45-599: Alagalla ( Sinhala : අලගල්ල , literal translation: Tuber rock ) Mountain Range is situated at the boundaries of the Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces in Sri Lanka . Along with the surrounding Bathalegala ( බතලේගල ) also known as Bible Rock , Uthuwankanda ( උතුවන්කන්ද ), Devanagala ( දෙවනගල ), Ambuluwawa ( අම්බුළුවාව ), Knuckles Mountain Range and Hanthana ( හන්තාන ) Mountain Range, Alagalla mountain has served as
90-525: A lexicostatistical study of the New Indo-Aryan languages based on a 100-word Swadesh list , using techniques developed by the glottochronologist and comparative linguist Sergei Starostin . That grouping system is notable for Kogan's exclusion of Dardic from Indo-Aryan on the basis of his previous studies showing low lexical similarity to Indo-Aryan (43.5%) and negligible difference with similarity to Iranian (39.3%). He also calculated Sinhala–Dhivehi to be
135-783: A supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to the chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
180-653: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
225-783: A branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family . As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Bangladesh , North India , Eastern Pakistan , Sri Lanka , Maldives and Nepal . Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent , large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe , Western Asia , North America ,
270-562: A natural defense location for nearly five centuries (1505–1948) against the Portuguese, Dutch and English invasions aimed at the Kandyan Kingdom . Most of the battles to invade the Kandyan Kingdom took place at Balana (literal translation viewing point ), with the Kandyan monarchs emerging victorious aided by the impenetrable mountain formations. The famous Balana Fort which functioned as
315-722: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
360-493: A standardised and Sanskritised register of Dehlavi , is the official language of the Government of India (along with English ). Together with Urdu , it is the third most-spoken language in the world. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, also known as Magadhan languages, are spoken throughout the eastern subcontinent, including Odisha and Bihar , alongside other regions surrounding the northwestern Himalayan corridor. Bengali
405-616: A strategic rock fortress and an outpost to Kandyan kingdom was built between Kadugannawa Pass and Alagalla Mountain Range. The railway lines to upcountry were established by the English once the Kandyan Kingdom was absorbed into the British Empire in 1815. However, extending the already working Colombo- Ambepussa ( අඹේපුස්ස ) mainline across the Alagalla mountain to Kandy proved to be extremely challenging as it had to be navigated around
450-613: A subfamily of Indo-Aryan. The Dardic group as a genetic grouping (rather than areal) has been scrutinised and questioned to a degree by recent scholarship: Southworth, for example, says "the viability of Dardic as a genuine subgroup of Indo-Aryan is doubtful" and "the similarities among [Dardic languages] may result from subsequent convergence". The Dardic languages are thought to be transitional with Punjabi and Pahari (e.g. Zoller describes Kashmiri as "an interlink between Dardic and West Pahāṛī"), as well as non-Indo-Aryan Nuristani; and are renowned for their relatively conservative features in
495-425: A waterfall, Meeyan Ella ( මීයන් ඇල්ල ) about 100 ft (30 m) high falling directly on the planned route and across a steeply inclined solid rock of more than 1,000 ft (300 m) thick. Initially, the railway track was constructed by gouging artificial grooves on the rock at the top of the waterfall to "split" the waterfall into two and fall away from the rail route. The tracks were then set up around
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#1733084920009540-481: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of [[[:wikt:सिंह|siṁha]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 9) ( help ) , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to
585-584: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
630-586: Is dear" (Mayrhofer II 182), Priyamazda ( priiamazda ) as Priyamedha "whose wisdom is dear" (Mayrhofer II 189, II378), Citrarata as Citraratha "whose chariot is shining" (Mayrhofer I 553), Indaruda/Endaruta as Indrota "helped by Indra " (Mayrhofer I 134), Shativaza ( šattiṷaza ) as Sātivāja "winning the race price" (Mayrhofer II 540, 696), Šubandhu as Subandhu "having good relatives" (a name in Palestine , Mayrhofer II 209, 735), Tushratta ( tṷišeratta, tušratta , etc.) as *tṷaiašaratha, Vedic Tvastar "whose chariot
675-479: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
720-650: Is in many cases somewhat arbitrary. The classification of the Indo-Aryan languages is controversial, with many transitional areas that are assigned to different branches depending on classification. There are concerns that a tree model is insufficient for explaining the development of New Indo-Aryan, with some scholars suggesting the wave model . The following table of proposals is expanded from Masica (1991) (from Hoernlé to Turner), and also includes subsequent classification proposals. The table lists only some modern Indo-Aryan languages. Anton I. Kogan , in 2016, conducted
765-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
810-723: Is strongly encouraged. The summit of the Alagalla mountain Range is a platform to witness the view of the other surrounding mountains, including Bathalegala ( බතලේගල ) also known as Bible Rock , Devanagala ( දෙවනගල ), Ambuluwawa ( අම්බුළුවාව ), Knuckles Mountain Range and Hanthana ( හන්තාන ) Mountain Range. Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
855-577: Is suggested that "proto-Munda" languages may have once dominated the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain , and were then absorbed by Indo-Aryan languages at an early date as Indo-Aryan spread east. Marathi-Konkani languages are ultimately descended from Maharashtri Prakrit , whereas Insular Indo-Aryan languages are descended from Elu Prakrit and possess several characteristics that markedly distinguish them from most of their mainland Indo-Aryan counterparts. Insular Indo-Aryan languages (of Sri Lanka and Maldives ) started developing independently and diverging from
900-604: Is the official language of Gujarat , and is spoken by over 50 million people. In Europe, various Romani languages are spoken by the Romani people , an itinerant community who historically migrated from India. The Western Indo-Aryan languages are thought to have diverged from their northwestern counterparts, although they have a common antecedent in Shauraseni Prakrit . Within India, Central Indo-Aryan languages are spoken primarily in
945-562: Is the seventh most-spoken language in the world, and has a strong literary tradition; the national anthems of India and Bangladesh are written in Bengali. Assamese and Odia are the official languages of Assam and Odisha , respectively. The Eastern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Magadhan Apabhraṃśa and ultimately from Magadhi Prakrit . Eastern Indo-Aryan languages display many morphosyntactic features similar to those of Munda languages , while western Indo-Aryan languages do not. It
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#1733084920009990-643: Is vehement" (Mayrhofer, Etym. Wb., I 686, I 736). The earliest evidence of the group is from Vedic Sanskrit , that is used in the ancient preserved texts of the Indian subcontinent , the foundational canon of the Hindu synthesis known as the Vedas . The Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni is of similar age to the language of the Rigveda , but the only evidence of it is a few proper names and specialized loanwords. While Old Indo-Aryan
1035-731: The Caribbean , Southeast Africa , Polynesia and Australia , along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe . There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Indo-Aryan languages descend from Old Indo-Aryan languages such as early Vedic Sanskrit , through Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Prakrits ). The largest such languages in terms of first-speakers are Hindi–Urdu ( c. 330 million ), Bengali (242 million), Punjabi (about 150 million), Marathi (112 million), and Gujarati (60 million). A 2005 estimate placed
1080-521: The Ihalakotte village. The 6-metre-high (20 ft) Dekinda ella ( දෙකිඳ ඇල්ල ) waterfall, served by the Alagalla forest reserve, can also be viewed slightly off-route. Alternatively, a slightly longer trekking path via Poththapitiya can be reached by taking the Kandy- Poththapitiya bus route to Poththapitiya junction from Pilimathalawa . In both routes, the support of a local guide
1125-647: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
1170-576: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
1215-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
1260-700: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
1305-718: The Mittani are either in Hurrian (which appears to have been the predominant language of their kingdom) or Akkadian (the main diplomatic language of the Late Bronze Age Near East), these apparently Indo-Aryan names suggest that an Indo-Aryan elite imposed itself over the Hurrians in the course of the Indo-Aryan expansion . If these traces are Indo-Aryan, they would be the earliest known direct evidence of Indo-Aryan, and would increase
1350-599: The context of Proto-Indo-Aryan . The Northern Indo-Aryan languages , also known as the Pahari ('hill') languages, are spoken throughout the Himalayan regions of the subcontinent. Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in the northwestern region of India and eastern region of Pakistan. Punjabi is spoken predominantly in the Punjab region and is the official language of the northern Indian state of Punjab , in addition to being
1395-463: The continental Indo-Aryan languages from around 5th century BCE. The following languages are otherwise unclassified within Indo-Aryan: Dates indicate only a rough time frame. Proto-Indo-Aryan (or sometimes Proto-Indic ) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is intended to reconstruct the language of the pre-Vedic Indo-Aryans . Proto-Indo-Aryan is meant to be
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1440-937: The features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are: ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නවා dannavā know ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā it new having-said I know "I know that it is new." ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new ද da Q කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නේ Indo-Aryan languages Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes simply Indic languages ) are
1485-405: The horse race). The numeral aika "one" is of particular importance because it places the superstrate in the vicinity of Indo-Aryan proper as opposed to Indo-Iranian in general or early Iranian (which has aiva ). Another text has babru ( babhru , "brown"), parita ( palita , "grey"), and pinkara ( pingala , "red"). Their chief festival was the celebration of the solstice ( vishuva ) which
1530-494: The inclined rock and this was called the Meangalla ( මීන්ගල්ල ) pass. However, this railway route was found to be dangerous, especially in the rainy season as heavy rains caused the swollen waterfall and slip rocks to damage the trains and the rail tracks. This resulted in a more robust and safe rerouting via drilling through the solid rock. The Meeyangalla ( මීයන්ගල්ල ) tunnel, thus constructed and numbered as tunnel 5A, became
1575-590: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
1620-502: The most divergent Indo-Aryan branch. Nevertheless, the modern consensus of Indo-Aryan linguists tends towards the inclusion of Dardic based on morphological and grammatical features. The Inner–Outer hypothesis argues for a core and periphery of Indo-Aryan languages, with Outer Indo-Aryan (generally including Eastern and Southern Indo-Aryan, and sometimes Northwestern Indo-Aryan, Dardic and Pahari ) representing an older stratum of Old Indo-Aryan that has been mixed to varying degrees with
1665-572: The most widely-spoken language in Pakistan. Sindhi and its variants are spoken natively in the Pakistani province of Sindh and neighbouring regions. Northwestern languages are ultimately thought to be descended from Shauraseni Prakrit , with influence from Persian and Arabic . Western Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in central and western India, in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan , in addition to contiguous regions in Pakistan. Gujarati
1710-536: The newer stratum that is Inner Indo-Aryan. It is a contentious proposal with a long history, with varying degrees of claimed phonological and morphological evidence. Since its proposal by Rudolf Hoernlé in 1880 and refinement by George Grierson it has undergone numerous revisions and a great deal of debate, with the most recent iteration by Franklin Southworth and Claus Peter Zoller based on robust linguistic evidence (particularly an Outer past tense in -l- ). Some of
1755-641: The precision in dating the split between the Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages (as the texts in which the apparent Indicisms occur can be dated with some accuracy). In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, the deities Mitra , Varuna , Indra , and the Ashvins ( Nasatya ) are invoked. Kikkuli 's horse training text includes technical terms such as aika (cf. Sanskrit eka , "one"), tera ( tri , "three"), panza ( panca , "five"), satta ( sapta , seven), na ( nava , "nine"), vartana ( vartana , "turn", round in
1800-567: The predecessor of Old Indo-Aryan (1500–300 BCE), which is directly attested as Vedic and Mitanni-Aryan . Despite the great archaicity of Vedic, however, the other Indo-Aryan languages preserve a small number of conservative features lost in Vedic . Some theonyms, proper names, and other terminology of the Late Bronze Age Mitanni civilization of Upper Mesopotamia exhibit an Indo-Aryan superstrate. While what few written records left by
1845-567: The sixth tunnel in the Colombo-Kandy railway line and also the second-longest railway tunnel in Sri Lanka at 423 m (1,388 ft) long. Alagalla mountains can be reached by taking either the Colombo-Kandy line to Ihalakotte railway station, or by taking the Kandy- Poththapitiya bus from Pilimathalawa to Poththapitya junction. If following the Ihalakotte route, trekking can be started at Ihalakotte railway station through
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1890-541: The theory's skeptics include Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Colin P. Masica . The below classification follows Masica (1991) , and Kausen (2006) . Percentage of Indo-Aryan speakers by native language: The Dardic languages (also Dardu or Pisaca) are a group of Indo-Aryan languages largely spoken in the northwestern extremities of the Indian subcontinent. Dardic was first formulated by George Abraham Grierson in his Linguistic Survey of India but he did not consider it to be
1935-402: The total number of native speakers of the Indo-Aryan languages at nearly 900 million people. Other estimates are higher suggesting a figure of 1.5 billion speakers of Indo-Aryan languages. The Indo-Aryan family as a whole is thought to represent a dialect continuum , where languages are often transitional towards neighboring varieties. Because of this, the division into languages vs. dialects
1980-546: The western Gangetic plains , including Delhi and parts of the Central Highlands , where they are often transitional with neighbouring lects. Many of these languages, including Braj and Awadhi , have rich literary and poetic traditions. Urdu , a Persianised derivative of Dehlavi descended from Shauraseni Prakrit , is the official language of Pakistan and also has strong historical connections to India , where it also has been designated with official status. Hindi ,
2025-582: Was common in most cultures in the ancient world. The Mitanni warriors were called marya , the term for "warrior" in Sanskrit as well; note mišta-nnu (= miẓḍha , ≈ Sanskrit mīḍha ) "payment (for catching a fugitive)" (M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen , Heidelberg, 1986–2000; Vol. II:358). Sanskritic interpretations of Mitanni royal names render Artashumara ( artaššumara ) as Ṛtasmara "who thinks of Ṛta " (Mayrhofer II 780), Biridashva ( biridašṷa, biriiašṷ a) as Prītāśva "whose horse
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