Research Report on Sinhala Lexicon - PAN Localization

Research Report on Sinhala Lexicon

Dulip Herath, Kumudu Gamage, Anuradha Malalasekara
Language Technology Research Laboratory
University of Colombo School of Computing,
Sri Lanka.

[email protected], [email protected],[email protected]

Abstract time of preparation or to the compiler(s) belonged to.
The quantity and the quality of these lexicons vary
Lexicons are one of the useful language resources according to the scopes which the compiler(s) had in
both in localization and computational linguistics mind. Due to these reasons several inconsistencies
point of views. The extensive use of computers in exist among them with respect to orthography,
language processing tasks demands the necessity for spelling, parts of speech, word separation, collation
electronic lexicons. Sinhala language has a very long sequence etc. Dictionaries/lexicons were studied
tradition in lexicon building in various domains. under this research are given in Appendix A.
Existence of various linguistic traditions has given rise
to several inconsistencies among the parts of speech 1.2. Electronic dictionaries (lexicons) in
and other linguistic data provided in them. Though Sinhala
efforts have recently been made to develop electronic
lexicons at commercial level it appears that they were Even though a considerable number of
hindered by limitations of technology and dictionaries/lexicons have been available for Sinhala
insufficiency in linguistic research on lexicon and computers have extensively been used for Sinhala
structures for Sinhala. Traditional Sinhala grammar word processing for more than two decades a few
faces with various difficulties when it tries to analyze electronic dictionaries are available in the market.
the modern behavior of language since structures of These are based on most of the commonly used
the language have undergone changes during the post English-Sinhala dictionaries and the glossaries of
independence era. This paper presents the importance technical terms published by the government during
revisiting traditional Sinhala grammar in order to the last four decades for the purpose of teaching
keep abreast of current changes. The paper also technical subjects in local languages. These lexicons
proposes a reasonable classification for Sinhala give higher level syntactic information such as whether
words. It is expected that the proposed lexicon a word is a Nama (noun), Kriya (verb), Nipatha
structure based on this classification will cater to the (prepositions, conjunctions, interjections ), Krudanta
requirements of both ordinary users and (Gerund) etc, the meaning or synonyms and Tamil &
computational linguists. English translation equivalents. It is clear that these
applications have been developed in the ordinary
1. Introduction person’s point of view and they have less importance
in computational linguist’s point of view which
1.1. Historical background requires a deep syntactic information such as in case of
nouns gender, number, person, (in) definiteness,
Sinhala language has a very long history in active/passive and case (vibhakthi) and in case of
preparation of lexicon since 5th century A.D. Those verbs number, person, gender, active/passive and
were glossaries of technical terms, for example tense.
Buddhism, poetics, aesthetic theories etc and also as
resources for language learning and teaching at 1.3. Words in Sinhala
different levels those were used by scholars, writers,
teachers and scholars for their respective work. Words Words in the Sinhala language can basically be
in these lexicons have been classified according to classified into three groups namely nishpanna(words
various linguistic traditions that were dominating at the that have local origin), thadbhava (words derived from
other languages), thathsama (words borrowed from

Sinhala

other languages as they are). Pali and Sanskrit are said the target groups of the present lexicon. At initial
to be the mother language of Sinhala. Therefore most stage of this study it was decide that following
of the words used in Sinhala are borrowed from those characteristics should be taken into consideration when
two languages. Due to geographical proximity the a set of words are selected for the lexicon:
influence of South Indian languages have contributed a
considerable amount of words to Sinhala esp. Tamil. a) Words should be drawn from almost all the
Portuguese, Dutch and English words entered the domains where language is being actively
language during the period of colonialism. [1] used.

1.4. Problems of traditional Sinhala grammar b) Considerable amount of words should
represent the modern usage of language rather
Traditional Sinhala grammar is based on the than old fashioned Sinhala.
notions expounded in famous “Sidath Sangara” which
was written in 13 century A.D. It was based on poetry c) Technical terms and loan words should also
language existed in that period. It was Munidasa be included according to the proportion of
Cumaratunga who revolutionized Sinhala grammar by their usage.
critically analyzing the notions of “Sidath Sangara”
and standardized Sinhala grammar as much possible at It is also expected to include meanings or
the beginning of the 20th century. His findings and definitions, synonyms, English and Tamil translation
recommendations are described in his two monumental equivalents, etymology and morpho-syntactic
works: “Vyakarana Vivaranaya” (Analysis of information of each lexical entry which can be used for
Grammar) and “Kriya Vivaranaya” (Analysis of language teaching/learning, linguistic research
Verbs). [2],[3] After the independence in 1948 Sinhala purposes and computational linguistic activities such
language was used extensively in various domains as parsing, machine translation, grammar/spell
such as newspapers, literature, government checking. This broad range of information will cater
publications, and text books. This gave rise to an the requirements of students, teachers, linguists and
exponential growth of Sinhala language both in computational linguists as well.
grammatical structures as well as in words. Due to
changes occurred in the post independence era neither 3. Results
“Sidath Sangara” nor Cumaratunga’s grammar is
capable of analyzing modern Sinhala effectively. It is 3.1. Modern Sinhala & syntactic categories
necessary to revisit the traditional grammar by
linguists in order to describe the modern Sinhala. Having made a substantial amount of effort to
eliminate unnecessary formalisms in traditional
2. Methodology grammar and preserve the positive aspects of it, the
following classification has been developed after
2.1. Survey on word classification considering the classifications presented in traditional
grammar books and views of the modern linguist. The
A literature survey was performed on word requirements of the ordinary users of the lexicon and
classification used in standard dictionaries/lexicons the computational linguistics processes were also kept
and the classification described in standard grammar in mind when it was designed. The observations made
books published since 13th century. It was also decided in dictionaries and standard grammar books during this
to consult a group of eminent scholars drawn from study are given in Appendix B. [4]
both linguistics and Sinhala regarding word
classification of Sinhala since different schools hold Table 1: Syntactic categories
different views on this issue. Results of this survey are
given in Section 3. Nama Nouns
Kriya Verbs
2.2. Criterion for selection of words Nipatha1(particles) (Conjunctions,
Prepositions,
It is very important to decide what kind of Krudantha Interjections)
information is expected to be included in and what are Nama Visheshana Gerunds
Kriya Visheshana Adjectives
Adverbs

1 There is no exact category in English grammar that
matches with Nipatha.

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Table 2: Attribute-value pairs of syntactic Lexical entries of the lexicon will be displayed
categories according to the collation order of Sinhala. Lexical
entries generated by the same lexical entry will be
Category/ Value displayed under one lexical entry which may be the
Attribute root or the most common form of them. This is due to
Nama: definite, indefinite the fact that Sinhala is an inflectionally rich language.
Definiteness Lexical entries which have alternative spellings will be
Number Singular, plural, both given along with most common form as the head word.
Person Each of these lexical entries will be associated with a
Gender 1st, 2nd 3rd person set of useful information relevant to each lexical entry.
Sections 4.2 and 4.3 describe the information
Animateness masculine, feminine, common, structures which will be used in the present lexicon.
Case neuter
animate, inanimate 4.2. Information structures of a lexical entry
Kriya:
Definiteness nominative, accusative, auxiliary, Table 3 shows the information associated with each
Number instrumental dative, ablative, lexical entry in the lexicon. Meaning of each of these
Person possessive, locative, vocative fields is described in the Appendix C.

Tense Singular, plural, both common, Table 3: Lexical entry information
Voice 1st, 2nd 3rd person
Transitiveness masculine, feminine, Word
neuter Spelling variants(optional)
past, non-past Part of Speech
active , passive Pronunciation
transitive, intransitive Root Word
Etymology
3.2. List of words Definition(s) (meaning(s))
Synonyms and cross references
A list of 40,000 words has been prepared the Tamil and English translation equivalents
National Institute of Education (NIE), Sri Lanka. NIE
is the official government body of Sri Lanka that Table 4: POS subcategories and attributes2
handles the issues related to curriculum development
and educational publications for government schools. Part of Subcategory Attributes
Having considered the quality and the quantity of this Speech
set of words and its availability in electronic form it Nama Simple Animateness
was decided to adopt this list of words as the base of Compound Gender
the present lexicon. Complex Number
Person
This list of words is based on the “Sinhala Case
Sabdhakoshaya” which was published by the Ministry
of Cultural Affairs in 26 volumes. It is the largest and
comprehensive dictionary published in Sinhala. A
group of scholars appointed by the NIE including the
most senior linguist in Sri Lanka, Prof. Wimal G.
Balagalle, who was also former Chief Editor of
“Sinhala Sabdhakoshaya”, has carefully selected the
present list of words in such a way that it includes
practical, commonly used and important word of
Sinhala.

4. Lexicon structure

4.1. Lexical entries

2 Further description on this classification is available
in Appendix D.

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Sinhala

Kriya Finite Verbs: Number the attributes that characterize each part of speech
Gender have been proposed after a rigorous study of Sinhala
Simple Tense grammar and the classifications used in standard
Person dictionaries.
Constructed Voice
Transitivity The results of the present research can effectively
Complex constructed Group be used in the lexicon development stage. The authors
and the Language Technology Research Laboratory
Infinite Verbs: would like to acknowledge the support given by the
scholars to conduct this survey by contributing their
Purva Kriya (Past knowledge and valuable time.

participle) 5. References

Mishra Kriya (Present [1] Jayatilake, K, Nuthana Sinhala Vyakaranayee Mul
Potha Pradeepa Publishers, Colombo, 1993.
participle)
[2] Cumaratunga, Munidasa. Vyakarana Vivaranaya
Asambhavya Kriya M.D. Gunasena, Colombo, 2003.

(Conditional ) [3] Cumaratunaga, Munidasa Kriya Vivaranaya M.D.
Gunasena, Colombo, 1993.
Prajojya
[4] Karunatilake , W.S . Sinhala Vyakaranaya M. D.
Kriya(Causative) Gunasena, Colombo, 1997.

Vidhi Kriya (Imperative) Appendix A: Glossaries published in the
Ancient Period
Ashirvada Kriya
Anuradhapura Period
(Blessing)
Mahawamsayata Pali Atuwakaranaya – 5th Century
Nipath Atheetha Krudantha (past) A.D.
a Abhidanppadipika
Kruda Varthamana Krudantha Helamuwa
ntha (present) Dampiya Atuwa Getapadaya
Visuddhi Sannaya
Nama Akarartha (manner) Kudasika Sannaya
Vishesh Kalartha (time) Abhidharmartha Varnanaya
ana Sthanartha (place)
Kriya Hethvarth (reason) Dambadeni Period
Vishesh
ana Piyummala – 1270-1293 A.D.

5. Discussion Kotte Period

The main objective of this study is to study the Sinhala Namawaliya
required structure and the content of the Sinhala Ruwanmala –1420 A.D.
lexicon that will be developed under the PAN Nawa Namawaliya
Localization Project. As an important language Heladiv Abhidanawatha
resource tool lexicon will be used by people with Dhahamgetamalaya
different objectives to ranging from students, language
teachers and researches, translators and computational
linguists. It is hoped that the proposed information
structure (in section 4) will meet the requirements of
them adequately. The set of words going to be used
will also cover a considerable number of words drawn
from various areas since that has carefully been
selected from the most comprehensive and the largest
dictionary in Sinhala by a group of scholars.

It was identified the existing classification of
words proposed by traditional grammar is insufficient
to handle the modern language styles. The classes and

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Kandy Period W.Bidgnell’s Dictionary
English-Sinhala Dictionary – 1848
Akaradiya
Shabdha Mukthawaliya Nicholson’s Dictionary
Shuddha Sinhalaya English-Sinhala Dictionary – 1864
Pali Sinhala Artha Kathana Granthaya
Pali Sinhala Katha Malawa Charles Carter’s Dictionary
Perani Sidath Sangara Sannaya Charles Carter
Nigandu Grantha
English-Sinhala Dictionary – 1881
Vararuchi Sinhala-English Dictionary – 1892
Saraswathi
Vasudewa Sinhala Shabdhakoshaya – 1937
Siddhaushadha Published by the Department of Cultural
Affairs.
Modern Period
An Etymological Glossary of the Sinhala Language
Clough’s Dictionary Prof.Wilhelm Geiger – 1941
Benjamin Clough
Malalasekara English-Sinhalese Dictionary
English-Sinhala Dictionary - 1821 Prof.G.P.Malalasekara –1948
Sinhala-English Dictionary – 1830
Sri Sumangala Shabdhakoshaya
John Callaway’s Dictionary Rev.Veliwitiye Soratha –1952
John Callaway
Nuthana Sinhala Paribhashika Shabdakoshaya
English-Sinhala Dictionary - 1821 Harishchandra Wijetunge –1978
Sinhala-English Dictionary - 1821
Prayogika Sinhala Shabdakoshaya
Lambrick Lexicon
Though this is not a dictionary, but the words Harishchandra Wijetunge –1982
of English,Sinhala and Portuguese are
included. øjH kdu – Dravya Nama (Referring for
inanimate things)
Appendix B
.=K kdu - Guna Nama (Referring for
Nama modifiers)

This is the classification proposed by Ndj kdu - Bhava Nama (Referring for
Cumaratunga Munidasa in Vyakarana modifiers or verbal nouns)
Vivaranaya for Nouns.
ix{d kdu – Sagna Nama (Proper Noun)
jHdlrK újrKh - l=udr;=x. uqksodi
Vyakarana Vivaranaya –Cumaratunga Munidasa. wNskak kdu$ ij_ kdu
Abhinna Nama/ Sarva Nama (Pronoun)
Nskak kdu – Bhinna Nama (Referring for specific
things) fm!reI - Paurusha (Person)
W;a;u mqreI – Uttama Purusha
cd;s kdu – Jathi Nama (Referring for
general things) (First Person)
uOHu mqreI – Madyama Purusha
tffll kdu – Ekaika Nama
(Referring for one thing) (Second Person)
m%:u mqreI – Prathama
iuqodh kdu – Samudaya Nama
(Referring more than one thing) Purusha (Third Person)
iQpl – Suchaka (Locative)
m%Yak –Prashna (Interrogative)
wkshu – Aniyam (Indefinite pronoun)

459

Sinhala ix{d kdu – Sagna Nama (Proper Noun)

fNol - Bhedaka i¾j kdu – Sarva Nama (Pronoun)
iuqodh - Samudaya (Collective) ixLHd kdu – Sankya Nama (Numerals)
wjOdrK – Avadharana (Emphatic) lDoka; kdu – Krudantha Nama(Verbal Noun)
;oaê; kdu – Thadditha Nama (According to
,sx. – Linga (Gender) appending suffixes to the stem of the
mqreI ,sx. – Purusha Linga (Masculine)
ia;S% ,sx. – Stree Linga (Feminine) noun)
kmqxil ,sx. – Napunsaka Linga (Neuter) iudi kdu – Samasa Nama (Compound Noun)
idOdrK ,sx. – Sadharana Linga
.KH kdu – Ganya Nama (Countable Noun)
(Common) w.KH kdu – Aganya Nama (Uncountable Noun)

wka; jYfhka –Antha (Endings) ,sx. fNaoh – Linga (Gender)
iajrdka; -Swarantha (Vowel endings)
y,ka; -Halantha (Consonant endings) m%dKjdÖ kdu - Pranavachi Nama
(Animate)
jpk – Vachana (Number)
tal jpk – Eka Vachana (Singular) mqreI ,sx. – Purusha Linga
nyq jpk – Bahu Vachana (Plural) (Masculine)

úNla;s - Vibhakthi (Case) ia;S% ,sx. – Stree Linga (Feminine)

This is the classification proposed by Prof. W.S. udkj – Manava (Human)
Karunatilaka in Sinhala Bhasha Vyakaranaya for wudkj – Amanava (Non-Human)
Nouns.
wm%dKjdÖ kdu - Apranavachi Nama
isxy, NdId jHdlrKh - ví.tia.lreKd;s,l (Inanimate)
Sinhala Bhasha Vyakaranaya – W.S.Karunatilaka
kmqxil ,sx. – Napunsaka Linga
kdu mo – Nama (Nouns) (Neuter)

ir, kdu – Sarala Nama (Simple Nouns) fmdÿ ,sx. – Podu Linga(Common Noun)
ixlSrK kdu – Sankirana Nama (Complex Nouns)
iudi kdu – Samasa Nama (Compound Nouns) jpk – Vachana (Number)
tal jpk – Eka Vachana (Singular)
kdu kdu- Nama Nama nyq jpk – Bahu Vachana (Plural)
cd;s kdu – Jathi Nama (Referring for
ksh; / wksh; fNaoh – Niyatha/Aniyatha
general things) (Definite/Indefinite)
flaj, kdu – Kevala Nama
úNla;s fNaoh – Vibhakthi (Case)
(Referring for one thing) m%:ud – Prathama(Nominative)
iuQyd¾:jdÖ kdu – l¾u - Karma (Accusative)
l;_D - Kartru (Instrumental)
Samuharthavachi Nama(Referring more than one lrK – Karana (Auxliary)
thing) iïm%odk – Sampradana (Dative)
wjê – Avadhi (Ablative)
øjH kdu – Dravya Nama (Referring for iïnkaO – Sambandha (Genetive)
inanimate things) wdOdr – Adhara (Locative)
wd,mk – Alapana (Vocative)
.=K kdu - Guna Nama (Referring for
modifiers) lDoka; kdu – Krudantha Nama(Gerund Noun)
;oaê; kdu – Thadditha Nama (According to
Ndj kdu - Bhava Nama (Referring for appending suffixes to the stem of the
modifiers or verbal nouns)
noun)

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Gdkdka;r jdÖ kdu – Tanantharavachi Nama wm%dKjdÖ - ApranaVachi
(Referring for positions)
(Inanimate)
This is the classification proposed by Prof.
J.B.Disanayaka in Nama Padaya for Nouns. ld¾h fNaoh – Karya Bhedaya (Voice)
Wla; - Uktha (Subjective)
kdu moh - f–.î.Èidkdhl wkqla; - Anuktha (Objective)
Nama Padaya – J.B.Disanayaka
rEm m%;H fhfok wdldrh wkqj – Rupa Pratya
ir, kdu - Sarala Nama (Simple Nouns)
ixhqla; kdu – Sanyuktha Nama(Compound Nouns) (According to appending suffixes to

m%dK fNao - Prana Bheda (Animateness) - the stem of the
-
m%dKjdÖ - Pranavachi Nama (Animate) - noun)
ifÉ;ksl i¾j kdu – Sarva Nama (Pronoun)
m%dK – Prana (Animateness)
Sachethanika(Animate) jpk – Vachana (Number)
m%dKNdi mqreI - Paurusha (Person)
ld¾h – Karya (Voice)
Pranabhasa(Inanimate things use as animate) ,sx. – Linga (Gender)
m%dKdfrdams;
wuq¾; kdu - Amurtha Nama (to convey
Pranaropitha(Inanimate things use as animate) the feelings of human beings)

wm%dKjdÖ - Apranavachi (Inanimate) ixLHd kdu - Sankya Nama (Numerals)

iuqodh kdu - Samadaya Nama
(Collective Noun)

jpk – Vachana (Number) cd;s kdu - Jathi Nama (Referring the
tAl jpk – Eka Vachana (Singular) names of trees)
nyq jpk – Bahu Vachana (Plural)
ksmd; kdu - Nipatha Nama ( Y+kH m%;H
,sx. – Linga (Gender) yd Bg mrj wm%dKjdÖ úNla;s m%;H
iys; kdu
m%dKjdÖ kdu - Pranavachi Nama
(Animate) w;, w;r, woaor, lrd, miq,

mqreI ,sx. – Purusha Linga miafika, .dúka, ;=<g, <Ûska
(Masculine)
ix{d kdu – Sagna Nama (Proper Noun)
ia;S% ,sx. – Stree Linga (Feminine)
l%shd m%lD;s wkqj – Kriya Prakruti (According to
ksh; - Niyatha (Definiteness) appending suffixes to the stem of
ksh; - Niyatha (Definite)
the verb)
(Masculine) mqreIjdÖ – Purusha Vachi Ndj kdu - Bhava Nama (Verbal Noun)
(Inanimate)
ia;%SjdÖ – Stree Vachi (Feminine) lDoka; m%;H wkqj- Krudantha Pratya (According
wm%dKjdÖ - ApranaVachi to appending suffixes to Gerund)

wksh; - Aniyatha (Indefinite) lDoka; kdu – Krudantha Nama(Gerund
Noun)
(Masculine) mqreIjdÖ – Purusha Vachi
ia;%SjdÖ – Stree Vachi (Feminine) Verbs

This is the classification proposed ancient “Sidath
Sangara” in 13 century A.D.

461

Sinhala

ද සඟරාව සා සක ෙණ දා ව වැ උ තම ෂ – Uttama Purusha
Sidath Sangarawa (First Person)
“ෙනොදැ , ණ, දැ
මධ ම ෂ – Madyama Purusha
යන ” (Second Person)

ක - අක මක යා පදය Akarmaka පථම ෂ – Prathama Purusha
(Third Person)
kriya (Intransitive)
කාල ෙ දය - Kala Bhedaya (Tense)
සක - සක මක යා පදය Sakarmaka අන ත කාල - Anathitha kala

kriya (Transitive) (Non-past tense)
අ ත කාල - Athitha kala (Past
ෙතක ය - ෛතකා ක යා පදය Thraikalika
tense)
kriya (Tense) පද ෙ දය - Pada Bhedaya
පරස්ෛම පද - Parasmai pada
ය - යා පදය Vidhi kriya (Imperative) ආ මෙ පද - Athmane pada
කාරක ෙ දය - Karaka Bhedaya (Voice)
ආය - ආ වාද යා පදය Ashirvada කතෘ කාරක - Kartrukaraka (Active

kriya voice)
කම කාරක - Karmakaraka (Passive
අසබහ ය - අස භාව යා පදය Asambhavya
voice)
kriya (Conditional Mood)
නාම යා - Nama Kriya (Verbal Noun)
ෙය ය - පෙයෝජ යා පදය Prayojya පාත යා - Nipatha Kriya

kriya (Causative) This is the classification proposed by Prof. J.B.
Disanayaka in Kriya Padaya for Verbs
කය - ක මකාරක යා පදය
යා පදය - ෙ . . සානායක
Karmakaraka kriya (Passive) Kriya Padaya – J.B.Disanayaka

ෙපර ය - ව යා පදය Purva kriya (Past සරල යා පද - Sarala kriya pada (Simple verbs)
සරල ධ යා පද - Sarala Shuddha kriya
Participle)
pada (Simple verbs)
ය - ශ යා පදය Mishrakriya සරල සා ත යා පද - Sarala Sadhitha kriya
(Present Participle)
pada (Simple compound verbs)
This is the classification proposed by පෙයෝජ යා පද - Prayojya kriya pada (Causative
Cumaratunga Munidasa in Vyakarana verbs)
Vivaranaya for Verbs.
පෙයෝජ ධ යා පද - Prayojya shuddha
යා වරණය - මාර ංග දාස kriya pada (Simple Causative verbs)

Kriya Vivaranaya – Cumaratunga Munidasa.

ධ යා - Shuddha kriya (Simple verbs)
වචන ෙ දය - Vachana (Number)
ඒක වචන – Eka Vachana

(Singular)
බ වචන – Bahu Vachana (Plural)

ෂ- Purusha (Person)

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පෙයෝජ සා ත යා පද - Prayojya sadhitha කාල ෙ දය - Kala bhedaya (Tense)
kriya pada (Compound Causative verbs) ව තමාන යා පද - Varthamana kriyapada
සක මක යා පද - Sakarmaka kriya pada
(Intransitive) (Present)
අක මක යා පද - Akarmaka kriya pada අ ත යා පද - Athitha kriyapada (Past)
(Intransitive)
ෂ- Purusha (Person)
අවසාන යා පද - Avasana kriya pada (Endings) උ තම ෂ – Uttama Purusha (First

අනවසාන යා පද - Anavasana kriya pada (Non- Person)
මධ ම ෂ – Madyama Purusha (Second
endings)
Person)
ව තමාන කෘද ත යා පද - Varthamana පථම ෂ – Prathama Purusha (Third

Krudantha kriyapada (Gerund-past) Person)

අ ත කෘද ත යා පද - Athitha Krudantha යා පද - Vidhi kriyapada (Imperative)
ශ යා පද - Mishrakriya (Present Participle)
kriyapada (Gerund-present) සමා තර යා පද - Samanthara kriyapada (Paralel
Verbs)
ල ෂ යා පද - Lakshya kriyapada අන තර යා පද - Ananthara kriyapada (Temporal
gerund)
(Infinitive) පෙයෝග යා පද - Prayogya kriyapada (Verbal
Adjrctive)
සාධ ය අස භාව යා පද - Sadhaniya භාව ප යා පද - Bhavarupa kriyapada (Paralel
Verbs)
Asambhavya kriya (Conditional) උපකාරක යා පද - Upakaraka kriyapada (Reflexive
verb)
ෙෂේධ ය අස භාව යා පද -

Nishedhaniya Asambhavya kriya (Concessive)

ව යා පද - Purva kriyapada (Past

Participle)

වචන ෙ දය - Vachana (Number)
ඒක වචන – Eka Vachana

(Singular)
බ වචන – Bahu Vachana (Plural)

Appendix C

Table 1 describes the meaning of syntactic categories used in the lexicon structure.

Table C.1: Syntactic categories used in the lexicon structure

Sinhala English Description
ක ප අ ෂර න ාස Spelling variants
The alternative ways of writing the
same word

463

Sinhala

ව ාකරණාංග Part of speech One of the traditional categories of
උ චාරණය Pronunciation words intended to reflect their
ධා / පකෘ Root Word functions in a grammatical context.

The manner of someone utters a
word

Base, stem - the form of a word after
all affixes are removed.

අ ථය Etymology Structure of words.
ප යාය පද Definition(s)(meaning(s)) Explanation of the meaning of a
ෙදමළ / ඉං අ ථය word.
Synonyms and cross references
Equivalent word

Tamil and English translation Tamil and English version of a

equivalents word.

Table C.2: Syntactic categories used in the lexicon structure

නාම / Nama Noun A word that can be used to refer to
යා / Kriya Verb
Nipatha a person or place or thing.
පාතNipatha
කෘද ත / Krudantha Gerund Expresses some state or action
නාම ෙශේෂණ / Nama Visheshana Adjectives
Adverbs affecting some person or thing.
යා ෙශේෂණ / Kriya Visheshana Number
වචන Singular The syntactic categories of
ඒක වචන Plural
බ වචන Person prepositions,conjunctions and
First person
ෂ Second person interjections.
උ තම ෂ Third person
මධ ම ෂ Words formed by adding suffixes to
පථම ෂ
roots of verbs.

The word class that denotes some

quality or attribute of the noun.

The word class that qualifies verbs

or clauses.

Singularity or Plurality of nouns

and verbs.

The form of a word that is used to

denote a singleton.

The form of a word that is used to

denote more than one.

A grammatical category of

pronouns and verb forms.

Pronouns and verbs used to refer to

the speaker.

Pronouns and verbs used to refer to

the person addressed.

Pronouns and verbs that are used to

refer to something other than the

speaker or addressee.

ංග Gender A grammatical category based on
ෂ ංග Masculine
sex or animateness.

A grammatical category that refers

to males or to objects classified as

male.

ස් ංග Feminine A grammatical category that refers

to females or to objects classified as

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සාධාරණ ංග Common male.
සෙ ත ක/අෙ ත ක බව Animateness A grammatical category that refers
to inanimate objects (neither
සෙ ත ක(සපාණවා ) Animate masculine nor feminine).
අෙ ත ක (අපාණවා ) Inanimate A grammatical category that refers
Case to both masculine and feminine.
භ A grammatical category that
denotes living beings or nonliving
පථමා භ Nominative case things.
කම භ Accusative case A grammatical category that
ආලපන භ Vocative case denotes living beings
කාල Tense A grammatical category that
අ ත කාල Past tense denotes nonliving beings.
අන ත කාල Non-past tense A grammatical case (nouns or
කාරක Voice pronouns or adjectives related in
some way to other words in a
ක තෘ කාරක Active voice sentence).
The category of nouns serving as
ක ම කාරක Passive voice the grammatical subject of a verb.
The category of nouns serving as
සක මක/අක මක බව Transitiveness the direct object of a verb.
සක මක Transitive The category of nouns used when a
අක මක Intransitive person or thing is addressed.
A grammatical category of verbs
ආඛ ාත යා / Akyatha Kriya Predicate used to express distinctions of time
ව යා / Purva Kriya Past Participle A verb tense that expresses actions
or states in the past.
අස භාව යා / Asambhavya Kriya Conditional Mood A verb tense that expresses actions
or states in the Present or Future.
ශ යා / Mishra Kriya Present Participle The grammatical relation (active or
passive) of the grammatical subject
අ ත කෘද ත / Atheetha Krudantha Gerund – past of a verb to the action that the verb
denotes.
ව තමාන කෘද ත / Varthamana Gerund – present The voice used to indicate that the
grammatical subject of the verb is
performing the action or causing the
happening denoted by the verb.
The voice used to indicate that the
grammatical subject of the verb is
the recipient (not the source) of the
action denoted by the verb.
the grammatical relation created by
a transitive or intransitive verb.
Denotes an action passing from the
doer to an object.
Express a state or condition, or an
action or feeling that does not pass
over to an object.
Final verb of a sentence
The predicates of the subject which
precede its final predicate.
Expresses uncertainty or the time
when an action is done.
Expressing present action or the
actions doing in the same time.
Words formed by adding suffixes of
past tense to roots of verbs.
Words formed by adding suffixes of

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Sinhala present tense to roots of verbs.

Krudantha Sinhala singular nouns are always marked with
definiteness or indefiniteness.
Appendix D
The animate nouns can be conjugated within the
Nouns framework of all three persons. The inanimate nouns
only bear the third person.
1. Simple nouns.
Sinhala noun roots and the nominative forms of the • Animate nouns - First person
nouns are categorized under the section of simple Second person
nouns. Third person
2. Complex nouns.
Complex nouns are produced by adding a word • Inanimate nouns-Third person
formation affix to the noun stem. Mainly, krudantha
කෘද ත (gerund) and thaddhitha ත ත (derivative Case
nouns) are included in this section. Apart from them
adjectives and adverbs are also being made in this Sinhala nouns inflect according to the case they
procedure. bear. Nouns which make their primary manifestation
3. Compound nouns within discourse commonly appear in the direct case.
Compound nouns are made by adding number of 1. Nominative/ Direct case (පථමා)
other noun roots to the primary noun base. 2. Accusative (ක ම)
The singular forms of the accusative case are similar
Nouns to the singular forms of the nominative case. The
Animate nouns plural forms have different inflection.
Inanimate nouns 3. Auxiliary case (ක තෘ)
The auxiliary case is marked with visin ( )
Animate nouns functional morpheme and it is added to the
• Masculine- Singular – Definite/ accusative form of the noun. Auxiliary case is not
Indefinite marked with any suffixation.
Plural
• Feminine- Singular – Definite/ These three cases are considered as the
Indefinite preliminary forms within the hierarchy of case study.
Plural The other case markers, which have given below
• Common- Singular- Definite/ would be added to either Nominative case marked
Indefinite singular noun or accusative case marked plural noun.
Plural
Table D.1: Case Markers
Inanimate nouns
• Neuter- Singular – Definite Case Case marker
Indefinite
Plural Animate Inanimate

A few nouns inflect in a different manner rather sin pl sin pl
than the above mentioned criteria. Although the
nouns like bonikka ෙබෝ කා (doll) pambaya පඹයා Instrumental - -walin-
(scarecrow) are inanimate by their nature, they (කරණ) en- ව
inflect like animate nouns. In contrary, the noun of එ
ibba ඉ බා (containing two meanings –
tortoise/padlock) bear animateness and inanimateness -in-
according to the context. ඉ

Ibbo dennek innawa. There are two tortoises. Dative -ta- -ta- -ta- -walata-
ඉ ෙබො ෙද ෙන ඉ නවා
(ස පදාන) ට ට ට වලට
Ibbo dennek dala thiyenava. Two padlocks have
been fixed. -hata-
ඉ ෙබො ෙද ෙන දාලා ෙයනවා
හට

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Ablative -gen- -gen- - -walin- • Finite verbs: a. Simple constructed verbs
(අව ) ෙග ෙග en- ව b. Complex constructed verbs
c. Causative verbs
Possessive එ -keren- d. Imperative verbs
/genitive
(ස බ ධ) -in- ෙකෙර
ඉ
Locative
(ආධාර) -ge- -ge- -e- -wala-
ඇ වල • Finite verbs: a. person
Vocative ෙ ෙ - b. number
(ආලපන) c. tense
ehi-
එ

-e- -wala- • Person: 1st person
ඇ වල 2nd person
3rd person
-

ehi-
එ

Zero -i- • Gender: (Exceptional)
-a- ඉ
අ -ee- Verbs occur with animate objects: a.
-ee- ඒ
ඒ masculine

-o- b. feminine
ඕ
c. common

Further information on nouns. There will be a Verbs occur with inanimate objects: a. neuter
further classification on nouns regarding their
semantic aspects. In that stage they will be • Number: a. singular
categorized according to their semantic values. Ex. b. plural
Jathi nama ජා නාම, guna nama ණ නාම etc. And
will also focus on the features like onomatopoeia and • Tense: a. past
reduplication. b. non-past

Verb a. Finite verb
b. Non finite verb
• Verb

Table D.2: Tense

Non past Past
present
singular balami constructed present Short past Long past
1st person balahi balannemi balimi baluvemi
2nd person balai balannehi balihi baluvehi
3rd person Balanneya – mas/neuter
Balanniya-
Plural balamu fem balimu baluwemu
1st person balahu baluhu baluvahu
2nd person balati balannemu baluha baluvoya
3rd person balannahu
Balannahu/balannoya

Sinhala verb is divided into three categories
according to its function in the syntactic level.
Although there are three categories, the same two forms
of the verb occur in each category.

• Transitive and Intransitive verbs
(Sakarmaka/ Akarmaka)

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Sinhala

In Sinhala some verbs are transitive by their Pasu (adj)+ (karanava
nature. They always expect an object in the string. Kapala(non-finite verb form)+ danava
Some verbs like –handa-, -duva- and –siti- are
originally intransitive. According to the structural pattern of the
complex verbs, the most common verbs used as the
• Voice (karaka bhedaya) second constituents are following:
o Active voice (kartru karaka) 1. karanava
o Passive voice (karma karaka) 2. venava
3. gannava
The verb’s relationship with either agent or 4. denava
object is depicted in the voice. 5. danava
6. thienava
• Ohu veDa karai. ඔ වැඩ කර Active 7. gahanava
• Ohugen veDa kerei. ඔ ෙග වැඩ ෙකෙර
Most of the borrowed nouns are used with the
Passive above mentioned verbs to make complex verbs.
• Volitive and Involitive verbs
If an action is done without any mediation of the Non finite verbs
agent that verb is an involitive verb. The Sinhala
verb is presented in volitive and involitive forms. a. gerund (krudanrha)
b. past participle (purva kriya)
• Lamaya natai ළමයා නට c. present participle (misra kriya)
volitive d. conditional verbs (asambhavya kriya)

• Bera gahana vita lamaya netavei.
ෙබර ගහන ට ළමයා නැටෙව
involitive

• Causative verb

Verb stem+ -va- The analysis of the gerund structure is due to be
presented in a separate paper.
• Imperative verb
• The past participle (purva kriya)
2nd person singular plural Verb stem+ -aa-/-x-/-ii-
Balaa/ xdx /vxtii
Zero, va vu බලා/ ඇද/ වැ
බල/බලව/බල ය බල / බල ය
• present participle (misra kriya)

• Blessing verb (Ashirvada kriya) verb stem+ -min-/-mina-/-mini-/-mni
Present/ future tense+ va balamin/balamina/balamna/balamini

1st person Sin Pres/fut tense+-mi-/m • conditional verbs (asambhavya
1st person pl Pres/fut tense+ -mu-/-mo- kriya)
3rd person pl Pres/fut tense+ -t-/-ti-
a. verb stem+ -t-/-ta-+ (prep;di) ( balat/balata+di)
b. verb stem+ -t-/-da-/-du- ( baluvath, baluvada,
balatudu)

Complex constructed verbs Particles

In respect of the morpho-syntactic constructions Particles are used to link words within the
of the verbs, there are two main patterns in Sinhala structure of a sentence. They also could be utilized as
Language. The first one may call as the simple conjunctions to link phrases in complex sentences.
constructed verbs and the other the complex
constructed verbs. Simple constructed verbs behave • Case marking particles
like one word and complex constructed verbs
connect two different grammatical categories. Case Particle
auxiliary -visin-
• Simple constructed verbs Ablative
Duvanava -gen-,-keren ෙග
dative .ෙකෙර
• Complex constructed verbs: possessive -(ha)ta- හට
An initial stem (verb, noun, adjective or etc) + locative
main verb -ge- ෙ
Pata (noun)+ karanava -kerehi-
,tula,matha,uDa

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ෙකෙර . ළ, මත,උඩ Working Papers 2004-2007

• Collective particles • Quantitative particles
o –da- ද o Sa සා
o –th- o Thak තා
o –saha- සහ o Thuvak ව
o –ha- හා
• Particles expressing meanings of ‘too’/’at least
• Particles for ‘with’ meaning o Pava පවා
o Saha සහ o Da ද
o Samaga සමග o Hoෙහෝ
o Ha හා o Vath ව
o katuva/kativa කැ ව/කැ ව
• Particles expressing exception
• Emotive particle o Vina නා
o Vismayartha- ha ,aha, ah, aa ,oho o Hara හැර
හා/ අහා/ආහ්/ ආ/ ඕෙහෝ o Misa ස
o Khedartha- ane ,ando, apoi, ayyo o Muth
අෙ /අෙඳෝ/ අෙපො / අ ෙයෝ
o Vedanartha- aai ,uui ,uu ආ / • Question particles
ඌ /ඌ o Kima ම
o Kuthsithartha- chi, chih, / හ් o Kim
o Ay ඇ
• Particles expressing possibility o Manda ම ද
o ho/ho ෙහෝ/ෙහෝ o Da ද

o do ෙදෝ • Particles expressing alternative meaning
o Hevath ෙහව
o doho ෙදෝෙහෝ o Nohoth ෙනොෙහො
• Particles expressing similarity o Ho/ho ෙහෝ/ෙහෝ

o Men ෙම • Time adverbial particle
o Patha පතා
o Se ෙසේ o Pasa පාසා
o Vani වැ o Gaane ගාෙන
o Bandu බ
• Adjective/ adverb emphasizing particle
o Van ව o Thava තව
o Ayuru අ o Itha ඉතා
o Boho ෙබොෙහෝ
o Lesa ෙලස
• Comparative particles • Emphasizing particles
o –ma- -ම-
o vaDi වැ
o vaDa වඩා • Quoting particle
o vaDathma වඩා ම o –yi- - -
• Temporal particles o –yayi- යැ
o Nithi
o Nithin • Sentence ending particles
o Nithora ෙතොර o –ki-
o Ikbithi ඉ o –ya- ය
o Dan දැ o –yi-
o Yali ය o –yae- යැ
o Puna න
o Vali වැ • Imperative particles
o Ithin ඉ o Epa එපා
• Particles expressing duration
o Sita ට • Negative particles
o Sitan ට o No+ noun base ෙනො+ නාම
o Patan පට o No+ verb ෙනො+ යා
o Aඅ
o Thek ෙත
o Dakva ද වා • Particles expressing manner of adjectives
and adverbs

469

Sinhala o –da- -ද-
o –th-- -
o visal ස o –du-- -
o vaha වහා o Namut න
o seda ෙසද o Namudu න
o sanin සැ
o hanikaහ ක • Conditional particles
• Vocative particles o –oth- ඔ
o emba එ බා
o embala එ බල o –hoth- ෙහො
o kola ෙකොල o –nam- න
o bola ෙබොල
• Particles expressing a suggestion • Particles expressing reason for an action
o nam න o Pinisa ස
o vanahi වනා o Sandaha සඳහා
o kali ක o Vas වස්
o kalක
o vukali ක o Men ෙම
• Particles expressing straightforwardness
o indura ඉ රා o Lesa ෙලස
o kelinma ෙක ම o Paridi ප
• Particles focusing on attention
o anna අ න • Particles used to link clauses
o onna ඔ න o namuth න
o menna ෙම න o eheth එෙහ
• Reported speech particles
o –la- -ල- (The terms given here are subject to change.)
o –lu- -
• Particles stand for ‘for’ Krudantha (gerund) and Thaddhitha (suffixes
o Udesa උෙදසා which are used in noun inflection)
o Pinisa ස
o Sandaha සඳහා Krudantha
• Reason particles Sinhala gerund is a word which bears a verb base and an
o Arabaya අරබයා
o Pinisa ස inflectional suffix. This suffix will convert the verb base into a
o Nisa සා gerund.
o Bavin බැ
o Heyin ෙහ • Gerund
• Honorific particles o Present
o Sek ෙසේ o Past
o Seka ෙසේක
• Reporting particles • Gerund –Present
o Gana ගැන This gerund form is made by adding –na- suffix into the
• Particles stand for the meaning of ‘according
to’ verb base.
o Anuva අ ව Verb base+ -na- = bal\n\
o Paridi ප
• Conjunction particles • gerund –past
o Vita ට There are six gerund suffixes can be identified in past
o Nisa සා
o Bavin බැ gerund forms. They are:
o Thek ෙත o -uu- bala+-uu- bæluu
o Thuru
o -\- vasi+\ væssa

o uÂu sinase+unu sinasunu

o -L- athura athuLa

o -T- basi baTa

o -n- upadi upan

Sindi sun

• Bhavartha krudantha /Emotive gerund

The Emotive gerund is normally used to express emotions.
o –iim- nata+ iim -nætiim

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o –ili- nata+ ili - nætili language. The nominal nouns can be again classified

o –man- nata+ man nætuman in two sections.

o –nu- nata+ nu natanu • Jathi nama – categorical nouns
o –um- nata+ um nætum • Dravya nama – metirial nouns

• Sagna nama – proper nouns

Most of the verb forms inflect according to these five • Guna nama – qualitative

procedures.

Nominal noun adjectives

• Shakyartha krudantna / gerunds with the meaning of • Jathi nama – minis+ ruva ස් ව
competence • Dravya nama – lii væda වැඩ

Verb stem+ -iya- Bala+ -iya- bæliya • Sagna nama – Mugalan +thera ගල
ෙතර

Daki+ -iya- dækiy • Guna nama – suvanda +mala වඳ මල

• Voice and Gerund These examples present the probability of
occurrence all the noun roots as adjectives in the
nominal noun category.

The voice of a sentence is determined by the gerund suffixes. • Pronoun adjectives
o Kapa+ -unu- kæpunu Apa + raTa අප රට
tham\+ deßaya තම ෙ ශය
o Kapa+ -ana- kapana

• Thaddhitha

• Gerund adjectives

Thaddhitha is the counterpart of Krudantha (Gerund), while Hamana+ sulanga හමන ළඟ
both come under the category of affixes. Gerund suffixes Hindina +asuna න අ න

function on the verb base and thaddhitha suffixes on the noun.

• Thaddhitha adjectives

Thaddhitha Gunavath minisa ණව සා

• Animate Silvath himi ව

o Masculine – natya+karu

o Feminine – kreeDa+ ika kreeDika • Numeral adjectives

o Honorific – puth+ aNu puthaNu Thun pola ෙපොළ

Pasvana mahala පස්වන මහල

• Inanimate

Adverbs

The range of the thaddhitha allomorphs;

Adverbs can be divided into 4 sections according to

• Noun affixes their meaning.
These affixes will occure with a noun base. • Akarartha ( how the action is done)
Eg. vas\na+vantha Vas\navantha • Kalartha ( when the action is done)

• Sthanartha ( where the action is done)

• Verb affixes • Hethvartha (cause for the action)

These affixes will occur with a verb base.

Eg. Kara+ va+(i) karavai. Adverbs can be also divided into three sections

according to the quality of their occurrence.

Adjectives • Adverb + verb – ohu vegayen duvai
• Adverb + adjective + noun – Lalith itha
Adjectives(Nama Visheshana) is a wording which
describes the nature of the noun. Nominal nouns, honda lamayek
pronouns, gerund nouns, thaddhitha nouns and
numeral nouns occur as adjectives in Sinhala • Adverb + adverb + verb – ohu boho semin
riya padavai.

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Sinhala

The Sinhala adverb set could be mainly categorized vethin
into two parts. o Temporal Nouns as inflected adverbs

• Non-inflected adverbs (avyas/ අව ) Ada
• Inflected adverbs Adata
adin
• Non-inflected adverbs (avyas) o Adverbs compounded with adjectives

These adverbs normally do not inflect according to Temporal nouns as inflected adverbs
the context. Ada
Vaha,ithin, semin, pasulu, indura, yali, pili, puna
punaa are examples for the above mentioned Adata
adverbs. adin
o Adverbs compounded with adjectives
• Inflected adverbs na

The inflected adverbs are exclusively made out of
instrumental, ablative, locative and dative case
markers.

o Inflected particles as adverbs
Vetha
Vethata
vethin

Vetha
vethata

o Temporal nouns as inflected adverbs
Ada

Adata
Adin
o Adverbs compounded with adjectives

Adjective noun adverb
-ta-,-in-,-e--
Sudu suda Sudata, sudin, sude
Rathu ratha Rathata, rathin, rathe
Kota kota Kotata, kotin, kote

Further Information

Greater number of particles has been used as adverbs.
They are as follows.

Men, vashayen, thek, thuvak, tharam, pamana, sa,va
, kota, vara, vaara, vita.

In some cases numerals reduplicate to make an
adverb.

Amma mal thuna thuna keduva
Denna denna enna

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