Sri Lankan English

From Freepedia

Sri Lankan English (SLE) is the English language as spoken in Sri Lanka.

The earliest English speakers in present-day Sri Lanka date back to the days of the British Empire, the era of Royal Navy dominance, and the British colonial presence in South Asia.

An SLE consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary and author of Knox's Words notes that British readers first encountered loan words from Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) in a book published in 1681 entitled An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies. Words from that book became used internationally: the best known is Buddha but others include betel leaf, bo tree, puja, rattan, rillow, Vedda, and wanderoo.

SLE became more indigenous in the mid-19th century. In addition to the usual terms for flora and fauna, new idioms, referred to as Ceylonisms, emerged.

After independence in 1948, English was no longer an official language of Sri Lanka, but it remained in use across the island's ethnic groups. It evolved to incorporate more Sinhala vocabulary and grammatical conventions such as the use of "no?" as a tag question at the end of a sentence.

In spite of English's long history in Sri Lanka, 21st century Sri Lankans academicians debate about the legitimacy of SLE as a separate dialect.

Trivia

Anaconda and serendipity are word with Sri Lanka connections, though they are not loan words.

External links and sources

• A brief history of Sri Lankan English from the Oxford English Dictionary website
• An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies, from Project Gutenberg
• A review of Knox's Words, from the Sri Lankan newspaper Sunday Observer
• Another review of Knox's Words, from a fellow author's personal website
• Our British heritage, another Sunday Observer article