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Item Present tense in spoken Tamil and Sinhala: A comparative analysis(International Conference on the Humanities (ICH 2018/2019), Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Anusha, S.Syntax differs from one language to another. The second language learners find it hard to understand the syntax of the language they learn when it differs from the syntax found in their mother tongue. Thus, the similarities and differences of the Tamil and Sinhala languages in the present tense are analyzed in this study. The similarity found out through this comparative study is that both Tamil and Sinhala languages have a similar subdivision in Present tense, they are the Simple Present, Present Perfect and Present Continuous. On the other hand, in Tamil, infixes are used to differentiate the present tense, whereas verb suffixes and affixes are used in Sinhala Present tense. In Tamil, the present tense verbs will take various forms based on Case, Gender, Number and person, but in Sinhala a common verb form is used irrespective of these case, gender and number. For example, the Tamil expressions naan poran, naangal poram, nee porai, neengal porengal, avar porar appear in Sinhala as mama yanawa, api yanawa, api yanawa, oya yanawa, eya yanawa respectively. The knowledge in the present function of these languages will give a clear idea to the learners and teachers of these languages and this research study will facilitate the teaching and learning process of these languages. The research area is limited to the tenses being used in the spoken context of Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhala. The data for this study were obtained from books, articles, websites, and discussionsItem Dearth of Translators Impedes the Implementation of Official Languages Policy.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Subramaniam, A.The dearth of qualified translators and interpreters is a major hurdle to the implementation of the official languages policy, with a pressing need for them in courts, provincial councils and local authorities. The cadre strength of the translator service was around 600 in the past but there are only 131 in the service at present. This study is concerned about the dearth of translators, which impedes the implementation of official languages policies. The data consist of language audit reports on government institutions. According to the language audits conducted by the official languages commission, many government departments and institutions do not have the facilities to either reply to letters received in the second official language (Tamil) or to provide a reliable translations. In several government institutions, translation is a serious problem, especially in places including courts, divisional secretariats, police stations and hospitals. The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons for this dearth of translators. The non-availability of qualified translators should be addressed at school level with the education system being geared to produce persons who are bilingual or trilingual (Sinhala, Tamil and English) while the universities should also organize their language departments to produce graduates who are competent in at least two languages. This research concluded that general education should include training in the second national language; the national language which is not the mother tongue of an individual, meaning either Sinhala or Tamil and that the second language be made a compulsory subject in schools. It is also recommended that facilities be provided to students who wish to study the second national language as a subject at the GCE Ordinary and Advanced level examinations. In the university system, it is vital to design the language courses, which include both national languages. The Official Languages Commission also recommends that a translation centre be set up, modelled on the translation bureau of Canada to provide the service of translation of documents and of interpretation and related matters.Item The Impact of Tamil Lexicon on the Sinhalese Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Bandara, H.M.S.M.; Pathmasiri, P.S.S.; de Silva, Y.G.H.S.Sinhalese and Tamillanguages are used as official languages in Sri Lanka. It is apparent that both these languages have had a great amount of influence on each other. Linguistics borrowing into both languages can be identified as a phoneme for this constant influence. This research discusses the usage ofTamilloan words in Sinhalese language. Data were compiled by observing the speech of Sinhalese native speakers and written documents. According to the findings of this study, it was found out that some of these Tamil loan words have replaced their corresponding Sinhalese words. Further, it is pointed out that in addition to be borrowed, some Tamil words have come to Sinhalese as derived words. According to it is discovered that a great number of Tamil borrowings are used in the Sinhalese language and their origin may not be apparent.Item The Difficulties Related to Cases Encountered by Sinhalese Native Speakers in Learning Tamil as a Second Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Yomali, G.; Dissananyake, S.; Jayathissa, H.Many Sinhalese native speakers learn Tamil as a second language. However speakers of Sinhalese language often make mistakes while learning Tamil. The aim of the research is to bring into discussion the problem faced by Sinhalese native speaker in learning Tamil in relation to the differences in cases. Case is special grammatical category whose value reflect the grammatical functions performed by noun or pronoun in a phrase, clause or sentence. Data were collected by analysing Tamil-Sinhalese translation carried out by second year students of university of Kelaniya reading translation. Further Tamil Grammar books were used as in order to gather further data. Speakers of Sinhalese language often make mistakes while learning Tamil especially on Dative marker, Referential ease marker, instrumental case marker and Sociative case marker etc. The Dative case marker is "ukku", in spoken Tamil where as in in Sinhalese it is "ta". The Referential ease marker is "ittei", in spoken Tamil where as in in Sinhalese it is "laga, gen". The Sociative case marker is "oodei", in spoken Tarnil where as in in Sinhalese it is "ekka". The instrumental case marker is "aalei", in spoken Tamil where as in in Sinhalese it is "gen, ta". Those cases are not corresponding in Tamil and Sinhalese languages. Therefore it will be difficult to learn Tamil as a second language. To overcome this problem it will explain the similarities and the differences between these two languages. Native speakers don't have profound knowledge about case inflexion fail to speak the language fluently. Therefore cases should be inquired and improving knowledge thorough this. It is observed that it would help to understand the difficulties that Sinhalese students face while forming a Tamil sentence.Item Tenses in Tamil and Sinhalese in Written Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Maithripalal, H.K.D.P.B.; Mallawaarachchi, M.A.S.P.K.; Kaushalya, A.S.R.Tarnil and Sinhalese are the major languages in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family. Tenses play a main role in a language. Tenses express the time distinctions through all languages. The main purpose of this paper is to bring out the similarities and the dissimilarities between tense in the Sinhalese language and Tamillanguage. The data were gathered by books. Thus the present research aims to discuss the similarities and dissimilarities between written Tarnil and Sinhalese tenses. Sinhalese has two main tenses. They are Past Tense and NonPast Tense. Non- Past Tense includes Present Tense and Future Tense. But Tamil language has three main tenses. They are Past Tense, Present Tense and Future Tense. Verbs in Sinhalese and Tamil languages conjugate according to person (I st person, 2nd person, 3rd person), number (singular, plural) and gender (male, female).When verbs conjugate in Tamillanguage it differs according to human and non - human being. This is different from Sinhalese language, because main categories are living things and non - living things in Sinhalese language. Therefore in Sinhalese language, animals and human beings consider as a one category. But in Tamil language animal and human beings are consider as two categories. Accordingly a number of similarities and dissimilarities between tenses in the two language are identified. Further it has been discovered that these dissimilarities create difficulties for second language learners.Item A Comparative Analysis on Cases in Sinhalese and Tamil Languages(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Hearth, H.M.N.D.; Ranathunga, R.A.U.M.; Amarasooriya, Y.W.S.N.The Sinhalese language which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and the Tamil language which belongs to the Dravidian language family have been co-existing and interacting in different social situations and contexts for a long time. As pointed out by linguists, a large number of differences as well as similarities can be seen between the two languages. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyse the differences in cases between the two languages. Primary data were collected through self-observation and analysing a given set of sentences translated from Sinhalese into Tamil by students reading translation studies at the University of Kelaniya. The books 'Pe:chchuth Thamilukku Arimuham' and 'Pe:chhuth Thamilum Eluththuth Thamilum' by S. J. Yogaraja and online lessons were used as secondary resources. A case is a form of a noun, adjective or pronoun that expresses a semantic relation of a word to the other words in a sentence. In this study it was observed that the Sinhalese speakers who do not have clear knowledge on the case inflection of the Tamil language find it difficult to write or speak fluently in Tami!. On the other hand, since one case suffix in Tamil represents several suffixes of Sinhalese, various problems occur in translation. Therefore, the failure to identify the differences in cases can result in defective translations. According to above findings, a number of dissimilarities regarding cases can be identified between both languages. Further, it is noteworthy that they cause difficulties in learning Tamil as a second language and translation.Item Past Tense in Jaffna Tamil and Sinhala: A Contrastive Study(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Senthuran, S.Sri Lankan nation consists of varied cultures, languages and religions. Tamil and Sinhala are the major languages spoken in Sri Lanka. Sinhala belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family. Morphology is two fold, namely noun morphology and verb morphology. Tenses play a main role in verb morphology. Generally tenses are not similar in the structure of all languages. There are many different types of tense systems in the languages of the world. Morphologically there are three different tenses in Jaffna Tamil. They are present tense, past tense and future tense. In spoken Sinhala there are two main tenses, namely past tense and non-past tense. Non-past tense includes present and future tenses. The main Objective of this paper is to bring out the similarities and the dissimilarities between past tense in Jaffna Tamil and Sinhala. This research involves contrastive and descriptive methodology. Primary data was collected through self- observation and personal interview method. The important sources of this research are secondary resources such as related books, journal articles and conference proceedings. The Tamil data represents the author‟s own dialect of Jaffna Spoken Tamil and the Sinhala data represents the standard spoken Sinhala dialect. Accordingly, a number of similarities and dissimilarities between the past tense in the two languages are identified. Further, it has been discovered that these dissimilarities create difficulties for second language learners.Item Lexical Differences between Tamil and Sri Lankan Tamil(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Palanirajan, G.The aim of the study is to analyse reciprocal comprehension between Tamil and Sri Lankan Tamil native speakers. The languages Tamil and Sri Lankan Tamil are commonly regarded as two particularly closely related members of Tamil language. The aim of the study is to find how well Tamil and Sri Lankan Tamil speakers understand each other and whether they are aware of the lexical differences. These people are communicating with each other every day without any difficulty. This paper mainly focuses on how lexical item appears in two different varieties of languages. The speakers sometime retain the original words, meanings and at other times the meaning changes. Most of the form gets different meaning in the dialect. In the target language the meaning is shared in few contexts and other contexts the meaning changes. When the meaning is same the forms are synonymous with each other. Few informants were selected and a sample questionnaire was given asking them to write the Tamil equivalent of 600 Sri Lankan Tamil words. Thus equal number of Tamil informants and Sri Lankan Tamil informants were selected and the data obtained were analysed. A lexical semantic approach was applied for the analysis. The basic findings are: (1) A Sri Lankan Tamil is able to comprehend the native Tamil easily. (2) A native Tamil level of understanding Sri Lankan Tamil is very minimal. A detailed analysis is done and the findings and the reasons for the level of comprehension will be given in the research paper with suitable examples.