#Sinhalese Speakers

[languagexs]

Exploring the Richness of Sinhala: Sinhalese Language of Sri Lanka

Unveiling the Captivating World of the Sinhala Language The Sinhalese language is a linguistic gem with deep roots in Sri Lanka’s vibrant culture and history. With its melodious tones and ancient origins, this Indo-Aryan language has fascinated linguists and culture enthusiasts alike. This article explores the fascinating intricacies of the Sinhala language, exploring its development, its…

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#accessibility #Colloquial Sinhalese #Cultural Significance #Indo-Aryan Language #Language Access #Language Evolution #Language Services #Language Shift #LanguageXS #Linguistic Diversity #Literary Sinhala #Pali Influence #Sanskrit Influence #Sinhala Alphabet #Sinhala Interpretation #Sinhala Language #Sinhala Script #Sinhala Translation #Sinhalese Speakers #SOV Word Order #Sri Lanka Heritage #Sri Lankan Culture #Subject-Object-Verb #Syllabic Script #Vedda Language

[rcarx]

a colleague who is clearly not a chronic internet person like i am sent me this post

oh honey...... congratulations ඞ on ඞ missing ඞ the ඞ last ඞ three ඞ years ඞ of ඞ the ඞ internet ඞ i ඞ guess

#personal #sorry to the sinhalese speakers who only see this as a letter #you bet your ass i educated him on sussy baka #(:

[covenawhite66]

1. Ge’ez Script

Ge’ez language is now generally only used as a liturgical language for Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Ge’ez script is used in Amharic, Tigrinya, Bilen, etc.

The Ge’ez script is an alphasyllabic writing system. The syllabary today has 26 consonantal letters with several forms vowel are diacritic marks fused to the letter.

2. Quipu

Incan Empire quipus were recording devices made from string. They were used to record mainly numerical data, such as taxes, census numbers, and calendrical information

These data were recorded onto the string in a series of knots of different types, each denoting different numbers.

3. Tengwar

J.R.R Tolkien writing systems created by J.R.R Tolkien an avid linguist who added his expertise in the field to his creative works of fiction.

One of several writing systems for the languages used in Middle Earth.

4. Rongorongo

Found on Rapa Nui AKA Easter Island. Rongorongo is a series of glyphs about which we know virtually nothing.

5. Sinhala Script

Used by the Sri Lankans to write the Sinhalese language, as well as the holy languages of Pali and Sanskrit, the Sinhala script is easily one of the most beautiful scripts in the world. It is used by the 16 million Sinhala speakers of Sri Lanka.

The Sinhala script is a syllabary and is written from left to right.

6. Classical Mongolian Script

This writing system enjoyed prominence throughout Mongolia for over 700 years until it was supplanted by the Cyrillic script, a result of being within the Soviet sphere of influence.

Invented by a Uyghur scribe by the name of Tata-Tongoone. Classical Mongolian of the few systems to be written vertically and left to right instead of right to left.

7. Nüshu

Used in Jiangyong County in Hunan Province in Southern China. Because of strict laws of patriarchal Confucianism that forbade women from doing many things.Women invented a writing system that they could claim as their own and as a way of rebelling against the patriarchal system

Nüshu was born and was used for writing personal diaries and letters between close female friends. It has 600 to 700 symbols represent a phonetic syllable.

#language #history #linguistics #writing script #list #international #geez #quipu #Mongolian #sinhalese #conlang #rongorongo script

[o-craven-canto]

Words borrowed from other languages in English

Very incomplete list, based mostly on The Languages of the World (3rd ed.), Kenneth Katzner, 2002 + a heavy use of Wiktionary. some notes:

Many of these words have passed through multiple languages on their way to English (e.g. Persian -> Arabic -> Spanish -> French -> English); in that case I usually list them under the first language that used them in the same acception as English.

I generally don't include words whose ancestors already existed in Middle English, unless their origin was exotic enough to be interesting.

The vast majority of borrowings are terms very specific to their culture of origin; I generally only include those that are either very well known amng English-speakers, or of general use outside that culture.

INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY (West and South Eurasia)

Hellenic Greek: angel, chronometer, democracy, encyclopedia, geography, graphic, hieroglyphic, homogeneous, hydraulic, meter, microscope, monarchy, philosophy, phobia, photography, telephone, and way too many other scientific or technical terms to count

Germanic Afrikaans: aardvark, apartheid, fynbos, rooibos, springbok, trek, veld, wildebeest Danish: Lego, simper Dutch: brandy, bumpkin, coleslaw, cookie, deck, dock, dollar, landscape, freight, furlough, maelstrom, noodle, Santa Claus, waffle, walrus, yacht German: aurochs, bildungsroman, blitzkrieg, cobalt, dachsund, eigenvector, ersatz, gestalt, hamburger, hinterland, kindergarten, kohlrabi, lager, poodle, quark, sauerkraut, wanderlust, yodel, zeitgeist Icelandic: eider, geyser Norwegian: auk, fjord, krill, lemming, narwhal, slalom, troll Swedish: lek, mink, ombudsman, rutabaga, smorgasbord, tungsten Yiddish: bupkis, chutzpah, kvetch, putz, schlemiel, schmaltz, schmooze, schtick, spiel, tchotchke

Slavic Czech: robot Russian: fedora, glasnost, intelligentsia, kefir, mammoth, pogrom, samizdat, steppe, sputnik, troika, tsar, vodka Serbo-Croat: cravat, paprika

Celtic [many of these words are shared between the two languages] Irish: bog, galore, gaol, geas, glen, orrery, shamrock, slob, whiskey Scottish Gaelic: bard, bunny, cairn, clan, loch, ptarmigan, ?scone, slogan

Italic-Romance †Latin: [way too many] French: [way too many] Italian: allegro, aria, balcony, bandit, bravo, calamari, casino, chiaroscuro, crescendo, contrapposto, fresco, gazette, ghetto, gusto, inferno, lava, mafia, malaria, pants, quarantine, tempo, umbrella, vendetta, volcano Portuguese: baroque, brocade, cachalot, cobra, creole, flamingo, petunia, pimento, zebra Spanish: abalone, armadillo, bolas, bonanza, canyon, cargo, chupacabra, cigar, cilantro, embargo, gaucho, guerrilla, junta, manta, mesa, mosquito, mustang, patio, pueblo, rodeo, siesta, tornado, vanilla

Iranian Persian: bazaar, caravan, checkmate, chess, crimson, dervish, divan, jackal, jasmine, khaki, kiosk, lemon, lilac, musk, orange, pajama, paradise, satrap, shawl, taffeta

Indo-Aryan †Sanskrit: brahmin, Buddha, chakra, guru, karma, mantra, opal, swastika, yoga Bengali: dinghy, jute, nabob Hindi: bandana, bungalow, cheetah, chintz, chutney, coolie, cot, dungaree, juggernaut, lacquer, loot, rajah, pundit, shampoo, tom-tom, thug, veranda Marathi: mongoose Romani: hanky-panky, pal, shiv Sinhalese: anaconda, beriberi, serendipity, tourmaline

DRAVIDIAN FAMILY (Southern India)

Kannada: bamboo Malayalam: atoll, calico, copra, jackfruit, mahogany, mango, pagoda, teak Tamil: curry, mulligatawny, pariah Telugu: bandicoot

URALIC FAMILY (Northern Eurasia)

Finnic Finnish: sauna Saami: tundra

Samoyedic Nenets: parka

Ugric Hungarian: biro, coach, goulash, hussar, puszta, tokay

VASCONIC FAMILY (Northern Pirenees)

Basque: chaparral, chimichurri, silhouette

TURKIC FAMILY (Central Eurasia)

†Old Turkic: cossack, yurt Tatar: ?stramonium Turkish: baklava, balaclava, bergamot, caftan, caviar, harem, janissary, kebab, kismet, minaret, pastrami, sherbet, tulip, yoghurt Yakut: taiga

MONGOLIC FAMILY (Mongolia and surrounding areas)

Mongol: horde, khan, ?valerian

SINO-TIBETAN FAMILY (China and Southeast Asia)

Tibeto-Burman Tibetan: lama, panda, tulpa, yak, yeti

Sinitic [Chinese languages closely related, not always clear from which a borrowing comes] Hokkien: ?ketchup, sampan, tea Mandarin: chi, dao, dazibao, gung-ho, kaolin, oolong, shaolin, shanghai, yin-yang Min Nan: nunchaku Yue (Cantonese): chop suey, dim sum, kowtow, kumquat, lychee, shar-pei, ?typhoon, wok

TUNGUSIC FAMILY (Eastern Siberia)

Evenki: pika, shaman

KOREANIC FAMILY (Koreas)

Korean: bulgogi, chaebol, hantavirus, kimchi, taekwondo

JAPONIC FAMILY (Japan)

Japanese: banzai, bonsai, dojo, emoji, geisha, ginkgo, hikikomori, honcho, ikebana, kamikaze, karaoke, koi, kudzu, manga, origami, pachinko, rickshaw, sake, samurai, sensei, soy, sushi, tofu, tsunami, tycoon, zen

AUSTRONESIAN FAMILY (maritime Southeast Asia and Oceania)

Western Malayan Javanese: ?junk [ship] Malay: amok, cockatoo, compound [building], cootie, durian, kapok, orangutan, paddy, pangolin, rattan, sarong

Barito Malagasy: raffia

Phlippinic Cebuano: dugong Ilocano: yo-yo Tagalog: boondocks

Oceanic Hawai'ian: aloha, hula, luau, poi, wiki Maori: kauri, kiwi, mana, weta Marshallese: bikini Tahitian: pareo, tattoo Tongan: taboo

TRANS-NEW GUINEAN FAMILY (New Guinea)

Fore: kuru

PAMA-NYUNGAN FAMILY (Australia)

Dharug: boomerang, corroboree, dingo, koala, wallaby, wobbegong, wombat, woomera Guugu Yimithirr: kangaroo, quoll Nyungar: dunnart, gidgee, quokka Pitjantjatjara: Uluru Wathaurong: bunyip Wiradjuri: kookaburra Yagara: dilly bag

AFRO-ASIATIC FAMILY (North Africa and Near East)

Coptic: adobe

Berber Tachelhit: argan

Semitic †Punic: Africa Arabic: albatross, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alfalfa, algebra, alkali, amber, arsenal, assassin, candy, coffee, cotton, elixir, gazebo, gazelle, ghoul, giraffe, hashish, harem, magazine, mattress, monsoon, sofa, sugar, sultan, syrup, tabby, tariff, zenith, zero Hebrew: amen, behemoth, cabal, cherub, hallelujah, kibbutz, kosher, manna, myrrh, rabbi, sabbath, Satan, seraph, shibboleth

NIGER-CONGO FAMILY (Subsaharan Africa)

unknown: cola, gorilla, tango

Senegambian Wolof: banana, fonio, ?hip, ?jigger [parasite], karite, ?jive, yam

Gur-Adamawa Ngbandi: Ebola

Kwa Ewe: voodoo

Volta-Niger Igbo: okra Yoruba: gelee [headgear], mambo, oba, orisha

Cross River Ibibio: calypso

Bantu Lingala: basenji Kikongo: ?chimpanzee, ?macaque, ?zombie Kimbundu: ?banjo, Candomblé, gumbo, macumba, tanga Swahili: askari, Jenga, kwanzaa, safari Xhosa: Ubuntu Zulu: impala, mamba, vuvuzela

KHOE-KWADI FAMILY (Southwest Africa)

Khoekhoe (Hottentot): gnu, kudu, quagga

ESKIMO-ALEUT FAMILY (Arctic America)

Greenlandic Inuit: igloo, kayak Inuktikut: nunatak

ALGIC FAMILY (Eastern Canada and northeast USA)

†Proto-Algonquin: moccasin, opossum, skunk Cree: muskeg, pemmican Mikmaq: caribou, toboggan Montagnais: husky Narragansett: ?powwow, sachem Ojibwe: chipmunk, totem, wendigo, woodchuck Powhatan: persimmon, raccoon

SALISHAN FAMILY (Pacific coast at the USA-Canada border)

Chehalis: chinook Halkomelem: sasquatch Lushootseed: geoduck

IROQUOIAN FAMILY (Eastern North America)

Cherokee: sequoia

SIOUAN FAMILY (Central USA)

Lakota: teepee

MUSKOGEAN FAMILY (Southeast USA)

Choctaw: bayou

UTO-AZTECAN FAMILY (Southwest USA and north Mexico)

Nahuatl: atlatl, avocado, chili, cocoa, coyote, chocolate, guacamole, hoazin, mesquite, ocelot, quetzal, tamale, tegu, tomato O'odham (Pima): jojoba Shoshone: chuckwalla Yaqui: ?saguaro

MAYAN FAMILY (Southern Mexico and Guatemala)

Yucatec Maya: cenote, Chicxulub

ARAWAKAN FAMILY (Caribbeans and South America)

†Taino: barbecue, cannibal, canoe, cassava, cay, guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, maize, manatee, mangrove, maroon, potato, savanna, tobacco Arawak: papaya

CARIBAN FAMILY (Caribbean coast of South America)

unknown: curare Galibi Carib: caiman, chigger, pawpaw, peccary, yucca

QUECHUAN FAMILY (Andes)

Quechua: ?Andes, caoutchouc, coca, condor, guano, llama, mate, poncho, puma, quinine, vicuna

AYMARAN FAMILY (Andes)

Aymara: alpaca, chinchilla

TUPIAN FAMILY (Brazil)

[borrowings are often shared between these two languages] †Old Tupi: ananas, arowana, Cayenne [pepper], jaguar, manioc, piranha, tapioca Guarani: cougar, maracuja, Paraguay, petunia, toucan

CREOLE LANGUAGES (worldwide, mixed origin)

English-derived Chinese Pidgin English: chopstick, long time no see, pidgin, taipan Jamaican Creole: dreadlocks, reggae

Chinook-derived Chinook Jargon: potlatch

EDIT 08-01-24: added lots more examples, especially African, Asian, and North American languages. Still not done. EDIT 17-01-24: finished adding examples, more or less. EDIT: 18-02-24: apparently not (cheetah). EDIT: 20-05-24: nope (mosquito)

#languages #history #how beauteous mankind is #feel free to add more

[tanadrin]

The Junggrammatiker fantasy of exceptionless sound laws allowing you to recover a perfectly-preserved abstract image of a language, condensed to a single temporal moment and reduced to its most elementary phonemes and morphemes, is continually frustrated in a language like PIE, which even as well-studied as it is, has quirks that defy explanation. Which, of course, is no surprise: the accuracy of our reconstructions is proportional to the quality of the data available--you’d have to way of reconstructing PIE if all you had was Irish and Sinhalese.

We have a lot more data than that on the IE family, but our best data comes from the oldest IE languages, of which there are far fewer. And the speakers of PIE-the-real-language (as opposed to PIE-the-construct) must have been spread out in time and space, and may well have had considerable dialectical variation that never exhibited perfect unity. If all you had attested were the dialects of a language like English, you might try to reconstruct a homogeneous Proto-English, but while this proto-language would share in the features of all its daughter languages, it wouldn’t correspond exactly with any form of Old English as it was actually spoken, because Old English was never homogeneous across all its dialects at any stage. Proto-Greek, the common ancestor of all the ancient Greek dialects, can actually be shown not to correspond to any language ever spoken: Mycenean Greek is attested much earlier than other Greek dialects; we know it’s not the same as Proto-Greek because it has sound changes shared with some Greek dialects, but not all of them. But

all the distinctive morphological features, and many of the distinctive phonological features, which are assumed to be distinctive for Proto-Greek can b shown not to have taken place at the time of Mycenean. Wherever the later Greek dialects have made innovations in morphology from PIE, Mycenean Greek appears not to have participated in that innovation. In other words, all the distinctive aspects of the later Greek dialects (which they all share) arose across a number of varieties which already were distinguished from one another. It is not possible, using the shared morphological innovation criterion, to construct a unified invariant entity such as ‘Proto-Greek’ which is distinguishable from PIE.

Emphasis mine. It’s possible, even likely, that reconstructed PIE is deeply anachronistic, and captures features which arose across centuries, and that there never was a single unified PIE language, or a single unified PIE people. It is, in short, just a model, albeit a very useful one.

A protolanguage, as reconstructed, is a collection of features which were shared by all its daughter-languages at some stage. Some inconsistencies in the data will never be resolved, because they reflect inconsistencies in the original language. But the ‘exceptionless sound change’ rubric is still useful, because it keeps us hunting for what can be regular rules underlying apparent exceptions--providing for things like the laryngeal theory, which was later confirmed by Hittite.

#quote from #indo-european linguistics: an introduction #by james clackson #apparently 'celtic' might also just be a straight-up paraphyletic grouping #the data on continental celtic languages sharing later celtic morphological innovations is scant #(per clackson) #(i know nothing about celtic languages myself)

[isthisabattleship]

Conceptions of time in different languages analysis

 Last week I posted this questionnaire https://forms.gle/7q4LYB8tEh8toiJq6 I received 341 responses so thank you to everyone who filled it out! I’m going to go through the results grouping them by language family. I’ll start with non indo-european languages as I received the fewest of them. I’ll refer to the questions as Q1, Q2 etc. So have a look at the questionnaire for the full question.

Putting a cut here to keep timelines tidy as this post will get pretty long.

Non Indo-European languages

Arabic

I received one response from an Arabic speaker from Lebanon. Impossible to tell if answer is common to all Arabic speakers or even common to all Lebanese Arabic speakers. They answered Q1 Long Q2 The meeting moves backward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 5-12 afternoon 12-6 evening 6-9 night 9-4am Basque

I received one response from a Basque speaker so it would be hard to tell if their answer is common to all or a majority or Basque speakers, or if it is their own personal way of seeing it. As such not much to say in terms of analysis. They answered Q1 Long, Q2 The meeting moves backward Q3 19:30 Q4 4:00-12:00 morning; 12:00-14:00 midday; 14:00-20:00/21:00 afternoon/evening (there's only one word); 20:00/21:00-4:00 night; but 2:00-4:00 is blurry, it would be considered small hours Tagalog I received 1 response from a Tagalog speaker. As with Basque and Arabic cant tell anything about what is common for Tagalog speakers. They answered Q1 Full Q2 The meeting moves backward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning sunrise to noon,afternoon until sunset, evening until 8pm Indo-Aryan languages I received 1 response from a Marathi speaker and 1 response from a Sinhalese speaker. They are both Indo-Aryan languages from the southern zone group. I don’t really know how close they are or their suitability to be compared but I’m going to do it anyway. As with the previous 3 it’s a very small sample size but I’m tired of not drawing conclusions so lets just go nuts. The Marathi speaker answered Q1 Long Q2 The meeting moves forward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 5-12, afternoon 12-5, evening 5-8, night 8-4 The Sinhalese speaker answered Q1 Long Q2 The meeting moves backward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 5-12, afternoon 12-6, evening 6-8 It seems that the two have the same conceptions of time itself but that arranged events are considered relative to the speaker in Sinhalese and relative to the calendar in Marathi. Uralic languages I received responses from 1 Hungarian speaker, 2 Finnish speakers and 10 Estonian speakers. Estonian and Finnish are both part of the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages while Hungarian is its own separate branch.  The Hungarian speaker answered Q1 Long Q2 The meeting moves forward Q3 18:30 Q4 was unanswered The Finnish speakers answered Q1 Long Q2 The meeting moves forward Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 5or6-10or11, afternoon 11-5, evening 5-8 The Estonian speakers answered Q1 6 Long 3 Thick 1 Heavy Q2 all the meeting moves forward Q3 all 18:30 Q4 the most common times were morning 4or6 -12, afternoon 12-5, evening 5-9 There is some disagreement among Estonians on Q1 perhaps the same would be true for Finns and Hungarians if their sample size were the same. All agree on the direction appointments move and they are similar on the time morning begins and afternoon and evening ends. It’s odd to me that the Finnish afternoon begins before 12. Perhaps they also have the concept of a forenoon but didnt want to explain that to me. Indo-European Languages As there are so many I will group them into Germanic, Romance and Slavic, plus Greek, Latvian and Welsh. Welsh I received 1 response from a Welsh speaker (bilingual with English).  They answered Q1 Long Q2 The meeting is removed from the first date and placed on the second with no movement across an intervening imagined space. Q3 19:30 Q4 Morning ends at midday (12). Afternoon ends at 5pm, evening ends at about 8-9pm, and night ends at 7am Latvian I received 1 response from a Latvian speaker.  They answered Q1 Heavy Q2 The meeting moves forward Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 4-1, afternoon 1-6, evening 6-midnight

Greek I received 3 responses from Greek speakers. They answered Q1 2 full 1 long Q2 all the meeting moves forward Q3 all 19:30 Q4 morning 6or7-12or1, afternoon until 6, evening until 9 Germanic Languages I received responses from 8 Dutch speakers (of which 5 were Dutch and 3 Belgian), 85 English speakers (of which 62 were American, 5 Australian, 10 British and 5 Canadian), 23 German speakers (of which 21 were German, 1 Austrian and 1 Swiss) and 2 Swedish speakers (of which 1 Swedish and 1 Finnish). The Belgian Dutch speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 2 forward 1 backward Q3 all 18:30 Q4 morning 5-10 forenoon 10or 11 - 1, afternoon 1-5, evening 5or6 to 9 or 10. The Dutch speakers from the Netherlands answered Q1 all long Q2 2 backward 2 forward 1 transferred without crossing intervening space Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 5-12 afternoon 12-5or6, evening until midnight. All Dutch speakers agree on Q1 but most do not agree on Q2. Perhaps with a larger sampler a clear pattern would be seen. They agree on Q3 but on Q4 Belgian Dutch speakers have a forenoon. One of the Dutch speakers from the Netherlands also commented on this difference. The American English speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 41 backward 16 forward 5 transferred Q3 the Americans were very confused by this question. The goal was to determine whether it is more common to say half to or past an hour. The majority of those who provided an answer said 19:30, some said 18:30 and some said other times such as 15:30 or 21:30 but this is clearly down to them not using the 24hr clock. Q4 most common answer morning begins 5 or sunrise, afternoon 12 or 1 - 5, evening 5-9. The Australian English speakers answered Q1 3 long 1 full 1 big Q2 3 back 1 forward 1 to the right. Q3 Australians were also confused by this questions but the 3 who responded said 19:30 Q4 morning 5or sunrise, afternoon 12 until 5 or6, evening until 8 or 9 2 say night follows afternoon so no evening. The British English speakers answered Q1 all Long Q2 6 backward 2 forward 2 other Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 6-12, afternoon 12- 5or6, evening until 8or9, The Canadian English speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 2 backward 2 forward 1 transferred Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 4 or sunrise-12, afternoon until sunset, evening until 10. All English speakers except 2 Australians agree on Q1. The meeting moves backward is the most common answer for Q2 but others aren’t very uncommon. Those who understood Q3 agreed. The times are all quite similar although I don’t know the time of sunset in Canada so that could be an outlier. The Swiss and Austrian German speakers didn’t answer differently to the Germans so I will group them all together. Q1 16 Long 7 full Q2 12 back 6 forward 2 transferred Q3 all 18:30 Q4 morning 6-12; afternoon 12-18; evening 18-21; night 21-6 many express that noon is a separate time from 12-14 which shouldnt be included with afternoon. The Fenno-swedish speaker answered Q1 Long Q2 Forward Q3 18:30 Q4 Morning begins around six and ends around eleven, same for evenings. The Swedish speaker from Sweden answered Q1 Long Q2 Forward Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 5-9, forenoon 9-12, afternoon 12-7, evening 7-10 All the Germanic language speakers agree on Q1 Long. On Q2 The majority of German and English speakers agree that appointments move backward when postponed. The Dutch and Swedish speakers seem to disagree but there isnt enough data. On Q3 English is a clear outlier with the other languages all agreeing to half to the hour instead of half past. The times of day all seem similar except for The Swede and the Belgian Dutch speakers who agree on a forenoon but disagree slightly on when it begins. Romance languages I received responses from 5 Catalan speakers, 11 French speakers (of which 7 were French and 4 Belgian), 102 Italian speakers, 8 Portuguese speakers (of which 6 were Brazilian and 2 Portuguese), 4 Romanian speakers and 28 Spanish speakers (of which 8 were Argentine, 9 Mexican, 5 Spanish, 3 Colombian, 1 Uruguayan, 1 Peruvian and 1 Honduran). The Catalan speakers answered Q1 4 Long 1 heavy Q2 4 forward 1 backward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning begins at 6 or first light, most consider migdia (midday or lunchtime) distinct from afternoon from 12-3or4 afternoon 4-6 or dusk, evening until 9 or when you leave dinner or go to bed. The Belgian French speakers answered Q1 2 long 2 thick Q2 2 forward 1 back 1 transferred Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 4-12, afternoon 12- 5or 6, evening until 10. The French speakers from France answered Q1 5 long 1 full 1 busy Q2 4 back 3 forward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning midnight until noon, afternoon 12-6, evening until midnight, the night is when the sun is down. Its hard to tell because of the quantity of responses but for Q1 long could be the default answer for french speakers. Its difficult to make a conclusion on Q2. They all agree on Q3. Belgian French speakers have set times for the night while it depends on the sun for those from France. (Per primo voglio ringraziare tutti voi italiani per aver risposto, wow 102!) The Italian speakers answered Q1 46 full 39 long 14 heavy Q2 Over 90 forward with some backward and some transferred Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 5or6-12or1, afternoon ends 5or7, evening ends between 9 and midnight. The Brazilian Portuguese speakers answered Q1 4 full 2 long Q2 all forward Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 5or6-12, afternoon until 5or6, no distinction between evening and night. The European Portuguese speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 all forward Q3 19:30 Q4 neither answered the question in full but one did comment that asking Portuguese people when it is acceptable to say good morning instead of good day would definitely cause a fight. It seems they disagree on Q1 but the sample size is small so that may not be the case. The Romanian speakers answered Q1 2 full 2 long Q2 3 forward 1 transferred Q3 19:30 Q4 morning 6-12, afternoon 12-6, evening 6-10.

I’m going to group the Spanish speakers together because there were so many varieties but they dont differ significantly in response. However several have small sample sizes and its possible others would answer differently. Q1 majority long but some full or heavy Q2 all forward except for 2 argentines Q3 19:30 Q4 only Argentines indicated a distinction between evening and night. They answered morning 6-1, afternoon 1-8, evening 8-11or midnight while the other Spanish speakers answered morning 5or6-12or1 afternoon until 5or6, no distinction between evening and night. Romance language speakers tend to agree Q1 long but full and heavy are also possible. The vast majority agree Q2 forward and Q3 19:30. For morning they all generally agree 5or6 - 12or1 which is also the same for Germanic language speakers. Italian and Spanish speakers have a much larger range of afternoon times with many considering 7 or 8 afternoon. Portuguese speakers (certainly Brazilian but not sure on European) and most Spanish speakers share a lack of distinction between evening and night. Slavic languages I received responses from 3 Croatian speakers, 14 Czech speakers, 7 Polish speakers, 4 Russian speakers, 1 Serbian speaker and 2 Slovenian speakers. The Croatian speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 all forward Q3 18:30 Q4 vastly different answers on when morning begins, 2/3 say afternoon begins at 1, evening begins 6or 7, disagreement on beginning of night. The Czech speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 8 forward 5 transferred 1 back Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 5or6-10, most describe a forenoon time from 10 to 12or1, evening at 6 night at 9 or 11.

The Polish speakers answered Q1 4 long 2 hard 1 tiring Q2 4 forward 3 transferred Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 5or6-12, afternoon 12-6or7, evening until 10or 11, night until 5or6. The Russian speakers answered Q1 3 long 1 hard Q2 3 forward 1 transferred Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 3 or 4 -11, afternoon 12or1 - 4, evening 4-11. The Serbian speaker answered Q1 Heavy Q2 backward Q3 18:30 Q4 morning 5-12, afternoon 12-7, evening 7-9. The Slovenian speakers answered Q1 all long Q2 all forward Q3 18:30 Q4 one uses a forenoon the other doesn’t morning starts at 4or5, afternoon start at 12or1, evening 6-10. For Q1 long seems to be preferred with hard second most common, Serbian is an outlier with heavy but the sample size is small. Q2 Forward seems preferred with quite a lot of transferred as well. The Serb is once again the odd one out with backward. Q3 all agree 18:30 Q4 Russian’s have a much earlier begin to morning and it also ends before 12 but they don’t specify a forenoon as The Czechs and 1 Slovenian do. Russians also have an earlier evening. Largely it seems that concepts of time are consistent within language families although there is variation between different branches such as English in the Germanic languages and Russian or Serbian (maybe) in the Slavic. I hope you enjoyed reading this. My analysis wasnt too in depth because of the amount of answers and different languages but it was fun to compare them. It took me basically all day. I’m tired now so if anyone doesnt like what I’ve written I dont want to hear about it.

#time & language #languages

[insideceylon]

Language and Communication in Sri Lanka

Are you thinking about traveling to Sri Lanka? First of all, let us congratulate you on your decision of visiting the wonder of Asia, Sri Lanka. Since the country is reopening after the pandemic, we thought it would be beneficial for first-time travellers in particular if we explain the language and the communication in Sri Lanka. In order to keep everything simple, we have shaped the article as a Q&A session.

Frequently asked questions about language and communication in Sri Lanka What are the main languages in Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka is a country with mixed ethnicities; Sinhala and Tamil are the main languages used in the country. That said, English also is a “generally understandable” language for the most. You can get most of your works done without much of a problem if you know English. English is very common when it comes to the tourism side of things, and literally, all the hotel staff, shops, and restaurants around the country are well-equipped to serve their visitors in English.

Road signs and other must-know details are explained in Sinhala and English in most areas of the country except for some places in North and eastern provinces where Tamil is more prominent. However, tourist guide services in Sri Lanka generally consists of Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and French speakers, and if you are not from those countries, a tiny bit of English will do the work for you.

Can I talk any language freely in Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka is a super-friendly country for visitors, and talking the language you know won’t put you in trouble. However, using a language other than Sinhala, Tamil or English would not help you in most cases to accomplish the task you want because of the lack of understanding capabilities.

What is the Sinhala speaking percentage in Sri Lanka?

More than 74% of citizens speak Sinhala in Sri Lanka. However, when you go to the northern, eastern and central sides of the country and around Nuwara-Eliya, Hatton, Adams Peak, and Badulla, you can see more Tamil speakers. The fascinating fact is most Sinhalese do speak and understand Tamil and vice versa.

The 30-year civil war definitely had limited Sinhala population in north and east provinces. But, the conclusion of the war in 2009 has bridged the country again, and now there is a good mix of Tamils ad Sinhalese in most of the parts.

How can I call someone in Sri Lanka?

94 is Sri Lanka’s country code, and the two-letter code is LK. If you are dialing a person who is in Colombo, you have to use +94 11…. followed by the rest of the digits. The mobile telephone numbers of the country start from 07 and similar to the previous example you have to use +94 to make a mobile telephone call to Sri Lanka.

You don’t have to use +94 to call while you are in the country; having said that, you must use the area code of the city when calling to a fixed line. You can extract the local area codes of Sri Lanka on Google without much of a fuss.

How about Sri Lanka’s telecommunication?

Telephone facility is never a hassle, and almost all the individuals of the country have a mobile phone. However, you can hardly find telephone booths across the rural areas of Sri Lanka as the rising mobile technology has gradually taken that aspect out of context. The overall clarity of the phone calls is good. The cost also substantially low compared to the last three to four years.

Generally speaking, you can make a mobile phone call less than 2LKR/minute. Also there are five main service providers available as of now; Dialog, Mobitel, Hutch, Airtel and Etisalat. Further, you shouldn’t be facing any coverage issues while traveling across the country as well.

Is the internet available in Sri Lanka?

Yes, of course. Unlike most other Asian countries, there are no heavy restrictions on the users. All the popular social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn are available for both tourists and the general public. Internet was somewhat foreign, particularly for the older generation of the country a few years back, but things have drastically changed thanks to new government rules; now they are more than capable of handling the internet to find solutions for their day to day problems.

Further, most of the popular hotels, restaurants and public places have free Wi-Fi facilities. If you don’t have any device to log into the internet, you can visit an internet café to get services which will cost you about USD 0.50/hour.

Can I buy local connections in Sri Lanka?

Yes, you can purchase a SIM card from a local service provider and use it while you are in Sri Lanka. As said, the mobile rates are quite low, and there are various methods available for you to top up your account. The price of SIM cards usually changes from one retailer to another; and it would be ideal if you buy one at the airport on your arrival.

Talking about the mobile recharge options, you can buy scratch cards from retailers around the country. The new technology has absorbed enough into the Sri Lankan soil to top up the accounts via credit and debit cards.

Conclusion on language and communication in Sri Lanka

To summarize the article, we would say tourists typically find it easy to mingle with Sri Lankan people. Because they have a relatively high understanding capacity of the English language; also, they are reputed as a highly hospitable nation. Concerning the telecommunication and internet, tourists can enjoy those services without any barriers at an affordable price range.

OK, guys, that’s it for today’s article. Please comment below if you have any issues; we are more than happy to help you with anything regarding this amazing country. Cheers! View more articles related to sri lanka

[noosphe-re]

Raining cats and dogs

(via Wikipedia)

The Spanish idiom "it is raining cats and dogs", used to describe particularly heavy rain, is of unknown etymology and is not necessarily related to the raining animals phenomenon. The phrase (with "polecats" instead of "cats") has been used at least since the 17th century. A number of possible etymologies have been put forward to explain the phrase; for example:

• Drainage systems on buildings in 17th-century Europe were poor and may have disgorged their contents during heavy showers, including the corpses of any animals that had accumulated in them. This occurrence is documented in Jonathan Swift's 1710 poem "Description of a City Shower", in which he describes "Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud,/Dead cats and turnip-tops come tumbling down the flood." • "Cats and dogs" may be a corruption of the Greek word Katadoupoi, referring to the waterfalls on the Nile, possibly through the old French word catadupe ("waterfall"). • The Greek phrase "kata doksa", which means "contrary to expectation", is often applied to heavy rain, but there is no evidence to support the theory that it was borrowed by English speakers. In addition to at least one folk etymology:

• An "explanation" widely circulated by email claimed that in 16th-century Europe, when peasant homes were commonly thatched, animals could crawl into the thatch to find shelter from the elements and would fall out during heavy rain. However, there seems to be no evidence in support of either assertion. There may not be a logical explanation; the phrase may have been used just for its nonsensical humor value, like other equivalent English expressions ("it is raining pitchforks", "hammer handles", etc.). Other languages have equally bizarre expressions for heavy rain: • Afan Oromo: Waaqatu baqaqe ("the sky got torned") • Afrikaans: ou vrouens met knopkieries reën ("old women with clubs") • Albanian: po bie litarë-litarë ("[rain] is falling ropes-ropes"), ("is falling like ropes") • Albanian: po bën Zoti shurrën ("God is taking a piss") • Albanian: po qan Zoti ("God is crying") • Bengali: মুষলধারে বৃষ্টি পড়ছে musholdhare brishṭi poṛchhe ("rain is falling like pestles") • Bosnian: padaju ćuskije ("crowbars") • Bosnian: lije ko iz kabla ("it's pouring like from a bucket") • Cantonese: "落狗屎" ("It's raining dog's poo") • Chinese: "倾盆大雨" (qīngpén dàyǔ) ("its pouring out of basins") • Catalan: Ploure a bots i barrals ("boats and barrels") • Croatian: padaju sjekire ("axes dropping") • Czech: padají trakaře ("wheelbarrows") • Czech: leje jako z konve ("like from a watering can") • Danish: det regner skomagerdrenge ("shoemakers' apprentices") • Dutch: het regent pijpenstelen ("It's raining pipe stems (or stair rods)") • Dutch (Flemish): het regent oude wijven ("It's raining old women") • Dutch (Flemish): het regent kattenjongen ("It's raining kittens") • Estonian: sajab nagu oavarrest ("It's raining like from a beanstalk") • Finnish: Sataa kuin Esterin perseestä ("It's raining like from Esteri's ass") • Finnish: Sataa kuin saavista kaatamalla ("It's raining like poured from a bucket") • French: il pleut comme vache qui pisse ("it is raining like a peeing cow") • French: il pleut des seaux ("it's raining buckets") • French: il pleut des hallebardes ("it is raining halberds", clous ("nails"), or cordes ("ropes")) • Georgian: კოკისპირული წვიმა - [kokispiruli tsvima] ("like water flows from filled KOKA")(koka Georgian, water measuring tableware, jar) • German: Es regnet junge Hunde ("young dogs") or Es schüttet wie aus Eimern ("like poured from buckets") • Greek: βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα ("chair legs") • Hindi: मुसलधार बारिश (musaldhār bārish) ("rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]") • Hungarian: mintha dézsából öntenék ("like poured from a vat") • Icelandic: Það rignir eins og hellt sé úr fötu ("like poured from a bucket") • Japanese: 土砂降り (doshaburi) ("earth and sand descending") • Kannada:ಮುಸಲಧಾರೆ, ಕುಂಭದ್ರೋಣ ಮಳೆ ("a stream of mallets") • Italian: piove a catinelle ("poured from a basin") • Latvian: līst kā no spaiņiem ("it's raining like from buckets") • Lithuanian: pila kaip iš kibiro ("it's pouring like from a bucket") • Malayalam: പേമാരി pemari ("mad rain") • Marathi: मुसळधार पाउस("rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]") • Nepali: मुसलधारे झरी ("rain like a pestle [onto a mortar]") • Norwegian: det regner trollkjerringer ("she-trolls") • Polish: leje jak z cebra ("like from a bucket") • Portuguese: chovem or está chovendo/a chover canivetes ("penknives") • Portuguese: chove a potes/baldes ("it is raining by the pot/bucket load") • Portuguese: chove a cântaros/canecos ("it is raining by the jug load") • Portuguese (Brazil): chovem cobras e lagartos ("snakes and lizards") • Portuguese (Brazil): está caindo um pau-d'água ("a stick of water is falling") • Portuguese (Brazil): está caindo um pé-d'água ("a foot of water is falling") • Romanian: plouă cu broaşte ("raining frogs") • Romanian: plouă cu găleata ("from a bucket") • Russian: льет как из ведра ("from a bucket") • Sinhalese: නාකපන්න වහිනවා ("it's raining cats and dogs") • Spanish: están lloviendo chuzos de punta ("shortpikes/icicles point first" - not only is it raining a lot, but it's so cold and windy that being hit by the drops hurts) • Spanish: está lloviendo a cántaros ("by the clay pot-full") • Spanish: llueven sapos y culebras ("toads and snakes") • Spanish (Argentina): caen soretes de punta ("pieces of dung head-first") • Spanish (Venezuela): está cayendo un palo de agua ("a stick of water is falling") • Spanish (Colombia): estan lloviendo maridos ("it's raining husbands") • Serbian: padaju sekire ("axes") • Swedish: Det regnar smådjävlar ("It is raining little devils") • Swedish: Det regnar småspik ("It is raining small nails") • Swedish: regnet står som spön i backen ("the rain stands like canes hitting the ground") • Tamil: பேய் மழை pei mazhi ("ghost rain") • Telugu: కుండపోత వర్షం ("pouring like an inverted pot") • Turkish: bardaktan boşanırcasına ("like poured from a cup") • Urdu: musladhār bārish ("rain like a pestle [on a mortar]") • Welsh: mae hi'n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn ("old ladies and sticks")

#language #linguistics #rain #nature #raining cats and dogs #Spanish

[imaginethebeautifulworld]

I like l's, so how about lavender, lilac, lily, and lunaria for the flower ask?

Well hello, Lovely~ L is quite an alluring little letter, I agree.

lavender: soundcloud or vinyl?

I absolutely prefer an old vinyl, any day. I love the light scratch added to each song, the slight crackle from the speakers. SoundCloud is convenient, but for me nothing compares to an album.

lilac: if you could go back in time, which time period would you visit?

I don't so much have specific time periods I want to visit, but more certain places scattered all through history. I'd love to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, catch a drama at the Theatre of Dionysus, spend a day wandering Pompeii or Cahokia or Aksum or Deijima back in their heydays. I'd love to just walk around the Library of Alexandria, have dinner with Assyrian salt collectors, be at the grand opening of Königliches Museum auf der Spreeinsel, take a ride aboard the Atrato, do a small tour of a Sinhalese hospital.

Honestly, for me, just the chance to experience, to witness, any other time period would be beyond words, no matter which time period it may be or how mundane the activity may seem.

lily: what's something you love watching/reading, but you are too embarrassed to admit you do?

I honestly can't think of any? I think I finally hit that point in life where I don't really mind what other folks think about my interests.

lunaria: what's your favorite fictional universe?

Most of my answers, when actually considered in depth, are actually really bad places to be for the average person. So I guess I would have to say something Genovia? It's Earth, just a little to the left.

Thanks for the ask, Anon!

#botanical asks #thanks anon #anon asks #anonymous asks #personal asks #hello lovelies!

[aefensteorrra]

The Dhivehi language ( ދިވެހިބަސް  -  Dhivehi Bas), is an Insular Indic language that belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian language family and is spoken in the Maldives by approximately 340,000 people. There are an additional 10,000 speakers of the Mahl dialect on the island of Minicoy in India. Dhivehi’s closest relative is Sinhala, spoken in Sri Lanka, but they are not mutually intelligible. Like Sinhala, Dhivehi also has a number of features resembling those of the Dravidian languages due to geographic proximity. As a nation made up of approximately 1190 small islands, many of which are uninhabited and used purely as resorts, the geography of the Maldives has impacted the Dhivehi language and resulted in many dialects. The dialect spoken in the capital city of Malé is used as the standard form of Dhivehi, Malé Bas.

The Name

Dhivehi essentially means ‘islanders language’ or ‘language of the islanders’. The name is derived from Div+vehi meaning islanders from the Sanskrit dvīpa - द्वीप (island, peninsula). Bas also derives from Sanskrit bhāṣā-  भाषा (language). The -dives part of Maldives derives from the same Sanskrit root as Dhivehi.

The Script

Dhivehi is written from right to left in the Thaana script. Consonants are derived from both indigenous Indic numerals and Arabic numerals and vowels (fili in Dhivehi) are derived from the vowel diacritics used in Arabic. Vowels are written as diacritics above or below the consonants. The earliest example of the Thaana script was found inscribed on the doors of the Friday Mosque and dates back to approximately 1599 AD.

The Thaana script uses five fili for short vowel sounds: a, i, u, e, o and double fili to write long vowel sounds. Demonstrated here written above the letter alifu, which has no inherent sound value:  އަ  [ ə ],  އާ [ əː ],  އި [ i ],  އީ [ iː ],  އު [ u ],  އޫ [ uː ],  އެ [ e ],  އޭ [ eː ],  އޮ [ ɔ ],  އޯ [ ɔː ]

Thaana also features a ‘vowel killer’ called a sukun, a diacritic that indicates a consonant is not followed by a vowel. A sukun is also used over އ (alifu) or  ނ (noonu) to indicate that the following vowel is nasalised. Over alifu at the end of a word the sukun represents a glottal stop, such as in  ފައް [ faʔ ] (sawtooth).

Phonology

Dhivehi has 29 consonant sounds, and 10 vowel sounds.

Dhivehi features short and long vowel sounds, consonant lengthening (gemination) and a distinction between retroflex and dental consonants (maḍun - quietly vs madun - seldom). All of these features are typical of Indo-Aryan languages. A feature not typical amongst Indo-Aryan languages, that appears only in Dhivehi and Sinhalese, are prenasalised stops: haⁿdu - moon, haᶯɖuː - uncooked rice, aᵑɡa - mouth. The voiceless alveolar flap/trill [r] is also peculiar to Dhivehi, although some people pronounce it as a retroflex grooved fricative [ʂ]

There are no initial consonant clusters in the language as the typical syllabic structure is CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant). For loanwords with a differing syllabic structure, such as skūl (school) - CCVC, many speakers will morph the word to the typical syllabic structure and pronounce the word as iskūl - VC.CVC. 

Stress is usually on the first syllable of a word.

Grammar

Nouns in Dhivehi inflict for definiteness, number and case (nominative, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, instrumental, emphatic). Nouns fall into two classes: human and non-human. The class of a noun determines plural markers, the case a noun can appear in and definiteness inflection - some human nouns appear as definite in their stem form, but some are given a suffix to make them definite. Loanwords are inflected in the same way as native nouns. Masculine and feminine do not apply to Dhivehi; distinguishing and inflecting nouns by gender simply does not exist.  Sometimes, nouns are reduplicated to give a specific distributive plural meaning something along the lines of ‘various’ or ‘many’:  ރަށް  town/island,  ރަށް ރަށް  many towns/islands.

Finite verbs inflect for past, present and future and show person agreement with the subject of the sentence. Medial verbs inflect for tense, but not at all for person, and nonfinite verbs inflect neither for tense nor for person. The Dhivehi verbal system features active, causative and involitive/intransitive verb forms.

Sentence structure is not so strict as it is in English - sometimes a specific word order creates subtle nuance without needing to use additional words.

Honorifics 

Dhivehi is considered to have three different levels of speech.

Traditionally, levels of speech divided society in the high nobility, minor nobility and commoners. Honorifics reflected only the status of who was being addressed, not the person speaking. However, in the Maldives today, the honorific system is used more to show respect towards a person’s status, whether they were born into that status or acquired it later in life.

The traditionally highest level of speech, enme maaiy goiy, today is typically used on radio and TV. The mid level of speech, maaiy goiy, is used to show respect to elders, those in positions of authority and strangers, and the third level of speech, aadhaige goiy is used as everyday speech and is how people talk about themselves.

Influences

Dhivehi has been influences notably by Arabic, Persian, Urdu and more recently, English, from which many technological terms have been borrowed.  

Arabic influence propelled the development of the written language, and assalaamu alaikum is a common greeting.

The phoneme [z] is completely foreign to Dhivehi and came into use under Persian and Urdu influence. It is only used in loanwords such as ɡaːziː (judge) from Persian and maːziː (past) from Urdu.

How Dhivehi Sounds

A Maldivian song.

Sources: Thaana Script Dhivehi: The Language of the Maldives Maldivian language Wikipedia

Some GoogleBooks links: A Maldivian Dictionary Maldives - more insight into the history of the Maldives and how the language played an important role. Common Plants of Maldives - full view(!!) of a book about the plants native to the Maldives, also gives some cultural and historical insight.

#guys this script!!!! #Dhivehi #Dhivehi bas #Maldivian #langblr #i haven't added phrases or anything #bc these are more about looking at language features #and history and development etc #than trying to learn bits of languages

[banglanotebook]

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY CHALLENGE: 3/6 සිංහල [siṁhala]

INTRODUCTION Sinhala (Sinhalese) resides in Sri Lanka, an island nation off the coast of the southern tip of India. Sinhala has approximately 17 million native speakers as of 2012. 

HISTORY Despite being almost entirely surrounded by Dravidian languages, Sinhala is a member of the Indo-Aryan family. The Indo-Aryan family was first introduced to the island of modern day Sri Lanka by colonists from northern India in around the 5th century BC. Due to its isolation from the rest of its family, Sinhala developed attributes unique from other Indo-Aryan languages, placing it in the Insular-Indic branch. Sinhala is descended from the Sinhalese Prakrit known as Elu, which makes Maldivian its sister as the two languages have the same immediate parent. The very first inscriptions made in Sinhala were produced in around 200 BCE, and Sinhala established developed works of literature in around 900 ACE.

SCRIPT Sinhala’s script is an abugida that descends from Brahmi and is used for writing Sinhala as well as Pali, a language central to Buddhist literature. Odia’s script would develop from Sinhala’s, making their writing systems relatives. The Sinhalese script features round characters that bear semblance to several Dravidian scripts.

FEATURES -Highly pronounced diglossia -Spoken form does not conjugate for number, person, or gender  -Lacks aspirated consonants found in other Indo-Aryan languages -SOV word order -Postpositions -Has no copula -Pro-drop (pronouns can be dropped yet still implied)

LEGACY AND CONTRIBUTIONS The Sinhalese language has a rich Buddhist literary tradition spanning 2,000 years and gained traction in secular literature in the 20th century. The oldest Sinhalese grammar, Sidatsangarava, was written in the 13th century and detailed words original to Sinhala. Sinhala also has substantial influence in Macanese Patois (Macau Creole), a creole spoken by people of the Portuguese colony of Macau. 

SAMPLE Below is a Sinhalese proverb written in the Sinhala script and translated:

ගිනිපෙනෙල්ලෙන් බැටකාපු මිනිහා කණාමැදිරි එළියටත් බයයි ලු [ginipenellen batakaapu miniha kanaamadiri eliyatath bayayi lu] The man who has been beaten by a fire-brand dreads the light of even a firefly. 

VIDEOS Here is a video with phrases in Sinhala. He has a few other videos you can check out too.

Here is a music video for “Duka Wedi Nethe” by Ruwan Hettiarachchi

Here is a video of Kavini speaking Sinhala

#linguisticdiversitychallenge #languages #langblr #studyblr #sinhala #sinhalese #south asian languages #asian languages #south asian #south asia #Asian #asia #sri lanka #indo-aryan #indo-european #indo-iranian #learn sinhala #desi #learn sinhalese #banglablr #banglanotebook #linguistics

[mapsontheweb]

Sri Lanka: Ethnic groups that form the majority in each district.

CheraCholaPandya:

Source

Sinhala:

The Sinhalese (Sinhala: සිංහල ජාතිය Sinhala Jathiya, also known as Hela) are an Indo-Aryan-speaking ethnic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. They constitute about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number greater than 16.2 million. The Sinhalese identity is based on language, historical heritage and religion. The Sinhalese people speak the Sinhalese language, an Indo-Aryan language, and are predominantly Theravada Buddhists, although a small percentage of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity. The Sinhalese are mostly found in North Central, Central, South, and West Sri Lanka. According to the 5th century epic poem Mahavamsa, and the Dipavamsa, a 3rd–5th century treatise written in Pali by Buddhist monks of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese are descendants of settlers who came to the island in 543 BCE from Sinhapura, in India, led by Prince Vijaya.

Sri Lankan Tamil:

Sri Lankan Tamils (Tamil: இலங்கை தமிழர், ilankai tamiḻar ? also Tamil: ஈழத் தமிழர், īḻat tamiḻar ?) or Ceylon Tamils, also known as Eelam Tamils in Tamil, are members of the Tamil ethnic group native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. According to anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE. Most modern Sri Lankan Tamils claim descent from residents of Jaffna Kingdom, a former kingdom in the north of the island and Vannimai chieftaincies from the east. They constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Province, and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka:

Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka are Tamil people of Indian origin in Sri Lanka. They are also known as Hill Country Tamils, Up-Country Tamils or simply Indian Tamils. They are partly descended from workers sent from South India to Sri Lanka in the 19th and 20th centuries to work in coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Some also migrated on their own as merchants and as other service providers. These Tamil-speakers mostly live in the central highlands, also known as the Malayalam or Hill Country yet others are also found in major urban areas and in the Northern Province. Although they are all termed as Tamils today, some have Telugu and Malayalee origins as well as diverse South Indian caste origins. They are instrumental in the plantation sector economy of Sri Lanka. In general, socio-economically their standard of living is below that of the national average and they are described as one of the poorest and most neglected groups in Sri Lanka. In 1964 a large percentage were repatriated to India, but left a considerable number as stateless people.

Sri Lankan Moors:

Sri Lankan Moors (Tamil: இலங்கைச் சோனகர், translit. Ilaṅkaic Cōṉakar; Sinhalese: ලංකා යෝනක, translit. Lanka Yonaka formerly Ceylon Moors; colloquially referred to as Muslims or Moors) are an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.3% of the country's total population. They are mainly native speakers of the Tamil language with influence of Sinhalese and Arabic words. They are predominantly followers of Islam.

The Moors trace their ancestry to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka in waves beginning from the 8th century. The population of Moors are the highest in the Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts. The Portuguese named the Muslims in India and Sri Lanka after the Muslim Moors they met in Iberia. The word Moors did not exist in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Portuguese colonists. The term 'Moor' was chosen because of the Islamic faith of these people, and was not a reflection of their origin.

*I got my SVG from amCharts.

#maps #sri lanka #ethnic groups

[grootpoepjeplasjehoofd]

4chan is trying to crowdsource a translation of the leaked Sri Lankan document showing that the security services knew of a threat but there aren’t any Sinhalese speakers so they have to rely on shitty OCR software and Google translate and the results are so funny

>loneliness is the skin and there are frostbite

>Rambukhs raise their magicians above

>It is said that the seasons are close to the Moon

[universal-translation-services]

Top 10 Facts About the Sinhala Language

Sinhala Language

There is something about the culture of the South Asian countries that make them stand out in our world. Their cultures are very vibrant, highly memorable to the point that anyone who has ever attended a festival in South Asia will never forget it. There are a lot of similarities between the cultures of these countries but at the same time they are distinctive enough to have their own identities. From the songs to folklores and festivals to traditions, there is no dull part of the cultures of India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. These countries also have some great tourist locations and that’s an added bonus for everyone who want to go there to witness the culture first hand. Sri Lanka maybe the smallest of the South Asian countries but its thousands of years old history and connection to Buddhism means it is no less important than the other states. It is rated high on Human Development Index and has the highest per capita income in South Asia. Considering the financial condition of South Asian countries, that is a remarkable feat the country has achieved. The culture of the country is pretty diverse thanks to the different ethnic groups living there. The world’s fourth largest religion of Buddhism is given the foremost place in Sri Lankan constitution. When it comes to the vernaculars, the country has plenty of them with different ethnic groups residing in there. But the majority group Sinhalese's language Sinhala is most spoken tongue in the country. When the cricket world cup was held in Sri Lanka, many of us noticed different things about the country but nobody could ignore the national anthem of the national team that the whole stadium sang before each match. The words may have been foreign to people, nobody could deny feeling impressed by how melodic the anthem was. Such is the power of the language of the Sinhalese people.

Top 10 Facts About the Sinhala Language:

The ethnic group of Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka a long time ago, in 250 BC according to one estimate. Since then, language has been around. But overtime it was influenced by other vernaculars and picked on some new words and phrases. However, it didn’t lose its essence or faded into non-existence even after all this time. The strong hold of the tongue in the Sinhalese culture and its link with Buddhism are the things that have kept it alive centuries later too. In order to get a better understanding of Sinhala and what makes it so special, here are ten facts about it: Diglossia: It is a linguistic phenomenon that is not seen often in vernaculars. When a language has two different versions, one for everyday use and the other for more formal occasions, that is termed as diglossia. A lot of vernaculars don’t have two versions but Sinhala does. The native speakers can understand both versions easily but it is the everyday version that is used by the majority. Connected to Buddhism: One of the oldest inscriptions of Sinhalese are related to Buddhism. The old texts of Buddhism were written in Sinhalese and they helped promote the religion in the region. That aspect added to the value of the vernacular. Influences: Sinhala has a lot of features of Dravidian vernaculars. It has also adopted various words from Tamil. But the influences didn’t stop there. Due to colonization of the land, the vernacular also picked up words from Dutch, English, and Portuguese. Unique Script: The Sinhala script is a descendant of the Brahmi script. It is very unique looking and is closely related to the Kadamba script. The Sinhala script is also used to write Pali and Sanskrit. All Types of Speakers: Sinhala is not spoken by the Sinhalese only. Plenty of other ethnic groups in the country also speak it as their first language making the total number of native speakers seventeen million. Three million people speak it as their second language too. Subject-Object-Verb Order: The sentence structure in Sinhala follow the subject-object-verb order like other Asian languages in comparison with English where the order is subject-verb-object. The Sinhalese of 1250: The oldest discovered writings of Sinhala may date back to 200 BC, it went a lot of changes overtime. However, since 1250, the vernacular has stayed intact for the most part and the speakers of today can read old texts easily. Recognized in the Constitution: Due to being the tongue of the majority, Sinhala is one of the two official languages in Sri Lanka. The other vernacular recognized in the constitution of the country is Tamil which has over five million speakers. Number of Letters: Sinhala has fifty-eight letters, but on a daily basis, only thirty-eight of those are used. The rest are used occasionally but not on a regular basis and that’s another unique thing about this vernacular. Reading Order: Like a lot of languages in the world, Sinhala is read from left to write. However, here it differs from other South Asian tongues. This official language of Sri Lanka with its unique script and old history is not an easy one to master. It takes students of Sinhalese a long time to become fluent in it. Especially if they are learning to write it, students will find it very difficult to learn Sinhalese. However, its spoken form is a bit easier to learn and become good at. Read the full article

#Sinhala_Language #Facts_About_Sinhala_Language #culture_of_South_Asian #srilankan_language #sinhalese

[ayearinlanguage]

A Year in Language, Day 334: Malayalam Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken primarily in India's Southwestern state of Kerala, and associated with the Malayali ethnicity. There are 30-40 million speakers. Malayalam and Tamil are more closely related to each other than they are to any other Dravidian language. Their exact date of divergence is uncertain, as literary and cultural conventions surrounding them are complex to say the least, but it began as early as the 7th century CE and was most definitely "complete" by the 13th century. Most historians will speak of Malayalam as having developed from a west coast dialect of Tamil. This position is objectionable to Malayali, who would rather portray the two languages as having diverged from common ancestry , not one branching from the other. This is definitely a more accurate account, but Tamil cultural dominance is a hard mountain to climb. The Malayalam script is related closely to Tulu and Sinhalese scripts, all derived from the medieval Grantha alphabet, still used for liturgy by some conservative Tamil Hindus. Like other Dravidian languages Malayalam has suffixing agglutinative grammar and shares common Indian phonetic features; a full series of retroflex consonants and a four way distinction in stop consonants of voicing and aspiration (i.e. it contrasts "p", "b", "ph" and "bh")

#A Year in Language #Malayalam #AYIL #language #linguistics #day 334

[pkjobs]

Restaurant Team Leader / Shift in Charge Latest Job In Dubai UAE

Restaurant Team Leader / Shift in Charge Latest Job In Dubai UAE

Contact No.: 0564104831 Email: [email protected] Street: al rigga City: Dubai Listed: February 4, 2022 2:37 pm Expires: 27 days, 13 hours Job Details -tagalog, nepalese, sinhalese, urdu speakers required -must have at least 2years experience for the same role -with Good English communication skills -for immediate joining- preferably on visit and cancelled visa -Salary AED3200

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