Sri Lankan English Vocabulary – Comprehensive Exam Notes

Introduction

English transplanted from Britain to Sri Lanka in $1796$ → evolved over two centuries into Ceylon/Lankan/Sri Lankan English (SLE).
Language contact forces: British colonisers (L1 English, limited Sinhala/Tamil) + Sri Lankan population adopting English.
Key term: “transplanted language” (Kachru $1986$ ) – cut off from roots, functions in new roles → linguistic change.

Recognition of “New Englishes”

Global spread since $18^{th}$ C → American, Australian, Indian, Nigerian, Singaporean, Black, Chicano English, etc.
SLE acknowledged among these varieties; vocabulary is a principal marker of local identity.

Scholarly Work & Documentation

Early observers: Passé $1943, 1948, 1955$ ; de Souza $1969$ ; Halverson $1966$ .
Later studies: Kandiah $1979-1994$ , Fernando $1985-2010$ , Gunesekera $1998-2005$ , Herat $2001-2005$ , Raheem $2006$ , Mukherjee $2008$ .
Lexicographic milestones:
• Gunesekera (2005) – glossary of $576$ items.
• Meyler (2007) – first Dictionary of Sri Lankan English.
• ICE-SL corpus (University of Giessen + University of Colombo) under compilation.

Article’s Four Guiding Questions

Why are new vocabularies generated in new varieties & how?
Why/how has SLE vocabulary been generated?
What strategies build the new vocabularies?
What effects have these strategies had on SLE lexis?

Sociolinguistic Pressures (Haugen’s Framework)

Bilingual speakers face “linguistic pressure” (requirement of identity + understanding).
U.S. immigrant German: pressured by dominant English; Norwegian elites: prestige of English.
Analogous forces in Sri Lanka but with shifting actors:
• Colonial phase: British need words for flora, fauna, administration, plantations – limited Sinhala/Tamil borrowing.
• Post-Independence: Sri Lankans (often L1 English elites) need vocabulary for multi-ethnic, modern nation.
• Contemporary: wider population (L2 English) under counter-pressure of Sinhala/Tamil identities → further lexical expansion & dialect differentiation.

Fields of Lexical Expansion in SLE

Colonial focus (limited):

Topography, flora/fauna, plantations, festivals, food, disease, administration, etc.

Post-Independence & Contemporary (broader):

Topography & Environment
Flora (trees, fruit, herbs)
Fauna (animals, birds, fish, insects, reptiles)
Kinship terms (across $4$ ethnic groups)
Place/Personal names
Human types & social labels
Social institutions/processes
Food, beverages, consumer goods
Clothes & textiles
Minerals & gems
Jewellery & beauty items
Furniture
Equipment & instruments
Vehicles & vessels
Trade & currency
Technology
Architecture & construction
Religion
Language & education
Health
Politics, government & administration
Arts, music, dance

Traditional English Word-Formation in SLE

Affixation (rare but present)

Surrendees – “people who surrendered” (+ $-ee$ ).
Chummery – “house where chums live” (+ $-ery$ ).
Eateries – “small restaurants” (+ $-ies$ ).

Self-Explaining Compounds (very productive)

temple flower, headbath, white curry, plain tea, jacket piece, nose ring, drink stool, tubelight, etc.

Modern Global Strategies

Brand/Trademark Generics

Pajero – any jeep.
Batas – rubber slippers (after Bata brand).

Acronyms

IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), A/C, JVP, JHU, LTTE.

Proper-Name Derivation (scarce)

“doing a gajay” – squatting in a hostel (from a student nick-name).

Clippings / Abbreviations

kuppi – “crammer tuition” (< kuppi classes).
shalwar – clipped from “shalwar kameez”.
Avurudhu / Pongal – festival shorthand.

Haugen’s Bilingual Borrowing Typology Applied

1. Loanwords (Borrowings)

Direct import, little/no morphemic change.
• Sammanthurai (place), murukku (food), daham pasal (Buddhist Sunday school), pradeshiya sabha (local council), arangethram (dance debut).

Phonological/Morphological/Syntactic Adaptations

Aunt → ænti in Sinhala/SLE.
Place-names: Kegalle/Tangalle shift from /gɔ:l/ to Sinhala /galle/.
Dambulla → colonial “Dambul” (created comedic “damn bull” pun).
Sinhala –› Sinhalese (added English suffix $-ese$ ); now reverting.
Kinship word-order: Albert Uncle, Mary Aunty (Sinhala/Tamil pattern).

2. Loanblends (Hybrids)

Blended Stems

iththavas, kabaragoyas – Sinhala animal noun + English plural $-s$ .

Blended Derivatives

rastify (from Sinhala rasthiyadu + $-fy$ )
komalafy (from Sinhala komala + $-fy$ )

Blended Compounds

kohomba tree / margosa tree; de-facto Tamil eelam government; chena cultivation; yala harvest; binna marriage; ice palam; chicken buriyani; bana cassettes; bakthi geetha recital.

3. Loanshifts

(a) Loan Translations

ash plantain (alu kesel), yellow rice (kaha bath), tooth relic (dhantha dhathuwa), funeral house (marana gedhara), D-rope (< dhirachcha lanuva).

(b) Semantic Loans (Meaning Extension/Shift)

tubelight – person slow to “light up”.
Tigers – capitalised = LTTE fighters.
Burgher – ethnic group of Portuguese/Dutch descent (≠ SBE ‘citizen’).

4. Semantic Creations (Native Coinage via Local Stimulus)

butter fruit (avocado), woodapple, ladies’ fingers (okra shaped like fingers).

Quantitative Trend Summary

Borrowings = LARGEST category today.
Self-explaining & hybrid compounds = QUITE LARGE.
Loan translations = FAIRLY LARGE.
Affixation, brand names, acronyms, clippings, semantic creations = SMALLER but growing.

Ethical / Cultural Implications

Lexical choices encode ethnic identities (e.g.
• Sinhala vs Tamil borrowings,
• Capital “Tigers” during civil war).
Reversal of colonial phonology (e.g. /gɔ:l/ → /galle/) reflects post-colonial assertion.
Hybrid forms (Albert Uncle) index intimate kinship systems absent in SBE.

Connections to Wider Linguistics

Mirrors processes in American, Australian, Singaporean Englishes (Mencken, Baker, Foley).
Confirms Haugen’s substitution/importation model and Kachru’s Outer-Circle English paradigm.

Practical Significance

Teachers, lexicographers, media editors must recognise SLE norms to avoid stigmatisation.
Understanding acronyms & borrowings essential for governmental, legal, humanitarian work (e.g. IDPs, LTTE).

Conclusion & Future Research Directions

SLE vocabulary has expanded both numerically and methodologically from colonial → post-independence → contemporary phases.
21st-century research should:
• Map ongoing lexical change under globalization & digital media.
• Compile larger balanced corpora (ICE-SL).
• Examine sociolinguistic attitudes toward hybrid/borrowed forms.
• Re-evaluate “standard” vs dialectal SLE lexis.

Overall, SLE provides a living laboratory where classic word-formation meets bilingual creativity, revealing how languages adapt to new socio-cultural ecologies.