The Borrowing Process
Dutch loanwords in Sinhala rarely appear in the same form as the original word. Usually, a word has undergone some kind of modification to fit into the Sinhala phonological or morphological system (e.g. balk becomes bālkaya because Sinhala inanimate nouns (see grammatical gender) need to end with /a/, in order to be declineable).
These are the main ways Dutch words are incorporated into the Sinhala lexicon with different endings:
- With an /aya/ or /uva/ added to Dutch words ending in consonants (e.g. raam > rāmuva).
- With a /ya/ added to words ending in /a/ or /e/ or /i/ (e.g. bakje > bakkiya).
- With the animate ending /yā/ added to Dutch words signifying living beings or (e.g. tolk > tōlkayā).
- Initiak /s/ preceeding a consonant usually forms an additional syllable (e.g school > iskōlaya).
Read more about this topic: Dutch Loanwords In Sinhala
Famous quotes containing the words borrowing and/or process:
“Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might of the elements. The forces of steam, gravity, galvanism, light, magnets, wind, fire, serve us day by day and cost us nothing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)