retailoring of the Loans 1. Intimate and Cultural Loans 2. Interrelationships of Borrowing 3. Scale of Borrowing 3.1 Loan Words 3.2 Loanblends 3.3 Loan Shifts 3.3.1 Loan Translations 3.3.2 Semantic Change 3.3.3 Partial Borrowing

I. Introduction

‘Loan-words are lexical components as well as cultural tokens’. Hope 1971, 701.

1.1 The Dutch Language in Sri Lanka

If we are to believe Joseph Grenier, the Dutch ‘came to Ceylon with a sword in one hand and the Bible in the other. But, in justice, however, to them, it must be

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said that the sword was less often employed than the Bible’. If tradition can be relied on in this particular, it seems that the religious education of the people was done with both hands: ‘ignorant villagers were compelled to attend Divine Service at the point of the bayonet’¹. One has to take into consideration that these lines were written in the beginning of this century by some one who was very much in favour of English culture in the Island of Ceylon². The fact is that the Gospels were translated from the Dutch in the eighteenth century by a committee of Sinhala pandits under the supervision of clergymen, and afterwards revised according to the original Greek. The Dutch took great pains to have reliable religious literature in the Sinhala language. The Dutch titlepage of a Sinhala hymn-book, printed in Colombo 1755, establishes the genuineness of the missionary and governamental efforts to use Sinhala as best they could:

Singaleesch - Gezangboekje...In den Jaare 1723. door de Modliaars Anthony Perera en Louis de Saram op de Digt- en Zangmaat Petri Datheni gestelt en van den Kerken-Raad oover gezien en goedgekeurt zynde, is nu door de Vaderlyke Goedheit en Ordre Van den weledelen Gestrengen Heer Raad-Extraordinaris Van Nederlandsch-India en Ceylonsch-Gouverneur Joan Gideon Loten tot stigtinge van de Zang-kundige-Singaleschen voor 't Eerstemaal op hun ootmoedig Verzoek gedrukt; en tegenwoordig van veele Schryffouten en andere Misstellingen, die voor dezen door geduurig afschryven daar waren ingesloopen, gezuivert door Matthias Wermelskirchner...Colombo. gedrukt in 's Comps: gewoone-Drukkery Anno 1755.

Printing, in which the Dutch excelled, was introduced into Ceylon by that nation. It is remarkable that the printing of Christian literature in the Sinhala language took place on the printing press of the famous Dutch United East India Company, the Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, V.O.C.. The books were printed in Colombo with the privilege and special authority of the Dutch Governor General of the Island. A conspicuous trade-mark of the V.O.C. can be seen on the titlepages. The Dutch East India Company was a company chartered by the Netherlands government to trade with East India. It colonized Cape Colony, and captured Ceylon and the Malabar Coast from the Portuguese.

After the Portuguese rulers departed from the Island the Portuguese language continued to be spoken in the maritime areas right throughout the Dutch period (1602-1796) and the first decades of the British occupation as well³. It is noteworthy that though the Dutch endeavoured to root out the Portuguese language, this survived to become the home language of even the Dutch descendants and the only language of intercourse between the Dutch and the people of the country. Missionary workers, however, were deeply interested in the knowledge of the Sinhala language. At least one work should be mentioned, Grammatica of Singaleesche Taal-Kunst, Zynde Een korte methode om de voornaamste Fondamenten van de Singaleesche Spraak te leeren door Joannes Ruëll...t'Amsterdam...MDCCVIII³.

The Dutch language was spoken mostly in the upper circles of the community which generally consisted of the officers of the Dutch Government. The disuse of the Dutch language in Ceylon was facilitated by intermarriage of the Dutch newcomers not only with Portuguese women, both of pure and mixed descent, but also with slaves and domestics, chiefly of African and Indian descent, whose language was a form of Portuguese more or less corrupt. The contest for the mastery between the Dutch and Portuguese languages in Ceylon resulted in a very practical compromise.

1 Grenier 1914, 94. Cp. Perera 1955, 140-202; Coolhaas 1960, 70-71.

2 Grenier 1914, 101-104.

3 Sannasgala 1969; Perera 1955, 110-139. See also H. Terpstra. ‘Compagniesonderwijs op Ceilon’. In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 71 (1958), 26-50, esp. pp. 43-44.

3 Sannasgala 1969; Perera 1955, 110-139. See also H. Terpstra. ‘Compagniesonderwijs op Ceilon’. In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 71 (1958), 26-50, esp. pp. 43-44.

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‘While Dutch became the spoken and written language of polite society, the language used in the office, the platform, and the pulpit, a form of Portuguese, in which a large proportion of Dutch words had found admission,...was used as the medium of conversation in familiar gossip and in the most intimate relations’⁴.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the use of the Dutch language in the Courts of Law was abolished by a Proclamation dated 20th August, 1801. The Consistorial Schools on the Island came under the general supervision of a functionary appointed by the British Government with the title of Principal of Schools. It was the Honourable and Venerable Dr. Twistleton who wrote in 1813 against a proposed Dutch Consistory School:

‘At first I was apprehensive that this projected school was for the purpose of perpetuating the Dutch language in Ceylon, a language which I think ought not to be encouraged here, but on the contrary should be allowed to die away’.

After taking the oath of allegiance to King George III, some of the Dutch obtained employment under the British and set themselves to acquire a knowledge of English. One can agree with R.G. Anthonisz that ‘in the eagerness to learn English, and in the scramble for Government employment, the cultivation of Dutch was neglected’⁵.

Dutch acted in the offices of Advocate Fiscal (Attorney-General) and Lord Surveyor of the Colony (Surveyor-General). The presence of Dutch agents under the British rule in Ceylon probably is of some importance in explaining a number of legal and administrative Dutch terms (see Section 2,2) and the Dutch transliteration of Sinhala place-names during the English occupation⁶.

Needless to say, the English had their way. In many ways Ceylonese inhabitants of Dutch origin revealed their ignorance of the language of their forefathers. Ceylon Dutchmen of the nineteenth century who tried to forge Dutch extracts of the eighteenth century made many mistakes in detail. ‘The forgers copied words and phrases from original Dutch documents generally with great facility, but without any glimmering as to their meaning, and often with absurd misspellings’⁷. At the beginning of the twentieth century ‘not more than six or eight individuals among a community which counts some thousands could make any pretence to a knowledge of the language - a knowledge sometimes of the barest rudimentary character’⁸.

Some Sinhala loan words from the Dutch may have been triggered by the phonetic similarity to the English model of a later date⁹:

bēkariya: bakery: Du. bakkerij. Compare
bakkara, bakkarē: baker: Du. bakker
departamentu: department: Du. departement
distrikkaya, distirikkaya: district: Du. district
kälandara: calendar: Du. kalender
klāk, kalāk: clerk: Du. klerk
kläsiya, käläsiya: class: Du. klas(se)
komanda: command: Du. commando
lantaruma, lantäruma: lantern: Du. lantaarn
minci: mint: Du. muntje.
For ci as the replica of the Dutch diminutive tje see Sinhala
bonci: bean: Du. boontje, kurucci: cross: Du. kruisje, pocci: pot: Du. potje

4 Anthonisz 1908, 30-31.

5 Anthonisz 1908, 34.

6 Lewis 1909, 21-23, 63.

7 Lewis 1909, 64-67.

8 Anthonisz 1908, 29.

9 Cp. Anttila 1972, 140, 156.

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minittuva: minute: Du. minuut
päkättuva: packet: Du. pakket
päna: pen: Du. pen
plǟna, pälänaya: plan: Du. plan
pōcciya: pot: Du. potje
pūs: pus: Du. poes
puyara, pavudara: powder: Du. poeier, poeder
sǟdalaya: saddle: Du. zadel
suluppuva: sloop: Du. sloep
tarpantayin: turpentine: Du. terpentijn

In contradiction to Charles Carter's A Sinhala-English Dictionary (Colombo 1924 - reprint 1965) the following words are probably derived from Dutch, and not from English:

Sinhala	Dutch	English
kornel	kornel	colonel
plästara	pleister	plaster
repareru(karanavā)	repareren	repair

1.2 Linguistic Problems of Lexical Borrowings

One way languages change is through the influence of other languages. The present study describes the nature and extent of Dutch influences in Singalese (Sinhala), the chief and official language of Sri Lanka, Ceylon. It is intended primarely as a piloting survey of a linguistic interaction that lasted for more than two centuries between an European and an Asian country. The data and analysis of the linguistic material are meant to contribute towards a better understanding of the problems connected with the boundaries of culture in which a language adapts linguistic forms to the designation of items borrowed from another culture. The description of such phenomena lies within linguistics proper in as far as sounds, forms, meanings, and even syntactical arrangements show changes along a historical dimension. On the other hand, the paths of lexical borrowing reflect to a certain extent the paths of cultural influence and of the history of at least two peoples. The historical point of interest is the contact of one group with a speech community outside itself¹⁰.

‘Languages do not borrow words from one another in a haphazard fashion, but rather under particular conditions. To trace the history of linguistic borrowings is to trace the history of a people...In this way linguistics is closely linked to history’¹¹.

In the past a historical approach to the interpretation of borrowed words has held the field. Loan-words do indeed bear witness to historical events, but they can also be appraised in their own right. Therefore the description of the borrowed vocabulary, for example its formal and semantic features, is also one of our modest aspirations¹². One of the chief contributions of the linguistic study of the adoptation of foreign words is to analyze differences and changes, and thus bring to light the underlying forces that shape the ways of linguistic borrowings. It is a prerequisite for anyone who wants to investigate into this matter to have an adequate

10 Arlotto 1972, 184, Trager 1972, 105: ‘If it were possible to recognize all the borrowed elements in a language, one would be able to tell its history in great detail’. Cp. Wilhelm von Humboldt. Linguistic Variability and Intellectual Development, translated by George C. Buck and Frithjof A. Raven. Coral Gables. Florida 1971, 73 on the false assumption of the Hindu grammarians, who thought that their language could be explained entirely by its own material, and therefore excluded all possibility of assimilation of foreign words.

11 Falk 1973, 42.

12 Cp. Hope 1971, 577-677.

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knowledge of Sinhala (phonemically and morphologically), against the Dutch language-forms most likely to have been involved in the borrowing¹³.

In order to prove the identification of the loan words the two authors of the two different speech communities had to work together very closely. It is only then that the characteristic features and the system of mutual correspondences (i.e. the rules by which borrowings would seem to operate: see sections 2,3; 3) can be established. There are at least three points to bear in mind as we look into the problems involved i) differences in the phonemic systems of the source language and the borrowing language, ii) graphic representation of the sounds in the lending language as well as in the borrowing language, iii) the route, ear or eye, by which the words were introduced¹⁴.

The two authors had the opportunity to tackle some of the problems in the course of 1974-1975. It will be shown how many the intricacies are that beset the investigator who wants to find out about the problems of language transfer and interference. The circumstances under which loan words in Sinhala were adopted from several languages - Pakrit, Pali, Sanskrit, Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch, English - and the time of their acceptance vary greatly. The composite culture of the Sinhala people is richly illuminated by the study of its linguistic borrowings.

Advanced work in this field of study aims at a socio-linguistic description that genuinely integrates social and linguistic processes. It is no longer permitted to speak of languages, rather than of people, doing things. It is people that use a language, certain classes of people introduce innovations into that language¹⁵. ‘When a language-contact is examined in detail, the interrelation of social-cultural conditions and linguistic phenomena is apparent’¹⁶. As a rule borrowing takes place from one specialized subgroup by a similar one in a different speech community as already indicated in this introduction and as will be exemplified in section 2,2.

The borrowing of whole words, which is the most common type of linguistic interaction between languages, will be the main objective of this study. Nouns are by far the most frequently class of words, which is involved in the process of borrowing¹⁷. From a linguistical point of view the question of identification of loans is primarely a historical question, ‘not susceptible to the methods of synchronic analysis’. The many problems are not always easily to solve, as is shown in Einar Haugen's The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing:

‘So far as loans are discovered by the latter method (i.e. synchronic analysis), it is not as loans, but as residual structural irregularities, which might rather be called “systematic fragments” than “co-existant systems”. The historical problem is difficult enough, fraught as it is with the problems of distinguishing loans made before immigration, international words, and interlingual coincidences from bona fide-loans made during the period of inter-languages contact’¹⁸.

The actual state of Sinhala linguistic research for the Dutch period (1602-1796) is in this respect only beginning to show its importance¹⁹. We can hardly say that at this moment the historical stratification of the loans can be studied in full, it should be made possible for later investigators. Three stadia have to be distinguished:

1)	the deviations from colonial norms that originate among the immigrants,
2)	the deviations that are preserved among their descendants, and 3) the deviations that make their way into general speech^20.

Generally speaking it seems that, with speakers who know the language from

13 Cp. Bloomfield 1973, 445.

14 Carr 1951, 13. Cp. James F. Kavanagh and Ignatius G. Mattingly, Language by Ear and Eye. The Relationships between Speech and Reading. Cambridge (Mass.)- London 1972.

15 Bloomfield 1973, 444. Haugen 1970, 60. Cp. Enrico Arcaini. Principes de linguislique appliquée. Traduit de l'italien. Paris 1972, 21: ‘La langue est...un produit original, indépendant des individus qui composent la communauté’, and Gilbert Ansre in Spencer 1971, 146:’...one language cannot influence another except through the mediation of a user or users of these two languages”.

16 Weinrech 1974, 83.

17 Weinreich 1974, 37; Vildomec 1963, 87, 108, 137; Arlotto 1972, 187-188.

18 Haugen 1969, 78-79; Hope 1971, 623-634.

19 Cp. Geiger 1941, 13, and Geiger 1942, 79.

20 Vildomec 1963, 80; Hope 1971, 609-611; Bloomfield 1973, 445.

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which the words are borrowed, there will be a tendency to keep the original form, whereas those who are less or not familiar with the source language will tend to adjust loans to their native patterns²¹.

A few examples may show some of the difficulties encountered in our field of research. Quite often we have to deal with a piece of linguistic history of a complex kind.

One peculiar example of international influence, interlingual similarity and linguistic coincidence is found in Sinhala kanapuvu and its English looking synonym in Sri Lanka teapoy. The two words are used to indicate a small tea-table with three legs, a tripod. Kanapuvu is derived from Dutch knaap, a threelegged occasional table, much in use in the former Netherlandic Indies. Teapoy is Anglo-Indian. According to A New English Dictionary, Vol. IX, Part. II, 130 teapoy is derived from Hindi tīn (three) + Persian pāë, pāï(foot). Indian English teapoy and Dutch Sinhala kanapuvu became competing vocables in Sri Lanka, in many ways a cross-road of languages and cultures.

A remarkable case of multilingual influence is also to be found in Sinhala akkara. It is a loan word derived from Dutch akker (a portion of land, a cultivated field). During the English occupation Sinhala akkara widened its semantic area. It changed its meaning to ‘a measure of field, the English acre’. And what to think of the following word blends, tōmbu-kantōruva (government register office): a Portuguese + Dutch compound; tapal-kantōruva (post office): a Tamil + Dutch compound; vayin viduru (wine glass): a Dutch/English + Portuguese compound; arungal (earring): a Dutch + Sinhala compound; bōnli (pole): a Dutch + Sinhala compound; etc..

A good workable knowledge of several languages is necessary to trace some of the mistakes as found in Carter's A Sinhala-English Dictionary who judges that the following vocables are of Dutch origin. A thorough scrutiny would rather point to Portuguese influence in some cases: -

Sinhala	Portuguese	English
ārukku	arco	arch
bacci	(Du. pakje? Eng. suit)	men's jacket
bastama	bastȃo	walking stick
lakada	laca	sealing wax, gum lac, lac resin
parāla	(Du. daksparre?)	rafter
rēnda	renda	pert. to toll or lace
tācci	tacho	large pan
villūda	veludo	velvet

One wonders why bacci and tacci could have been taken to be of Dutch origin. Is it because of -ci, the Sinhala replica of the Dutch diminutive -tje as in bōnci: boontje; pōcci: potje?

21 Weinreich 1974, 26-27. Cp. Juhász 1970, 10: ‘Die Beobachtungen zeigen, dass phonetische Interterenzfehler eine bedeutende höhere Frequenz haben als grammatische oder semantische’.

1.3 Practical Remarks

The modern Sinhala replica of the original Dutch model given in this study are meant to be synchronic. The Dutch loans in Sinhala are presented as bare linguistic facts of the twentieth century revealing the sum of all changes during the process of interference in the past.

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From the Dutch point of view more consideration will be given to historical aspects of the language, as the bulk of the borrowings have become known in Sri Lanka in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One has to be fully aware of the fact that for certain loans, when Dutch historical evidence can be given or even may fail, it will be necessary to have recourse to historical data bearing on two other European languages, Portuguese and English, which occasionally have some words in common with Dutch. They also have contributed to the vocabulary and the word-structure of Sinhala in historical periods, respectively before and after the Dutch period.

The Dutch joint author has perused the word-material embodied in ten dictionaries, starting with the famous Etymologicum Teutonicae Linguae sive Dictionarium Teutonico-Latinum...studio et opere Kiliani Dufflaei (1599) and ending with the voluminous Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal²². The wordlists of Hesseling (1910) and Van Ginneken (1913 and 1928) proved to be incomplete and of unequal value²³. Needless to say, that the science of linguistics since then has made progress in the field of linguistic borrowing²⁴.

Sinhala proper names, culled from Dutch documents of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, yield some source material of different quality. They show how Dutch writing authors transliterated Sinhala vocables. They might give us valuable additional information for comparing the difference of phonemic and morphemic structures of Sinhala and Dutch. The many intricate problems that are connected with the study of place-names, especially the relationship between the spoken and the written forms will be dealt with in another paper²⁵.

Before beginning our task of describing the different groups of loan words, we should pay attention to some preliminary remarks:

i) One cannot say that as a rule part of the loan words are nowadays regionally restricted, except Sinhala pastäla: Dutch pastei (Engl. patty). They have nationwide currency. Some of the Sinhala loan words from Dutch are rare, as they are in the process of disappearing. A systematic study of Sinhala writings of the last three centuries would possibly yield more material, though there are many latent difficulties²⁶. For example, if one were to accept some forty words out of Hesseling's and Van Ginneken's lists of the beginning of the twentieth century, even native speakers anno 1975 would have some difficulties in accepting that all those vocables were really Sinhala loan words. The rather seem to be strange elements in the language as spoken in the mixed (bilingual?) speech communities of the coastal area or in christianized surroundings. They probably never were incorporated in the common Sinhala language. They certainly need more detailed study. For the twentieth century we could point to the following words of Dutch origin that, though not unknown in Sinhala, have become uncommon:

būda-rāla: messenger, process-server: Du. bode
burudala: a kind of dish covered with paste, pie: Du. breeder
kompaññe: company: Du. compagnie
kostǟpal: constable: Du. konstabel
mäjislrāt: magistrate: Du. magistraat
mēstri: master: Du. meester
pitasäli: parsley: Du. peterselie
tambōruva: kind of drum: Du. tamboer
tapalakkuva: table cloth: Du. tafellaken
turampettūva: trumpet: Du. trompet

22

1

C. Kiliaen. Etymologicum teutonicae linguae sive dictionarium teutonico-latinum. [...] Antwerpen 1599.

2

C. Kiliaen. Elymologicum teutonicae linguae sive dictionarium teutonico-latinum. Ed. Gerard van Hasselt. Arnhem 1757.

3

Matthias Kraamer. Het koninglyk Neder-Hoog-Duitsch en Hoog-Nederduitsch dictionnaire, of beider hoofd- en grond-taalen woordenboek [...]. Neurenberger enz. 1719.

4

L. Meijer. Woordenschat. Verdeelt in 1. Bastaardt-woorden. 2. Konst-woorden. 3. Verouderde woorden. 10e verm. en verb. dr. 3 dln. Amsterdam 1745.

5

Willem Sewel. Volkomen woordenboek der Engelsche en Nederduitsche taalen. Nevens eene spraak-konst van dezelven [...]. Ed. Egbert Buys. 2 dln. Amsterdam 1766.

6

D. van Hoogstraten. Nederdutlsch en Latynsch woordenboek. Ten dienst der Latynsche schoolen eerst opgestelt door S. Hannot. Naderhand verm. door -. Verm. en verb. uitg. door H. Verheyk. Amsterdam en Leiden 1771.

7

François Halma. Woordenboek der Nederduitsche en Fransche taalen [...]. 2 dln. 4e (6e) dr. 's-Gravenhage en Leiden 1781.

8

P. Weiland. Kunstwoordenboek of verklaring van allerhande vreemde woorden, benamingen, gezegden en spreekwijzen [...]. Antwerpen 1843.

9

P. Weiland. Groot Nederduitsch taalkundig woordenboek. Nieuwe uitg. door H.L. Schuld, Jwzn. Dordrecht 1859.

10

Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal. Bew. door M. de Vries, L.A. te Winkel e.a. 's-Gravenhage enz., [1864]-.......dln.

23 Some of Van Ginneken's sources cannot be identified. The colloquial use of loan words in Sinhala and non Sinhala speaking circles makes it difficult to ascertain the range of loan words in the past. Cp. Te Winkel 1901, 32-35; Van der Meer 1927, XLV-XLVII; De Vooys 1975, 187-188.

24 Carstensen 1973, 510.

25 Chao 1970, 44-45. Cp. Carr 1951, 21-24.

26 Cp. Geiger 1941, 13: ‘In der literarischen Sprache besonders der älteren Zeit - in Ceylon selbst wird sie Elu genannt - wird der Gebrauch nichtarischer Lehnwörter vermieden, um so beliebter ist der von Entlehnungen aus dem Sanskrit, seltener aus Pāli, wodurch der Autor seine gelehrte Bildung erweisen konnte’. On the other hand we wonder how much information of linguistic relevance to Sri Lanka may be lying in mercantile, church and governmental archives in Asia and Europe.

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The common words bōda-rāla and kostapal (instead of būda-rāla and kostǟpal) are still in use. Kompaññē (instead of kompaññaya) is used for company in the Dutch period, the famous O.I.C..

ii) A different pronunciation of the same borrowing has nothing to do with sociolinguistic aspects in the use of the loans. One and the same person can have different pronunciations of the same word²⁷:

admirāl, amaral: admiral: Du. admiraal
äpäl, apǟla: appeal: Du. appel
aprēl, apriyel: april: Du. april
aratāpel, aratäpäl, artāpal: potatoe: Du. aardappel
bakkara, bakkarē: baker: Du. bakker
bōda-rāla, būda-rāla: messenger, process-server: Du. bode
distirikkaya, distrikkaya: district: Du. district
iskākaraya, iskāgaraya, skākarava, skāgaraya: distillery: Du. stokerij?
iskōppaya, skōppaya: shovel: Du. schop
iskrīma, skrīma: screen: Du. scherm
iskuruppuva, skuruppuva: screw: Du. schroef
istālaya, stālaya: stable: Du. stal
istirikaya, istrikkaya, strikkaya: flat-iron: Du. strijkijzer
kalāvara, kalābara: playing card (clover, clubs): Du. klaver(en)
klāk, kalāk: clerk: Du. klerk
klǟsiya, kälǟsiya: class: Du. klas(se)
kompaññaya, kompaññe, kompäniya: company: Du. compagnie
kostāpal, kostäpal: constable: Du. konstabel
oralōsuva, orlōsuva: watch, wristlet: Du. horloge
plǟnaya, pälǟnaya: plan: Du. plan
regulāsiya, rekulāsiya: regulation: Du. regulatie
sāspāna, (colloquial) rāspāna: saucepan: Du. sauspan
sitasi, (colloquial) titasi: summons: Du. citatie
soldaraya, soldare: upstairs: Du. zolder
tarappuva, tarappē: staircase: Du. trap

iii) Only in a very few cases one can say that a variant form is felt to be a colloquialism:

sāspāna, (colloquial) rāspāna: saucepan: Du. sauspan
sitasi, (colloquial) titasi: summons: Du. citatie

iv) Before we can understand the process of or stabilisation and change of the Dutch language in Sri Lanka we need a great deal more sociolinguistic evidence. Only in this way can its implantation and disappearance, and the pressure and demands which determined its radiance and extinction be explained. It is perhaps relevant therefore at this point to turn away from the present and look backwards. With the paucity of evidence available, it is clear that from a current point of view many Dutch words, marked as such in Charles Carter's A Sinhala-English Dictionary. Colombo 1924 (new printing 1965) - ‘the best of its kind and in general use’ (Preface) - are no longer known to every Sinhala speaker. They are in alphabetical order:

27 Cp. Wilhelm Geiger. ‘Etymologic des Singhalesischen.’ Abhandlungen der philosophischen-philologischen Classe der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. XXI. Band, II. Abh. München 1901, 177: “Die zahlreichen im Singhalesischen vorkommenden Doppelformen würden häufige Verweisungen nötig machen”. Cp. Quackenbush 1974, 63, 67. In Japanesè, there exist “hundreds of common loanwords” with several variant and competing pronunciations.

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Sinhala	Dutch	English
bāl	baal (18th cent.)	banquet, ball
beliyata	billet, biljet	placard, notice of sale
birōva	bureau	bureau
bōrciya	boordje	cuff
kandalāru	kandelaar	chandelier
klavīra	klavier	piano forte
lākka-(redi)	laken (stof)	broadcloth
lāppaya, lappaya,	lap	patch
lappiya
lārs	laars	boot
lōs (kārayā)	loods(man)	pilot
pirikidäla	frikkadel	fricassee
ponsa	pons (17/18th cent.)	punch
poru	voering	dress-lining
puspas	poespas	medley, jumble, bustle
senkalya	schenkel	shin or shank (of beef)
solocciya	siotje	clasp, buckle
venkalaya	winkel	(work)shop

1.4 Pronunciation and Spelling, Sound Systems and Phonetic Alphabet

There are fifty six letters in the romanized Sinhala alphabet, corresponding to the alphabet of Sinhala script, called ‘aksara mālāve’. Dutch has only twenty six letters in its alphabet. The ‘letters’ of both languages are either vowels or consonants. Not in every case does one single letter represent one single sound. There is far more regularity in the spelling of Sinhala than in Dutch²⁸.

As regards the relation between the vowel sounds in Dutch and their spelling, a distinction can be made between open and checked (closed) vowels. Long vowels are called open (or free) since they can occur anywhere, and in particular at the end of an open syllabe. Consequently in a word like poot (paw, leg) and its plural poten (po·t/po·tə), the o is open. The two syllables of the plural are split between the o and the t. A short Dutch vowel never occurs at the end of a syllable, it is always checked by the consonant that follows it. Consequently pot (pot, iar) and its plural potten (pɔt/pɔtə) have a checked o. The division between the syllables falls within this t, as is shown in an unusual spelling pronunciation and in the spelling potten. Consonants written as double are usually not pronounced as such in Dutch. In every-day language only one consonant is heard. Therefore Sinhala loans have a single consonant in aratāpel, äpäl, pakis, against the Dutch spelling aardappel, appèl, pakkist (See Section 2,3). These examples, among many others, show that borrowing took place ‘from mouth to ear’, in the act of pronouncing and reproducing the sounds in living speech. We may summarize some of the rules of pronunciation of Dutch which affect spelling:

1.	The consonant after checked (short) vowel must be doubled if another syllable be added (sauspan/ P1. sauspannen: Sinhala sāspāna, Engl. saucepan).
2.	An open (long) vowel is written with a double or single letter depending on whether it falls in closed or open syllable (closed: poot; open: poten).
3.	Final consonants are always voiceless.

28 Matzel 1966, 11: ‘Im allgemeinen spricht man im Singhalesischen wie man schreibt’. Historical foundations of the written language: Wilhelm Geiger. Grammar of the Sinhalese Language. Colombo 1938. The famous Danish linguist Rasmus Rask (1787-1832) wrote a substantial pamphlet on the subject: Singatesisk Skriftlaere. Colombo 1821. K. Nordstrand, Med Rasmus Rask pa Ceylon. Dansk Studier 53 (1859), 102 shows that the date of printing should be 1824. Some practical information can be gathered from Joannes Ruëll, Grammatica of Singaleesche Taal-Kunst [...] T' Amsterdam 1703, 1-43. Ruëll compares the pronunciations of Dutch and Sinhala.

[p. 256]

The great variety of spoken sounds can by their very nature not be described on paper, phonetic and phonological descriptions only approximate reality. Nearly all sounds vary slightly depending upon the nature of the surrounding sounds. Consonantal assimilation plays a very important part in Dutch pronunciation. Sinhala diphtongs are subjected to modification in coalescence (swara sambandhatā). Dutch historical examples are in their phoneticizations not more than informed guesses, based on the spelling and on what we know of the history of Dutch in the centuries in which the borrowings have taken place.

Since there is such disagreement and variation of practice in current theory in naming the distinctive phonetic and phonological features, we have compromised by employing traditional articulary labels, securing thereby the understanding of Asian and European readers without the rather confusing aspects of recent phonological theory ²⁹.

Our primary concern in this article will be: i. a survey of the range ofDutch-Sinhala loan words, ii. an initial study of the differences in sounds of the borrowings. Phonetic details necessary to the study of the articulation of sounds will be given in the script of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Our introduction concludes with a survey of the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants of the two languages. For the analysis in this study use has been made of B. van den Berg. Foniek van het Nederlands. 7de druk. Den Haag 1974; Jan Goossens. Historische Phonologic des Niederlandischen. Tübingen 1974, and Walter Lagerwey. Speak Dutch. An audio-lingual course. Amsterdam 1974. We follow Coates and Da Silva 1960, Matzel 1966, 5-20, and Gair 1970, 23-25 for the Sinhala language.

Dutch vowels and diphtongs
Spelling in closed syllables	:	aa	oo	uu	ee	ie	oe	eu
Spelling in open syllables		a	o	u	e	ie/i	oe	eu
Phonetic spelling for both open and closed	:	a·	o·	y·	e·	i·	u·	Ø

Spelling of checked vowels. They occur always in closed syllables.
	:	a	o	u	e	i
Phonetic spelling	:	a	ɔ	oe	ε	l

Spelling of diphthongs:
aai	ooi	oei	ieuw	eeuw	uw	ij/ei	ui	ou/au
Phonetic spelling:
a:j	o:j	u:j	i:u	e:u	y · u	εi	oe y	ɔu

29 There are some fundamental difficulties as can be gathered from Haugen 1969, 77-79 and Herbert Penzl, Vom Urgermanischen zum Neuhochdeutschen. Eine hisiorische Phonologie. Berlin 1975, 16-20, 30. The study of loan words is ‘not susceptible to the met hods of synchronic ana lysis’, and Penzl 1975, 20: ‘Die generativistische diachronische Phonologie kennt eigentlich nur synchronische Lautregelen...’. Compare also Roger Fowler. Understanding Language. An Introduction to Linguistics. London and Boston 1974, 188. Geoffrey Sampson. The Form of Language. London 1975, 137-138. - Compare Jan Goossens. Historische Phonologie des Niederlandischen. Tübingen 1974; John M. Anderson and Charles Jones (editors). Historical Linguistics I-II [...] Proceedings of the First International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh 2nd - 7th September 1973. Amsterdam - Oxford - New York 1974, 323-332. Wilhelm Geiger. Grammar of the Sinhalese Language. Colombo 1938. - Our comparison of the vowels and consonants of the two languages rests upon the method as used by Ennco Arcaini. Principes de linguistique appliquée. Paris 1972, 221-232, and Rolf Breuer und Rainer Schöwerling. Das Studium der Anglistik, Technik und Inhalte. München 1974, 174.

[p. 257]

Articulatory features of Dutch vowels are shown in Lagerwey's chart:

Sinhala vowels and diphthongs

There are six vowels in Sinhala, all occurring both long and short, with length indicated orthographically -: i, e, ä, u, o, a, / ī; ē, ǟ, ū, ō, ā.

ə/a occur only in words borrowed from English. In final position unstressed long vowels are usually shortened.

Two vowels frequently come together in Sinhala without intervening consonants. Both long and short vowels so occur.

Dutch and Sinhala consonants

Dutch	labial	dental	alveolar	retroflex	palatal	velar	glottal
voiceless stops	p	t	t		k
voiced stops	b	d	d			g
voiceless affricate
voiced affricate
nasals	m	n	n			n
flap			r
lateral			l
voiceless spirants	f		s			X	h
voiced spirants	, v		z		j

[p. 258]

Sinhala	labial	dental	alveolar	retroflex	palatal	velar	glottal
voiceless stops	p	t		ṭ		k
voiced stops	b	d		ḍ		g
voiceless affricate					c
voiced affricate					j
nasals	m		n			η
flap			r
lateral			r
voiceless spirants	f		s				h
voiced spirants
semivowels	v				y

Sinhala spirant [f] is bilabial. It occurs only in borrowed words. Many speakers regularly substitute [p] for [f]. See section 2, 4-6. The palatal affricates [c, j] are palatal stops released as spirants. The retroflex [] are articulated by curling the tip of the tongue back to make contact with the hard palate just back of the tooth-ridge.

Joannes Ruëll has written his grammatical work at the end of the seventeenth century. Ten years later, it was published in Amsterdam. Ruëll adduces late seventeenth Dutch words and sounds to illustrate the pronunciation of Sinhala words.

[p. 259]

2 Sinhala Vocables of Dutch Origin

‘Portuguese and Dutch words are almost always fully assimilated to the Sinhalese sound system’.
Coates and De Silva 1960, 163.

Cultural patterns of communication and interactions are probably the most essential and distinctive features of colonial culture. Evidence of the occupation of a country for a considerable period of time by a foreign power is invariably shown in the words of foreign origin which gain currency in the language of the subject people. The presence ofsuch words is a necessary corollary of their adoptation of the food and drink, clothing, household utensils, games, social customs, habits, manners, laws, modes of administration, arts and crafts and skills of the foreign power. In this respect the study of loan words is the study of relations between language and culture³⁰.

The rapid and massive influx in the Sinhala language of words derived from European tongues commenced with the Portuguese and continued in ever increasing measure with their successors - the Dutch and the English. The tragic story of the Sinhala people during the Portuguese period came to an end by calling in the Dutchmen's aid against the Portuguese. Portuguese however had become the lingua franca of the coastal areas. It became the home language of large numbers of the Dutch inhabitants of Ceylon. The eagerness to learn languages for practical reasons is not without comparison in Dutch colonial history. In fact, no less than two language courses specially designed to teach creole English to Dutch immigrants in Surinam were published as early as the eighteenth century³¹. As has been said in the first pages of our Introduction, Dutch-speaking employees of the upper circles in Ceylon showed themselves prepared to learn English.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch replaced the Portuguese as the catalyst of change of the social and cultural life of the people. As in the previous period, this process was reflected in the linguistic mirror.

30 Trager 1972, 106-108.

31 Abrahams and Troike 1972, 222. Frederic G. Cassidy in: Hymes 1974, 206: ‘The English-based pidgin or creole established in Surinam survived this change of government, for the Dutch did not seek to eradicate or replace it’ See also Weinreich 1974, 67, footnote. There were attempts of the Dutch to prevent Negroes in Surinam, and Malayans in East India, by law, from learning the Dutch language. - We need much more precise information on this aspect of the nature of language contact as a social fact. The problem could be dealt with by comparing e.g. the French, English, Spanish, and Dutch language policy in their practical satisfaction of colonial needs or religious proselytization. See Pierre Alexandre. An Introduction to Languages and Language in Africa. London - 1 badan - Nairobi 1972. 77: ‘French colonial policy on education and administration can be easily defined: it is the creation of François I, Richelieu, Robespierre, and Jules Ferry. Only one language is taught in the schools, recognized in law courts, and used in administration: French, as defined by the opinions of the Academy and the decrees of the minister of public education. All other languages belong to the realm of folklore, dancing around the maypole, and riding hobbyhorses and are signs of desintegration of the French Republic. Such at least were the principles concretely underlying the decrees of the 1930's, which forbade the use in teaching, even in private education, of any languages other than French (except for catechism and religious instruction, fields outside official sanction)’.
Compare Louis-Jean Calvet 1974.

2.1 Portuguese-Dutch loans in Sinhala

At the time that the Dutch occupied the coastal areas of Sri Lanka a large number of Sinhala vocables of Portuguese origin were in current use. Some of the Portuguese words from which derived these Sinhala vocables, bore a close resemblance to corresponding Dutch words³². With the gradual permeation of the Dutch influence into the Sinhala community of life, the Sinhala vocables of Portuguese origin referred to above, underwent further changes which brought them closer to the Dutch forms³³. Original Portuguese words were triggered by the phonetic similarity of the Dutch model and the Dutch pronunciation of Sinhala Portuguese. Even after the Dutch language ceased to be used in Sri Lanka, this process of adaptation went further on. The words in the following list bear this out. All the words can be found in Dutch dictionaries before 1800.

Sinhala	Dutch	Portuguese	English
advakāt	advokaat	advocado	advocate
administrāsi	administratie	administração	administration
akaradāra(va)	accoord	accordo	accord
annāsi	ananas	ananaz	pine-apple

32 Haugen 1972, 101: International Words.

33 See also Jules Delattre. De invloed van het Spaans en het Portugees op de West-Europese talen. Levende Talen no. 11. Brussel 1946. - We need the help of a linguist with Portuguese and Dutch to do research on possible influence of Portuguese on Dutch in Sri Lanka.

[p. 260]

Sinhala	Dutch	Portuguese	English
äskīsi(ya)	executie	execução	execution
balansa(ya)	balans	balanco	balance
Bayibala(ya)	Bijbel	Biblia	Bible
banku(va)	bank	banco	bank
bayinettu(va)	bajonet	baionetta	bayonet
b/viskotu	beschuit	biscoito	biscuit
bola(ya)	bol/bal	bola	ball
bora(ya)	boor(gat)	furo/buraco	bore
cītta	sits, chits	chita	chints
datama	datum	data	date
īspāsu(va)	spatie	espasso	space
kapiri, kabēri	kaffer	cafre	kaffir
kapitan	kapitein	capitao	captain
kāmara(ya)	kamer	camara	room
karatta(ya)	karretje	carreta	cart/carriage
kontrāt/-kku(va)	contract	contrato	contract
kōppa(ya)	kop	copo	cup
kriminal	crimineel	criminal	criminal
komasāris	commissaris	commissario	commissioner
kurusi(ya)	kruisje	cruz	cross
lansa(ya)	lans	lanca	lance
lantäruma	lantaarn	lanterna	lantern
läyistu(va)	lijst	lista	list
lotaräyya	loterij	loteria	lottery
mäjistrāt	magistraat	magistrado	magistrate
nommara	nommer, nummer	número	number
notaris	notaris	notario	notary
notīsi(ya)	notitie	noticia	notice
	{ horologie
oralōsu(va)		relogio	clock, watch
	{ horloge
pälǟna	plan	plano	plan
panel	flanel	flanella	flannel
pāppa	pap	papa	pap
			{ cartridge-box
patoron	patroon	patrona
			{ cartouch-box
pēra	peer	pera	pear(guava)
perakalāsi(ya)	procuratie	procuração	procuration
piskal	fiscaal	fiscal	fiscal
pistōla(ya)	pistool	pistola	pistol
polīsi(ya)	politie	policia	police
pōcci(ya)	potje	pote	earthen pot
salāda	salade	salada	salad
sekaratāris	secretaris	secretario	secretary
			{ citation/quotation,
sitāsi	citatie	citaçao
			{ summons to appear
soldādu(vā)	soldaat	soldado	soldier
testamentu	testament	testamento	testament

This closeness in form of Portuguese and Dutch words resulted in the happy situation of the Dutch being able to establish easy communication with the local inhabitants who spoke a language richly larded with words of Portuguese origin. The advantage was of course of mutual benefit to both parties.

[p. 261]

Prior to the invasions by European nations the years were reckoned in Sri Lanka according to either the Saka era which is of astronomical significance or the Buddhist era which is of religious significance. The naming of the months was also done according to certain configurations of the stars. This system of years and months was superseded generally in the maritime provinces by the western system based on the Roman Calendar after the advent of the Portuguese. From about the second decade of the 19th century the system introduced by the foreigners gained sway over the entire Island for general use. The ancient traditional system was preserved for special purposes of national and religious significance. The Sinhala names of the twelve months which are in current use today are derived from bases of Portuguese/Dutch admixture. The following list bears this out:

Portuguese	Sinhala	Dutch	English
Janeiro	Janavāri	Januari	January
Fevereiro	Pebaravāri	Februari	February
Marco	Māratu	Maart	March
Abril	Aprēl/Apriyel	April	April
Maio	Mäyi	Mei	May
Junho	Jūni	Juni	June
Julho	Jūli	Juli	July
Agosto	Agōstu	Augustus	August
Setembro, Septembro	Septämbara	September	September
Outubro	Octobara	October	October
Novembro	Novembara	November	November
Dezembro	Desämbara	December	December

In official Dutch documents in Holland the Latin or Dutch names of the months were also in use: -

Januarius	:	Louwmaant
Februarius	:	Sprokkelmaant, blyde maant, sprokkel
Martius	:	Lentemaant
April	:	Grasmaant
Majus	:	Bloeimaant
Junius	:	Zomermaant, weimaant, wiedemaant, braakmaant
Julius	:	Hooimaant
Augustus	:	Oegstmaant, arnmaant
September	:	Herfstmaant, speltmaant, garstemaant
October	:	Wynmaant, braakmaant, aarzelmaant, zaaymaant
November	:	Slagtmaant
December	:	Wintermaant

During the Dutch occupation of Ceylon there seems to have been a strong tendency to use only the names from Latin origin, excluding the Dutch.

In Dutch extracts in former Ceylon the names of the months were often indicated partly by numbers, according to the old style, when the year began in March³⁴. Thus:

September is written 7ber, October 8ber, November 9ber, and December Xber. We close this section on Portuguese-Dutch loans in Sinhala with a remark on Carter's term ‘Portuguese’ as used in his Sinhala-English Dictionary. It is very likely that the following vocables are not Portuguese but of Dutch origin:

34 Lewis 1909, 23.

[p. 262]

Sinhala	Dutch	English
bōkku	boog(welfsel)	pert. to an arch or vault
istōppu	stoep	verandah, portico
gǟspara	gesp	buckle
jalusi	jalousie	venetian blind, lattice
kerakōppu	kerkhof	cemetery
läyistu	lijst	list
notīsi	notitie	notice
notāris	notaris	notary
pasmentu	passament	lace, fringe
perakalāsi	procuratie	warrant of attorney
taksēru	taxeren	to appraise, assess, estimate

2.2 Semantic Classification of Sinhala Borrowings from Dutch

The following lists of semantic categories would give an idea of the extent of Dutch influence on Sinhala vocables relating to matters in different spheres. Typical examples of borrowings are grouped in each section of concomitant loans³⁵.

(i) The most outstanding legacy of the Dutch to Sri Lanka is the system of Roman-Dutch Law. The Roman-Dutch Law was not the common law of the Island during the Dutch rule. Under the Dutch all the native races were governed by their own laws. During the Dutch rule Burghers and probably a few Sinhalese who gained the status of Burghers were governed by the Dutch Laws. Dutch Laws may have been introduced in 1674. Judges and lawyers during the British period made the Dutch law the common law of Ceylon³⁶.

Sinhala	Dutch	English
äpäl	appèl	appeal
äskīsi(ya)	executie	execution
bankolot	bankroet	bankrupt
būdala(ya)	boedel	estate
komasāris	commissaris	commissioner
kantōru(va)	kantoor	office
klāk, kalāk	klerk	clerk
kuvitansi(ya)	kwitantie	receipt
perakalāsi(ya)	procuratie	warrant of Attorney
polmah(kārayā)	volmacht	executor
rapōrtu(va)	rapport	report
regulāsi(ya), rekulāsi	regulatie	regulation
taksēru(va)	taxeren	value
tolka(ya)	tolk	interpreter
wendēsi(ya)	venditie, vendutie	auction

(ii) Solidly constructed Dutch buildings with massive walls and large doors and window frames have withstood the ravages of time and are still in use. Sinhala workmen were no doubt employed on these construction works and the terms they learnt from the Dutch overseers are much in evidence in current Sinhala. The following list gives some of these terms:

35 Weinreich 1974, 56-61: Reasons for Lexical Borrowing.

36 See P.B. Sannasgala's forthcoming book on the subject.

[p. 263]

Sinhala	Dutch	English
bakki(ya)	bak/bakje	tray
bālka/bälka(ya)	balk	beam
bās	baas	chief workman
kalampa	klamp	clamp
lāccu(va)	laatje	drawer
panēl, panēla	paneel	panel
rāmu(va)	raam	frame
soldara(ya)	zolder	attic, upper floor

Sinhala jalusi: venetian blind, lattice: Du. jaloesie, is a vocable no longer in use. Chief artisans are called bās and mēstrī. The latter is obsolete, although the word is still a family name in Sri Lanka.

(iii) The Sinhala language also owes a good deal of words relating to food and drink, clothes and personal ornaments to the Dutch. The following are some examples:

Sinhala	Dutch	English
arun(gala)	oorring	earring
artāpal, artäpäl	aardappel	potatoes
bīra	bier	beer
burudala	broeder	a kind of cake
bci	boontje	bean
hāk	haak	hook, hooks and eyes.
säldiri	selderie, selderij	celery
sūkiri	suiker	sugar
tapalakku(va)	tafellaken	table-cloth
wayin	wijn	wine

Sinhala pitasäli (: parsley: Du. peterselie) is a disappearing word. Ponsa (punch Du. punch, pons in the older language,) has been replaced by the English vocable punch. Imported commodities in earlier days were lākka(-redi) (: broadcloth: Du. laken); poru(-redda) (: dress-lining: Du. voering); lāppaya, lappaya, lappiya: (a piece of cloth, patch: Du. lap); bōrci (: cuff: Du. boordje); solocci(ya) (: clasp, buckle: Du. slotje); gäspara(ya) (:buckle: Du. gesp). Van Ginneken 1928 has gaaspoeva with the same meaning. There also we find knopskattia (: buttonhole: Du. knoopsgat); borstrokoeva (: singlet: Du. borstrok); daasiya (:necktie: Du. dasje). Lārs (: boot: Du laars). - Nowadays the average citizen in Sri Lanka does not know these vocables. An exception should be made for the compound poru-damaravā (: to line a cloth, to pad: Du. voeren).

(iv) The playing of cards is a pastime that seems to have been introduced in Sri Lanka by the Dutch. The names of the cards in the pack have been taken trom the Dutch as will be seen from the following list:

Sinhala	Dutch	English
äsi(ya)	aas	ace
būru(va)	boer	knave

[p. 264]

Sinhala	Dutch	English
hārata	harten	heart
hēra	heer	king
iskōppu	schoppen	spades
porova	vrouw	queen
kalābara	klaveren	clover(clubs)
ruyita	ruiten	diamonds

Another game which the Dutch have given is playing of draughts. In Sinhala this is known as dan or dam, derived from the Dutch dam.

(v) With regard to tools of trade, industries, household goods and utensils, modern Sinhala is enriched with Dutch borrowings which have survived the British period and are in currency today.

Sinhala	Dutch	English
avagāra(ya)	avegaar	auger
karāma(ya)	kraan	tap
kētal(ya)	ketel	kettle
poroppa(ya)	prop	cork
saranēru(va)	scharnier	hinge
skākara(ya)	stokerij?	distillary
skōppa(ya)	schop	shovel
skuruppu(va)	schroef	screw
stirikka(ya)	strijker. strijk(ijzer)	iron
tarappu(va)	trap	stair

Sinhala tirikkala(ya) (: Indian bullock-cart) probably is a derivative from South-African Dutch trekker, the ox who draws the cart, hence the vehicle drawn by the bullock. In former days Dutchmen living in South Africa went to Indian regions. The Sinhala meaning of tirikkala would imply ‘a loan extension’ (see section 3,2). - The Sinhala words bönlī(ya) (: Du. boom (pole) + Sinhala li(stick, pole): pole of a vehicle, cart: Du. (dissel)boom), and Sinhala bonkāra ( Du. boom + Sinhala kāra (neck) neck-pole of a hackery), belong to the same semantic field. So does bos-gedi(ya) (: Du. bos, bus (hub) + Sinhala gedi (round): hub of a wheel).

(vi) The extent to which Dutch influence permeated the Sinhala society is evidenced by the following list of miscellaneous words:-

Sinhala	Dutch	English
bakkara	bakker	baker
būru	boer	farmer?; knave
istāl(ya)	stal	stable
karatta(ya)	karretje	cart
kerakōppu(va)	kerkhof	church yard
kōki(yā)	kok	cook
mōla	molen	mill
pakis(pettiya)	pakkist	packing case
pāppa	pap	pulp

[p. 265]

pōcci	potje	(little) pot
puyara	poeier	powder
tambōru	tamboer	drummer
wendēsi,vendési	venditie, vendutie	auction
wāpana(ya), bapana(ya)	wapen, wapenschild	{coat of arms, shoulderbelt,
wāpana(ya), bapana(ya)	wapen, wapenschild	{peon's belt, sash

The above study of Sinhala vocables of Dutch origin indicates the far-reaching influence which the Dutch have exerted on the manifold facets of Sinhala life and the deep and abiding impress they have thereby left on Sinhala culture. We have good reason to quote the famous Dutch linguist Lambert ten Kate: ‘Without intercourse however one does not borrow vocables and one certainly would not reject his own in order to appropriate them’³⁷.

37 [Lambert ten Kate]. Gemeenschap tusschen de Gottische Sprake en de Nederduytsche. Amsterdam 1710, 16. The work appeared as an anonymous book.

2.3 Vowels and Consonants of Dutch loans in Sinhala

A study of the Dutch loan words in Sinhala shows a behaviour of transliterating and changes of sounds according to a fairly constant pattern. In the following we propose to treat of the various changes in transliteration and pronunciation which these original Dutch words have undergone in being adopted into Sinhala.

i) The most noteworthy fact about the changes Dutch words have undergone in order to become Sinhala, as will be seen from the examples, is the addition of vowels to syllables which in Dutch end in consonants. An inflectional adjustment and gender allignment of the loans take place in the borrowing process³⁸:

Dutch	Sinhala
balk	bālka
boedel	būdala
boer	būru
kantoor	kantōru
ketel	kētala
klamp	kalampa
kraan	karāma
paneel	panēla
raam	rāmu
rapport	rapōrtu
tamboer	tambōru
zolder	soldara

The nominative single of the words is formed by adding semivowel y or v to the stem, as in balkaya and raportuva etc. raportuva

ii) The same process (cp. i) also takes place in some instances with doubling of the original Dutch consonant. This is illustrated in the following words:

38 Cp. Anttila 1972, 157; Weinreich 1974, 44-46: Grammatical Integration of Transferred Words; Calvet 1974, 90-91.

[p. 266]

Dutch	Sinhala
pap	pāppa
prōp	poroppa
schop	(i)skōppa
stoep	(i)stōppu
strijker	(i)stirikka
trap	tarappu
wijk	wayikka

The Dutch vocables kerkhof, schroef are rendered with a consonantal change and doubling of that consonant, Sinhala kerakōppu, skuruppu. On the consonantal change of Dutch f and v in the borrowing process see iv - vi.

iii) When Sinhala words of Dutch origin have s + stop cluster, an initial i- is prefixed³⁹. The prothetic vowel before that consonant can be seen in the following exampies:-

Dutch	Sinhala
scherm	iskirīma
schop	iskōppa
schroef	iskuruppu
stal	istālya
strijker	istirikka
stoep	istōppu
stokerij?	iskākara

As already has been said in 1,3 the Sinhala pronunciation of these words is also heard without a full prothetic vowel. If pronounced, the prothetic vowel has only a secondary accent or even less. Similar examples of words conforming to the sound pattern of the borrowing language can be found in Portuguese, a language spoken in Sri Lanka. Compare Portuguese escaparate, escuma with Dutch schaprade, schapraai, schuim, etc.

iv) Initial f and v in Dutch loan words become labial p in Sinhala. For example:-

Dutch	Sinhala
februari	Pebaravāri
fiscaal	piscal
flanel	panēl
volmacht	polmah(-kārayā)
vrouw	porowa (queen in card-playing)

Sinhala wendēsi (Dutch venditie, vendutie) is not subjected to this change of the initial consonant. The Sinhala pronunciation however has bilabial w instead of Dutch labiodental v.

The typical consonantal change of Dutch f and v to Sinhala p should not be studied as isolated cases. Compare the pronunciation of Dutch vocables in the former

39 Arlotto 1972, 187: Turkish loan words ispirto (Italian spirito), istasyon (French station), iskoc (English scotch). Cp. John M. Lipski. ‘Rule Interaction and Rule Loss’. In: Neophilologus LVIII (1974), 273-281: examples in Romance languages. See also Eldred Jones in Spencer 1971, 70: stay > te, spit > pit, scrape > krep in Sierra Leone Krio.

[p. 267]

Dutch colony, now called Indonesia: flanel - pelanel, frikkadel - perkedel, vermouth - permoet, veer - peer, pir, verguld - pergol, fles - ples, vonnis - poennis, vriend - prin, voordracht - podrah, voorstel - poersetel. More examples can be found in Van Ginneken 1928,334-349. He also mentions Sinhala pirikidäla (fricassee, Du, frikadel).

v) Final fricative f in Dutch becomes a double labial p in Sinhala, as in:

Dutch	Sinhala
kerkhof	kerakōppu
schroef	iskuruppu

vi) In some cases intervocalic Dutch f and ff change into Sinhala p. Dutch tafellaken (table-cloth) becomes Sinhala tapalakku. Van Ginneken (1928, 306) also mentions the famous Dutch poffertjes (kind of small pancake) which half a century ago were known in Ceylon as popercis. Here again one should compare the Dutch loan words in the Indonesian archipelago: tafellaken - tapelak, buffet - boepet, koffiekan - gopikan, etc.

vii) Final n in loan words of Dutch origin is represented by the labial m in Sinhala. Examples are:

Dutch	Sinhala
dozijn, Eng. dozen	dusima
kraan	karāma
lantaarn	lantāruma
patroon	patoruma

viii) The diminutive -tje in the final syllable of a Dutch word is replaced by palatal -ci in Sinhala:

Dutch	Sinhala
boontje	bōnci
kruisje	kurusi
laatje	laccu
muntje	minci
potje	pōcci

The diminutive -je is rendered -ki in Sinhala. Dutch bakje - Sinhala bakki. The diminutives bōrci (cuff: Du. boordie), and solocci (clasp, buckle: Du. slotje) are obsolete words.

ix) The dental t, written in Dutch loan words of French origin, in combination with the high vowel ie in the final syllabe of a Dutch word is replaced by the fricative s + high vowel in Sinhala. The Sinhala transliteration corresponds to the Dutch pronunciation of the suffix -tie. The borrowing process took place by way of oral tradition, and not in ‘a paper-to-paper transfer’⁴⁰. Examples are as follows:

40 Carr 1951, 16; Quackenbush 1974, 64, 73.

[p. 268]

Dutch	Sinhala
administratie	administrāsi
executie	äskīsi
kwitantie	kuvitānsi
notitie	notīsi
procuratie	perakalāsi
venditie, vendutie	wendēsi
regulatie	regulāsi, rekulāsi

x) Double consonants in Dutch words are often reduced to a single consonant in the Sinhala transliteration. This is in accordance with the pronunciation habits of Dutch speakers. Again we find evidence of the ‘earmarks of an ear word’⁴¹. Apparently the borrowings are not from the written or printed page:

Dutch	Sinhala
aardappel	artāpal
appèl	äpäl
commissaris	comasāris
karretje	karattaya
pakkist	pakis

xi) Conjoint consonants in the first (stressed) syllables of Dutch words are often interposed by epenthetic vowels a, e, i. o, u in Sinhala⁴²:

Dutch	Sinhala
kerkhof	kerakōppu
klamp	kalampa
klasse	kälǟsi
klaveren	kalābara
klerk	kalāk
kraan	karāma
kwitantie	kuvitānsi
plan	pälāna
procuratie	perakalāsi
prop	poroppa
scharnier	saranēru
schroef	(i)skuruppu
scherm	(i)skirīma
secretaris	sekaratāris
strijker	(i)stirikka
trap	tarappu
trekker	tirikkala
troef	turumpu
vrouw	porowa

See also the epenthetic vowels in other stressed syllables:

bankroet	bankolot
februan	Pebaravari
lantaarn	lantāruma
patroon	patoroma

41 Carr 1951, 17.

42 Cp. Ichikawa 1930, 179-190; Carr 1951, 13-25.

[p. 269]

A considerable number of vocables are to be found in Van Ginneken's book (1928, 334-349) which show similar alterations in Dutch words used in Indonesia.

xii) In some instances the frill r in Dutch is represented by / in Sinhala, as in:

Dutch	Sinhala
bankroet	bankolot
procuratie	perakalāsi

See also the unstressed -er in Du. broeder, trekker, daksparre: Sinh. burudala, tirikkala, parāla (?).

xiii) Double vowels in Dutch words are generally reduced to a single long vowel in Sinhala writing. This vowel-shortening is a matter of transliteration. Dutch writers in Sri Lanka represented long Sinhala vowels by doubling the vowels⁴³:

Dutch	Sinhala
aas	āsiyā
admiraal, ammiraal	admiral, amaral
advocaat	advakāt
avegaar	avagāra
baas	bās
boontje	bōnci
boor	bōraya
kantoor	kantōruva
magistraat, majestraat	mahēstrat, mäjistrāt
paneel	panēla
raam	rāmuva

xiv) The diphthong oe in Sinhala words borrowed from Dutch is represented by u and o. This remarkable difference should be viewed in the light of vowel-harmony. Examples are:

Dutch	Sinhala
boedel	būdala
bankroet	bankolot
boer	būru
koets	kōcci
poeier	puyara
schroef	(i)skuruppu
tamboer	tambōru
troef	turumpu

The diphthong ou in Du. vrouw is rendered o in Sinhala porowa.

xv) The diphthong ij in Dutch words is represented by ayi or äy(i) in Sinhala. The Sinhala pronunciation of ayi is nearly as in English tie [ta·i]. In läyistuva (list), lotaräyya (lottery), wäyikkya äy is pronounced nearly as the Dutch diph-

43 Lewis 1909, 21.

[p. 270]

thong, which is different from the English diphthong. The first vowel is [e], lower mid front.

Dutch	Sinhala
bijbel	bayibala
lijst	läyistuva
loterij	lotaräyya
wijk	wäyikkya
wijn	wayin

xvi) The front-rounded vowels u [Y] and uu [y], pronounced very short in Dutch muntje, executie, minuut are rendered in Sinhala with i [l]: minci, äsksi, minittu(va). The diphthong ui in Du. ruiten is rendered uyi [ɔ i + semivowel(glide)] in Sinhala ruyita: Eng. diamonds.

xvii) The main stress in Dutch is generally on the first syllable. Unstressed syllables containing the unstressed vowel e, e.g. el, er are rendered al, ar in Sinhala loan words.

Dutch	Sinhala
aardappel	artāpal
boedel	būdala
ketel	kētala
bakker	bakkara
klaveren	kalābara
loterij	lotaräyya
poeier	puyara
stokerij?	(i)skākara
zolder	soldara

A few examples have -er, -ir. Suiker, selder(ie): Sinh. sūkiri, säldiri

As has been stated in the beginning, this article is only a piloting survey of problems in the specialized field of loan word study. The authors are convinced that more work has to be done in order to trace in greater detail the many changes that go together with the phenomena of exchange of words. Borrowing and its resulting terms, called loan words, remain somehow apart from the main body of the borrowing language, and continue to exhibit their foreigness and apartness. However, an important point can be made from the preceding discussion. As long as borrowed vocables remain reasonably similar phonologically to their originals and betray their foreign surroundings, they remain foreign and unassimilated. Words are not been ‘borrowed’ until they have been adapted - phonologically and morphemically⁴⁴. No two languages have identical linguistic systems. A borrowed word of another language is heard in terms of the phonemes and morphemes of the hearer's language. A concluding section shows how the linguistic features of borrowings are inextricably connected with the social and cultural changes in a speech community.

44 Trager 1972, 105, 113. Cp. Quackenbush 1974, 66 on ‘true loanwords..totally unassimilated foreign words, and those borrowings that are at some transitional state in between’.

[p. 271]

3 The Retailoring of the Loans

‘...we may say that the so-called “cultural” loans are only islands in a sea of interrelationships among languages’. Haugen 1972, 335.

3.1 Intimate and Cultural Loans

In discussing the external history of the words borrowed from other languages it is necessary to distinguish between what Bloomfield calls ‘intimate’ loans and ‘cultural’ loans⁴⁵. The ‘intimate’ loans are a result of intimate contact, within a given territory, of populations speaking different languages. Intimate borrowing occurs ‘when two languages are spoken in what is geographically and politically a single community’. Every speech community learns from its neighbours through cultural borrowing⁴⁶.

The intimate borrowings include loans by a substratum, by a superstratum, and by an adstratum. The first occurs when a defeated population accepts the language of the victors, the second when the victors accept the language of the defeated, and the third when the two languages exist side by side, creating a state of bilingualism⁴⁷.

The coastal area of Sri Lanka developed in the course of time its own way of life and its own political identity. There was also to a certain extent a linguistic differentiation of the island. Sinhala loan words from the Dutch occur mainly in semantic spheres of law, administration, building, food and drink, pastime and several industries. One cannot say that the borrowings in Sinhala are to be found in a wider semantic field than that of cultural novelties. They are not ‘intimate’ loans. The Sinhala people as a whole didn't become bilingual or ‘mixed’. Accordingly there are no loans by substratum as is the case, when a defeated people accepts the language of its victors.

Many Dutch immigrants became more or less bilingual by using Portuguese in their daily affairs. For generations they were integrated in the mixed Portuguese-Sinhala community of Sri Lanka. When learning of the second language is not perfect, one speaks of adstratum with its various kinds of borrowing, that is vocabulary, adstratum phonetics, and eventually syntax. This development is at the base of i) the fact that Portuguese of a sort remained the lingua franca in the coastal area of Sri Lanka during the Dutch period, and ii) that a considerable number of Portuguese-Dutch loan words in Sinhala show the influence of Dutch phonology, that is, sound substitution.

The spreading of Portuguese or Dutch, and in the given case, Portuguese-Dutch loan words in the Sinhala speaking population as a whole has been gradualy, especially in more peaceful times, when opposing parties communicated in a more friendly way than in the past. It should perhaps be stated expressly that, although the phonological change spreads gradually, the borrowed innovation is clearly not gradual⁴⁸. The adoption of new words, that reflect distinct cultural worlds or communities, happens at once in the speakers’ vocabulary. Linguistic findings give support to this view. Every speaker is constantly adapting his speech habits and his lexicon to those of his interlocutors. There may be even back-and-forth switching⁴⁹. In this sense we could say that the notions ‘Lautwandel’ and ‘borrowing’ are open to objection. The interrelationships among languages and, the intercourse in speech take place between individuals and groups of individuals. They

45 Bloomfield 1973, 461. Cp. Weinreich 1974, 56.

46 Bloomfield 1973, 445.

47 Vildomec 1963, 103.

48 King 1969, 113-117; Quackenbush 1974, 61

49 Bloomfield 1973, 327-328; Weinreich, Labov, Herzog 1968, 156.

[p. 272]

can adopt and adjust their speechforms and their lexical forms at the speakers' and the listeners' convenience⁵⁰. In the end the bare linguistic facts reveal the sum of all changes and the remaining differences, as is shown by the different pronunciations of the same word (cp. introduction).

50 Cp. Paul 1970, 63; Haugen 1972, 335; Trager 1972, 105.

3.2 Interrelationships of Borrowing

There are two main ways of coining new words by introducing loan words of Dutch origin in Sinhala. Either a loan is built according to the phonetic shape of the given foreign expression interpreted in terms of the Sinhala phonemic system (see previous wordlists), or a borrowing is introduced in a compound made up of the ingredients of the two languages. The Sinhala element of the compound supplements the loan word. See section 3.3.3.1.

One tendency is most remarkable. The sounds used are within the inventory of the phonemes of the borrowing language. They approximate the sounds of the foreign language rather than imitate as closely as possible the foreign pronunciation of the source language. In this way the phonemic elements of the model (or source) language are prone to be caught by change in the borrowing process when the receiving language has not the same sounds in its phonemic system.

Special attention should be given to the semantic aspects of borrowing. When a word is borrowed, it may be borrowed in its entirity, with all its various meanings of the source language. That there is still a difference in the complex system of the semantic field may be disregarded here. A word may also be borrowed only in one of several meanings. From the semantic aspect, the borrowing may therefore only be partial. The meaning is usually a narrow, specialised one, as may be seen from the following lists in section 3.3.

The function of loan words in their respective semantic field is determined by the nature, use and degree of popularity of things and ideas borrowed. No one needs to be reminded that semantics is at the very heart and core not merely of language, but of human civilization. The semantic study of loan words is therefore closely connected with the study of civilization, in so far as the latter is acquired from without. The problem of function of loan words in Sinhala calls to mind three main categories:

1.	Words borrowed in isolation with the thing they designate. These may fit easily into their particular field side by side with native words or words previously borrowed from other languages. They may be characterized by a great degree of assimilation, not only formal but also semantic. The following is a select list of examples: akkara, akker, acre arungal, oorring, earring batā, betaal-betalen, subsistence money bos-gedi, bos, hub of a wheel. Cp. Sinhala kimbulmuir, nave of wheel istōppu, stoep, hall, verandah iskākara, iskāgara, stokerij (?), arrack distillery senkala, schenkel, shank (of beef). Cp. Sinhala gangha, shank, leg.
2.	Words borrowed singly, but to which in the same field others can be added. These words designate something specifically foreign, they do not become so

[p. 273]

	easily assimilated. The obsolete words between brackets show how in some cases the semantic field of loan words has desintegrated in the course of time: kētala, ketel, kettle; pocci, potje, pot; saspana, sauspan, sauce-pan; (tacci, tacho, large pan; gäspara, gāspu, gesp, buckle; solocci, slot, clasp, buckle; lakka-, laken, cloth); panel, flanel, flannel; garadi, grade, trellis, trellis-work; (jalusi, jaloesie, lattice)
3.	Words borrowed as component parts of a whole unit and constituting its field: asi, būru, hārata, hēra, iskōppu, porova, kalabara, ruyita: aas, boer, harten, heer, schoppen, vrouw, klaveren, ruiten: ace, knave, heart, king, spades, queen, clubs, diamonds.

Other examples are to be found in sections 2, (iii) and (v).

The relativity of meaning becomes paramount as we pass from one language to another.

It is obvious that class 1) leaves most room for semantic development and change (see also sections 3.3.3.2. and 3.3.3.3. on the following pages). Class 2) also leaves some room for semantic change, but any developments may react on the other words in the same field. It is clear that class 3) leaves the least scope of all, as any change in one element of the semantic field would react on all the others.

3.3 Scale of Borrowings

The interlingual changes of borrowing can be schematized as follows⁵¹:

51 Haugen 1969, 60-68; Haugen 1972, 82-93; Tsuzaki 1970, 22-25.

[3.3.1.]

Morphemic importation, in which an aspect of the source or model language from the donor language is transferred to the loan or replica in the recipient language. Forms which show only importation are called loan words. They may be taken with the foreign morphemes unchanged or classified according to the degree of phonemic substitution: none, partial, complete. Examples are abundant in the linguistic material supplied in section 2 of this paper. As a rule Dutch words are interpreted in terms of the Sinhala phonemic system.

[3.3.2.]

A second manner of integration is based on the process of partial substitution, in which an aspect of the source is reproduced by an equivalent in the recipient language. All substitution involves a certain degree of linguistic analysis by the borrower of the model he is introducing into his own language. Part of the word, especially if it is a compound or derivative or interpreted as such, is substituted by a corresponding morpheme from the borrowing language. The result is called loanblend. It manifests both importation and substitution. Examples taken from Pennsylvania Dutch are: bassig: Eng. bossy; fonnig: Engl. funny; tricksig: Eng. tricky. Judging by the examples in linguistic papers and handbooks, it seems that loanblends are especially to be found in morphologically related languages. The coastal speech communities in Sri Lanka were practically not familiar with the Dutch language, as Portuguese was the colloquial language. Lexicon building with partial substitution of Dutch morphemes can scarcely have taken place.

[p. 274]

[3.3.3.]

A third class consists of borrowings which exhibit morphemic or semantic substitution, including narrowing of meaning. They are labelled loanshifts. The term ‘shift’ is suggested because they appear in the recipient language as functional shifts on the level of native morphemes or semantics. Loanshifts as loan translations show morphemic substitution without importation. A distinction can be made between 1) loan translation, 2) semantic change, 3) partial borrowing. As will be seen the appearance of new word functions in a language often brings to light startling semantic changes.

[3.3.3.1.]

What is basically involved in loan translation is translating the component parts of a foreign word into roots native to the borrowing language. Loan translations are possible where the foreign language is understood⁵². In our introduction we have pointed out that in Sri Lanka the Dutch language was only spoken in the upper governmental circles, Portuguese being the colloquial language to communicate with the inhabitants. This may explain why there are no real Dutch loan translations in Sinhala.

Closely connected with loan translation are some Sinhala compounds made up of the ingredients of the two languages. The first part is the loan of Dutch origin, the second part is a Sinhala vocable. Some of these loan words undergo the process of repetition in translation of the type Weinreich mentions: Brazilian German presus-holen, cavalho-Pferd; Schwyzertütsch fini-fertig⁵³. Some Sinhala words have been modified by a vocable of Dutch origin in a way comparable to ‘repetition in translation’:

arungal: oorring + gal (= slone): earring · oorring
bonlī: boom + lī (= pole) · pole of a vehicle: (dissel)boom
pänamas-pihihya: pennemes + pihiya (=knife): penknife: pennemes
pakis-pettiya: pakkist + pettiya (= box): packing case: pakkist.

In some instances the Sinhala word supplements the borrowed part of the compound:

akta-patraya: certificate-paper: act of appointment
bōda-rāla: messenger-man: process-server: gerechtsbode
bos-gediya: boss + round: hub (of a wheel): bus, naaf van een wiel.

The following is a select list of examples which show semantical word compounding:

adminisirāsi-kārāya: administrative worker: administrator
polmah-kārayā: procuration-executor: Du. volmacht= proxy
olandakkārayā: Holland - man: Dutchman
molakārayā: mill-man, mill-owner: molenman, molenaar
jurikārāyō: jurymen: leden van de jury
laccu-pettaqama: chest of drawers: ladenkast
poru-damarovā: to line a cloth, to pad: voeren
vendēsi-karānava: to sell by auction: op een vendutie bij opbod verkopen
oralōsu-karuva: watchmaker: horlogemaker
sipiri-gē: prison: gevangenis, gevangenishuis: gē= house, huis.

In the Netherlands the jailer (cipier) was ordered to live in one of the buildings of the prison: Cypiers sullen hun woonstede houden, en slapen in de vangenisse:

52 Weinreich 1974, 51.

53 Weinreich 1974, 52.

[p. 275]

Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal III, ii, 2040. - The Sinhala name for prison is hiva-gē, the house where one is put into the blocks. The survival of both the Sinhala and the Dutch word entails a specialization in the context of the miniature system⁵⁴.

Thus the Dutch influence on the vocabulary of Sinhala is manifested in different shades of compounding. Only the first (small) group of the foregoing examples shows some habit of translating from the Dutch. It is possible that more translated terms have been in use in a former bilingual speech community.

54 Weinreich 1974, 50-55.

[3.3.3.2.]

The story of Sinhala word borrowings leads us into the study of semantic divergences. Semantic change often occurs between two languages in the forces of the borrowing process⁵⁵. It involves a new meaning of a vocable which may be previously borrowed. Since knowledge of a language and the way of its speakers go hand in hand, it may be thought that the following semantic changes of original Dutch words can be explained through cultural influence in Sinhala surroundings:

Dutch akker: a field, tilled ground
Sinhala akkara: English measure of land, acre
Dutch duit: doit, half a farthing (Sewel's Dictionary) twopence (Halma's Dictionary)
Sinhala doyity: doit, quarter of a farthing (Carter's Dictionary) ma laūga tava doyituvak nǟ: I have not even a Clipper penny
Dutch koets: coach, chariot, carriage
Sinhala kōcci: carriage: asvakōcci: a horse drawn carriage; coach, railway train
Dutch stoep: the stones or pavement before the threshold the step at the entrance of a house, entrance
Sinhala istōppu: hall, entrance; portico, verandah
Afrikaans trek: to travel by ox wagon, to make a long, hard or tedious journey: Dutch trekken
Sinhala tirikkala: Indian bullock-cart. The Dutch or Afrikaans replica of Sinhala tirikkala is trekker.
Dutch betalen - betaling: to pay - payment
Sinhala batā: subsistence money

55 Vildomec 1963, 128-130; Weinreich 1974, 48-50.

[3.3.3.3.]

Only a minority of loan words has more than one meaning although the vocable may have several meanings in the original (or source) language. The reason for this is evident: Sinhala has only borrowed words which have no native equivalent. Being cut off from their etymological and other semantic connections, these borrowings are ideally suited as ‘technical’ terms in their new environment. Examples of loan words with a narrow meaning through partial borrowing are found in Sinhala.

The terms for playing cards: hārata, hēra, porova, kalābara, ruyita are specialised meanings of common Dutch words with several meanings. This applies also to other semantical categories as can be seen by comparing eighteenth century Dutch dictionaries (see footnote 22) and the following Sinhala borrowings in the sphere of the court and the public life of the Island: administrāsi-, bōda-rāla (process server), äsksi, notsi, būdala (estate, property), bāpane/wāpanē (coat of arms). Sinhala bās and mēstri are used for chief artisans in carpentry, masonry, machinery. The Dutch original words for Sinhala bōkku (arch), bonkara (neck-pole), bakki (box), hak (hook), poroppa (cork), rāmu (frame), soldara (upstairs),

[p. 276]

senkāla (shank of beef), sūkuri (sugar-candy) are also good examples in case.

To sum up, the scale and interrelationships of borrowings may be represented in a table showing the various types and mechanisms⁵⁶:

	Morphemic importation	Morphemic substitution	Sound substitution
Loan words	+	-	±
Loanblends	+	+	±
Loanshifts loan translation semantic change partial borrowing	-	+	±
Pronunciation borrowing	-	-	±
Sound change	-	-	±

It would be serious drawback to assume that only the facts of sound change, phonetic or phonological, are deserving a fine-grained investigation⁵⁷. Our main purpose has been to examine the nature of linguistic contacts that made the borrowings possible, and to indicate the range of transference of linguistic features in Sinhala loan words of Dutch origin. Our task has been to find a convincing correlation between the linguistic and historical evidences combining cultural with linguistic materials⁵⁸.

Following a proposal originally advanced by Dr. B.P. Sannasgala, Senior Lecturer of the University of Ceylon, research was set up to investigate Dutch loan words in Sinhala (L. Peeters).

56 The table is adapted from Anttilla 1972, 156.

57 Calvert Watkins. ‘Language and its History’ In: Einar Haugen and Morton Bloomfield. Language as a Human Problem. New York 1974, 85-97.

58 Weinreich 1974, 28, 83: Samuels 1975, 165; Siegfried Kanngiesser in his review of Paul Hermann, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. Studienausgabe der 8. Auflage. Tübingen 1970. In: Indogermanische Forschungen 78 (1973), 217-225, esp. p. 221 on ‘Pauls Ausführungen über die sprachexternen Bedingungen der Sprachentwicklung, deren Bedeutung kraft verschiedener Radikalisierungen der mentalischen Position leicht unterschätzt wird. Die Aufgabe aber ist es, die soziokulturellen Randbedingungen der Sprachentwicklung in einer erklärten Weise mit den sprachinternen Möglichkeiten der Sprachveränderungen zu korrelieren; eine Aufgabe, der die Soziolinguistik, die neuerdings für diese Fragestellungen zuständige Teildisziplin der Linguistik, noch kaum nachgekommen ist’. Pleas for new approaches, ‘pluralism in linguistics’, and ‘humanistic linguistics’ can be heard in Europe and America: E. Coseriu. Grenzen und Leistung der transformationellen Grammatik. Tübingen 1974; Francis P. Dinneen (Ed.). Linguistics: Teaching and Interdisciplinary Relations. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1974; George Mounin. Linguistique et Philosophie. Paris 1975; Brigitte Schieben-Lange (Ed.) Sprachtheorie. Hamburg 1975.

[p. 279]

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