Archive for the ‘Language’

“Oya Sinhalade? Demalade?” – Questioning a question in post-war Sri Lanka

“Oya Sinhalade? Demalade?” I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve had that question asked from me over the years. Ironically enough, in these days of ‘peace’ I’ve had it asked of me more and more frequently. Firstly in Colombo and now in Jaffna too. Jaffna – a town where 99% of the resident community is Tamil, the question is still asked. But why? What can one possibly gauge/assess by the response to that response? If both Sinhalese and Tamils are meted out the same treatment at a check point (or anywhere else this question is asked) what possible need is there to ask this question, unless our post-war land of ‘no minorities’ is a complete and utter falsehood? A cynic you say? Making a mountain out of a mole hill? Alright. If that be the case, can anyone answer why this question is still asked of us? Nobody I’ve spoken to, to date, has been able to…

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Doing It in a Foreign Language

In Jumma: The last bastion of the boys, (Groundviews, 26 March 2010) Nazeeya Faarooq wrote: “…most of the Jumma sermons are totally irrelevant. Firstly they are given in a language they don’t quite understand…”. Presumably the language is Arabic. Such an enforced linguistic barrier between us and our God(s) is common: Latin and Sanskrit are other examples. I think it is done to give a power base to the priests, but there may well be other ingenious explanations. Language is important to us all. Our genetics gives us unique power to model grammar on dedicated neural circuitry and acquire linguistic skills from very sparse data. Of its importance, someone told me in primary school that language can be used in three ways: to express thought, to hide thought and as a substitute for thought. (I am not sure where that quote comes from, but my guess is, like with all cute things you learn at prep school, W. H. Samaranayake’s…

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Putting cuts, part-putting and pol symbol

I have always had a fascination for Sri Lankan English. In fact, Sri Lankans use English the way the British used Ceylonese in subjugating them to their will. Now that the good old British have left our shores handing us independence on a silver platter we took English and quite liberally infused it with our own Tamil and Sinhala interpretations. If Americans substituted lengthy and often awkward British notices such as, “Trespassers will be prosecuted” with “Do not enter”, we went one step further and spun our own interpretations. Oh how the compilers of OED would wince when they listen to us  using the word `put’ among others. Putting is not for those yuppies on golf courses. There was my news editor at the Daily News who would shout out to his clerk/henchman Perumal to `put a transport to parliament’ meaning to book a vehicle for the reporters. Taking an AWOL from school is `putting a cut’. Pretending to be…

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The Revenge of a Tamil Man

Screen shot 2010-03-22 at 6.18.42 PM

Some months ago, I arrived in Colombo on a trip to London from the Far East with Sri Lankan Airline. When the transit is more than eight hours, they put you in an overnight hotel with basic facilities, but good food, Lion Lager and sea breeze to go as extras. On the drive back from the hotel, the taxi driver starts a conversation: “Sir from India?” Statistically speaking, his is a good guess. Almost a quarter of humanity being Indian, the average Sri Lankan having no reason to stop in Colombo on transit and no obvious visuals on me that distinguish me as Sri Lankan, it is a good way to get a conversation going. His wit was at odds with my other similar experience. At the first formal dinner as a graduate student at Bridgetown University in England, the academic sitting next to me opened the conversation by saying: “You must be from Sri Lanka”. I was quite pleased,…

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Interview with Ameena Hussein

Ameena Hussein is one of Sri Lanka’s best known English authors. She is also one half of the Perera Hussein Publishing House, that since 2003 has published some of the best new English writing in the country. The Moon in the Water, Ameena’s first novel, was long-listed for the first Man Asian Literary Award in 2009. Zillij, a collection of short stories I reviewed four years ago, won the State Literary Prize in 2003. Our discussion touched on Ameena’s tryst with cancer and how this influenced her writing and outlook on life. We also talked about English literature in general, and the quality of contemporary English fiction in Sri Lanka. Ameena also talked about identity, gender and violence – both in and through her fiction and their manifestations in the real world. We spoke at some length on the politics of representation and the contested space for women in Islam, harking back to two articles on Groundviews published last year in…

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‘Uncivilising’ Sri Lanka

The SLPC Chairperson, Hudson Samarasinghe, is using vulgar telecasts and thereby contributing to the degeneration of language and public discourse within the country. The rudest forms of language used to refer to persons and the manner in which people are referred to publically are those which are considered in the language as most unacceptable. Such telecasts which last for hours are aired every day and the resultant adverse impact on the public discourse and the mentalities of person is enormous. This particularly has an adverse effect on young children who would use the language habits that they learned in the school by watching such public discourse. The language that is use is such that angry people use when they are quarrelling and is not the type of language that is used in civilised discourse. The same type of degeneration is caused by the language of the Minister, Mervyn Silva who uses similar language even in parliament. It is the language…

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Youth activists on human rights in Sri Lanka

To commemorate Human Rights Day 2009 (falling on 10 December) Groundviews interviewed a number of leading activists in Sri Lanka to find out their perspectives on current challenges facing human rights in post-war Sri Lanka. In general, activists featured were asked to comment on the Sri Lankan State’s protection of human rights, the nexus between human rights and human dignity and opportunities for greater human rights protection over the coming years. This video features two well known youth activists. K. Guruparan, who has also appeared earlier on Groundviews is associated with Beyond Borders and was one of the founders of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament. Jovita Arulanantham, also a youth activist, is a student at the University of Colombo. Amongst other issues, both speak of the ignorance and apathy of society towards human rights, and the incompatibility of Emergency Rule and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with fundamental rights, especially in post-war Sri Lanka. Guruparan points to the incident involving…

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  • 13 Dec, 2009
  • 17 Comments
  • Language

The Structure of Tamil Names

My name is Sivapuranam Thevaram, and my origins are in the northern parts of Sri Lanka. I usually identify myself as a Sri Lankan Tamil, strictly in that order. And that order is not negotiable. Equally significant, and not for negotiation, is the order of the two identifiers in my name: Sivapuranam is the one given to my father at his birth, Thevaram is mine. My brothers are Sivapuranam Thiruvasakam and Sivapuranam Thirumanthiram. Again, Thiruvasakam and Thirumanthiram are tokens my dad looked up in the phone book. The full name of my dad is Thirukkural Sivapuranam. So the structure, sliding across generations is: One Two, Two Three, Three Four and so on. This structure doesn’t match the convention of my friend John Smith: Smith is his family name and John, the given name. His brothers are Mark Smith and Peter Smith, dad is Andy Smith and grandfather was Adam Smith (no, not the same chap). Their structure is like a…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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