The Contribution of Cumaratunga Munidasa as a Neologist
Cumaratunga Munidasa (25 th July 1887 - 02 nd March 1944) was one of the greatest classical Sinhalese scholars of the recent times, known and remembered over years as a National Hero, for his out-standing endeavours in resurrecting the Sinhalese language in the 20 th century. 1 He was a man of rare potential, who was a linguist, grammarian, commentator, writer, poet and journalist. Cumaratunga was a polyglot as well. Apart from his intense knowledge of Oriental Languages like Sinhalese, Pàli and Sanskrit, he was endowed with an in-depth knowledge of English, Greek, and Latin. His multilingual competence paved him the way to render a remarkable service in nourishing the modern vocabulary of the Sinhalese Language. Let us concentrate on his excellence in expanding Sinhalese lexicon with a number of neologisms 2 . Even after nearly hundred years of determined introduction of English, only a certain class of contemporary Ceylonese was capable of comprehending the ideas presented in...
