posted July 01, 2002 07:01 AM            

Again I would like to request any Lankan Tamil friend to enlighten me on the following.

We all know that the Sinhala Language has borrowed numerous words from Tamil. Some words are so attached to us that we sometimes forget that they are Tamil words.
The best example is 'Amma', mother.

My question for our Tamil friends is, are the two words, Walau (or Walaw) and Banda
are of Tamil origin?

Walaw = a house of an aristrocrat of Kandyan era. We still have these Walaus.

Banda = a popular Kandyan name somewhat outdated now. (variations: Bandara, Bandari, Bandi, Bandiya)

posted July 01, 2002 08:00 AM         

No point in asking these terrorist donkeys. The only words they are proficient in are, swear words.

posted July 01, 2002 09:12 AM            

>No point in asking these terrorist donkeys. The only words they are proficient in are, swear words.

>Perhaps what you should be asking them is: "What has swearing in filth got to do with liberating Tamils from �alleged�ESinhala oppression?"

Dear Chaminda,

I agree with you on the point of filthyness, but do not agree with your stereotyping. Only very few (Lankan) Tamils resort to filth and you know who are. The majority of them are very good gentlemen and I am quite sure somebody will enlighten me on this.

posted July 01, 2002 11:46 AM            

Banda may be of Europian origin, there is a city called Banda (remember seing it somewhere) and there are quite a few
Banda's of non Asian origin in US.

�The best example is 'Amma', mother.�

What makes you say that?

Chaminda does not stereotype, it is the truth since decent Tamils does not post here.
If they do, they should be outrageous about the way Tamils on this forum behave.

Tendency to use the four letter word often and killing people to resort problems is a sign of brain short circuitting. When you live in a land where there are more mines than potato, the water is dam hard feel like drinking Mylanta with Ca, and the weather is sticky, you are bound to develop genetics to weaken your brain. It is very evident here by if you look at those who grew up in VVT.

posted July 02, 2002 12:33 PM            

The best example is 'Amma', mother.�EP>What makes you say that?

The earlier Sinhala word for Mother is 'Mawa' and in day-to-day usage it was pronounced as 'mou' by the average folks. The latter is still being used in some villages in Kandy area in special occassions.

The word "Mae'ni" or "Mae'niyo" was used as a polite form. This is the word you see in old literary work (Saddharma Ratnavaliya, Ummaga Jathakaya etc).

Amma does not appear in Sinhala books until after Kandy era, because we had 4 successive Malabar Kings (present day Kerala?) as our kings who spoke Tamil. The elite of the society spoke Tamil because that was the language of the king. Even our Nilames signed the Kandyan treaty in Tamil (except keppetipola Disawe).

This fact is often misused by some Tamils to point out that there was a Tamil kindom in Kandy. (They are successful to some extent I guess, because I have been asked by a Japanese about our last (Tamil) king).

posted July 02, 2002 11:37 PM            

"The earlier Sinhala word for Mother is 'Mawa' and in day-to-day usage it was pronounced as 'mou' by the average folks. The latter is still being used in some villages in Kandy area in special occassions."

I am not a history person, however if you
use common sense, it is possible the word
Amma may be common to many ethnic groups in
India. When kids begin to speak, they often
start using words like Amma or Mama or Mom.

Don't you think the word Amma is like Mom,
used to call mother informally and the word
Mau or Mawa or Maniyo is the formal way
of calling the mother?

Chaminda is on the money so far:
"No point in asking these terrorist donkeys. The only words they are proficient in are, swear words. "