Vedda Language - Classification

Classification

Dialect of Sinhalese or independent language

Early linguists and observers of the language considered it to be either a separate language or a dialect of Sinhalese. The chief proponent of the dialect theory was Wilhelm Geiger, but he also contradicted himself by claiming that Vedda was a relexified aboriginal language.

Veddas consider the Vedda language to be distinct from Sinhalese and use it as an ethnic marker to differentiate them from Sinhalese people.

Creole based on Sinhalese

The first comprehensive study of the language was undertaken by Manikku W. Sugathapala de Silva in 1959; he along with K. N. O Dharmadasa have put forward the view that Vedda is a Creole. According to De Silva, Vedda is a Creole based on the original Vedda language with Sinhalese as the second most important contributing factor which is supported by Geiger view that Vedda is a relexified aboriginal language. De Silva concluded that although the Creole had borrowed profusely from Sinhalese vocabulary, its morphology was very distinct. He also concluded that Vedda still contains in its vocabulary terms that was unknown to the Sinhalese. He wrote that grammatically Vedda remained still distinct from Sinhalese. In 1990 K.N.O Dharmadasa wrote that irrespective claims about whether the Vedda form in use in the 1990s is an independent language or a Creole, the peculiarities of the language made it still a distinct linguistic form different from all varieties of Sinhalese. According to De Silva and Dharmadasa, when the colonization of island by various Indian settlers using common Prakrits in use in India began in 5th century BCE, some elements of the Vedda coalesced with the settlers and lost their language through language replacement. Where as more conservative elements maintaining a hunter gatherer lifestyle moved into the central highlands known in early literature as Malaya Rata. Most Indian settlers colonized the North, Northwestern, Eastern and South Eastern lowlands of the country specifically Rajarata and Ruhuna, leaving the heavily forested central high lands to the ancestors of Veddas. With the collapse of the lowland dry zone civilization starting in the 9th century, descendants of the Indian settlers who had begun to speak Sinhalese moved in the central highlands. The trade and other connections made by the speakers of Sinhalese and the Vedda language's/languages' unknown genetic affinities gave rise to a period of use of a Pidgin of the languages. Initial borrowing of terms was limited to trade purposes, but was eventually adopted by the Vedda elite and subsequently by the rest of the Veddas. The Veddas also seemed to have moved further way from Sinhalese contact by moving into inaccessible forests of Binttanne and now reforested former dry zone areas. This led to the arresting of the contact between the language communities thus allowing new Vedda language to stabilize and become an independent language. As a relict of this limited period of contact, Vedda maintains many archaic Sinhalese words that were in vogue during that period. These words have gone out of use in contemporary Sinhalese.