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 neologisms².

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 English language. Being a journalist who wrote for the common man of the day, Cumaratunga recognised the need of new technical terms capable of imparting modern concepts of colonial era, among the Sinhalese monolinguals in their mother-tongue. Direct and indirect borrowing from English was the only possible way of serving this need. Yet, linguists have noticed four salient features of Cumaratunga’s approach in accompanying neologisms to the language³. They are as follows:

1. Adaptation of English loan words to suit the phonological features of Sinhalese
Examples: බසය (bus), කාරය (car), ලොරිය (lorry), ටයරය (tyre), ඇංජිම (engine)

2. Coinage of new terms with loaned Sanskrit verbal roots

      Examples: ක්ෂේපණය (abbreviation), අභ්‍යසනය (exercise), විවරණය (exposition), සංස්කරණය (edition), යෝග්‍යකරණය (inflexion), සංග්‍රහප්‍රකෘති (compounds)
Terms of this form, loaned from Sanskrit, are mostly found in his two grammars, Vyàkarana Vivaranaya and Kriyà Vivaranaya.

3. Attribution of new meanings to existing nouns
Examples: සරසවිය (university), මහැදුරු (professor), වෙළුම (volume), රජය (government), හෙදිය (nurse), රැහැන (wire), කලබ (bundle), බුබුළ (bulb), ඉසවුව (subject), පෙදෙස (place)

These words originally meant noting of relation to the modern day connotations of them.  

 
 4. Coinage of new terms with the roots of Hela Basa⁴

Cumaratunga’s out-standing talent in coining new terms is vividly seen in associating indigenous roots of the Sinhalese language. During the latter part of his life, Cumaratunga strongly advocated the use of Hela Basa, pure Sinhalese. It is very clear that this ideology of purism avoided him borrowing Sanskrit and Pàli roots to coin new technical terms. As one of his followers states, his observation was that Sanskrit and Pàli verbal roots discontinued functioning as verbs when insinuated to the Sinhalese language⁵. So, loan words failed to conjugate and produce the associated nominal forms. Arising from this understanding, Cumaratunga has adapted two approaches in coining new Hela terms:

i.                    Derivation of Hela terms from corresponding Sanskrit words.

Examples: පාසල (පාඨශාලා), විදුහල (විද්‍යාශාලා),ඇදුරු (ආචාර්ය), විනිසුරු (විනිශ්චයකාර), සිසු (ශිෂ්‍ය), සැකැසුම (සංස්කරණය), හැකියාව (ශක්‍යතා), දෙසුම (දේශනය), පැවැසුම (ප්‍රකාශනය), පමණ (ප්‍රමාණ), ඇබෑසිය (අභ්‍යාසය), පහරුව (මුද්‍රණාලයය), වහර (ව්‍යවහාර), රැකියා (රක්ෂා), ලකුණු (ලක්ෂණ), කොසුව (කෝෂ)

ii.                  Coinage of new Hela words with existing Hela roots.

Most of the words that come under this category are equivalents created to English words referring to modern phenomena that were alien to the contemporary Sinhalese speech community.
Examples: කමිටුව (committee), පාපැදිය (bicycle), යතුරු-පැදිය (motor-cycle), දුරබණුව (telephone), දුරදක්නය (telescope), අනුදක්නය (microscope), ලිපිගොනුව (file), සකසුරු (secretary), මීයැසි (music), ඇණැවුම (order), ගිණුම (account), රෙදෙවුව (radio), හෙදිය (nurse), පිරික්සු (inspector), පැක්ම(programme), බුබුළ (bulb), පසුබිම (background), රටැවැසි (citizen), හුවමාරුව (exchange), එකතුව (union), පදවි (degree), ගිලන්හල (hospital), හිම-කිරම (ice-cream), බුමුව (bomb), දනවු (civil), වහසිය (challenge), ලිවිසැරිය (literature),නම්වරය (number), කුමුදුව (submarine),කමිසුරු (commissioner), කමිසුම (commission), කම්දොරුව (office)        

Most of these new technical terms accompanied to the Sinhalese language by Cumaratunga have now gained currency even in day-today speech of the average Sinhalese folk. Though hundreds of instances can be provided to enlighten the talent of Cumaratunga in coining new technical terms, considering the brevity of the article, we would not tread on such extents. Still, before concluding this analysis, the significance of the above Hela terms should be pointed out. Firstly they are brief in comparison to jaw-breaking Sanskrit loan words, and precise in meaning as well. Consider these two examples: වහර (ව්‍යවහාර), රැකියා (රක්ෂා). Secondly a large majority of the terms like පාපැදිය, යතුරු-පැදිය, දුරබණුව, පසුබිම, රටැවැසි, එකතුව have pointers towards their meanings, which is an aid to remember the meaning of the word without any special effort. Thirdly, and more importantly the Hela terms are flexible enough, that they are capable of generating all related terms arising from the same root.

Apart from the intellectual brilliance of Cumaratunga Munidasa, this analysis blazes the capability of Hela Basa, the indigenous tongue of the Sinhalese, in expressing any novel and complex thought of modern days. What is needed to continue Cumaratunga’s career of word crafting is nothing, but extensive research and sedulous commitment. 

Notes:

^1. “මෑත කාලයේ ලංකාවේ වුසූ සිංහල පඬුවන් අතර උසස් තැනක් මුනිදාස කුමාරණතුංගයනට හිමි විය යුතු ය යන්න සියලු දෙනා ම විවාද රහිත ව පිළිගත යුත්තකි.”
("Everyone should acknowledge without debate the fact that Munidasa Cumaratunga should receive an important place among the Sinhalese scholars of modern times").

- Paranavitana, Senarath. (1955). Sitinamaluwe Sumanarathana (ed.). Cumaratunga Munidasa.
Colombo: Permuna Press. pg.9.

“මුනිදාස කුමාරතුංග පණ්ඩිත රත්නය සිංහල භාෂාව පවතින තාක් පවතින්නෙකි.”

("Munidasa Cumaratunga the great scholar will live as long as the Sinhalese language lasts").

- Malalasekara, G. P. (March 5. 1948). Sarasavi Sandǝræsa. Colombo.

“මෑත කාලයෙහි සිංහලයන් අතර පහළ වුණු ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨතම සිංහල පඬිවරයා....”

("The greatest Sinhalese scholar to have been born among the Sinhalese in modern times....").

- de Alwis, Aananda Tissa. (March, 1946). Lanka. Colombo.

^2.  A Neologism is a newly coined term, word or phrase that may be in the process of entering the common use of mainstream language. A Neologist is a person who introduces such new terms to a language.

^3. Karuatilake, W. S. (2005). Bhasha Sameeksha. Colombo: S. Godage & Bros. pg. 126.

^4. Hela Basa (හෙළ බස) was the real, indigenous language of the Sinhalese. To revitalize and promote it, Cumaratunga founded in 1941 a volunteer organization, called හෙළ හවුල (The Hela Fraternity), which is active to date. The prestigious periodical, ‘සුබස’ is the official publication of the movement.
- Disanayaka, J. B. (2012). Encyclopaedia of Sinhala Language and Culture. Colombo: Sumitha Publishers. pg. 594.

^5. de Silva, Aelian (2002). Technical Terms in Sinhala. Nugegoda: The Modern Book Company. pg. 45.