Lexicon
Many of the Vedda words are directly borrowed from Sinhalese or Tamil via Sinhalese while maintaining words that are not derivable from Sinhalese or its cognate languages from the Indo-Aryan language group. Vedda also exhibits a propensity for paraphrases and it coins words from its limited lexical stock rather than to borrow words from other languages including Sinhalese. For example:
| Sinhalese | Vedda | English |
|---|---|---|
| nava | maadiyanganalle dandDukacca (vehicle of the ocean) | ship |
| vassa | uDatanin mandovena diyaracca (water falling from above) | rain |
| tuvakkuva (loan from Turkish) | puccakazDana yamake (shooting thing) | gun |
| upadinava | baDapojjen mangaccanvaa (come from the belly) | to be born |
| padura | vaterena yamake (sleeping thing) | bed |
| pansala (loan from English) | kurukurugaccana ulpojja (spike making kuru kuru sound) | pencil |
Read more about this topic: Vedda Language
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