Negombo Tamil dialect
Encyclopedia
Negombo Tamil dialect or Negombo Fishermen’s Tamil is a Sri Lanka
n Tamil language
dialect
used by the fishers of Negombo
, Sri Lanka
. This is just one of the many dialects used by the remnant
population of formerly Tamil
speaking people of the western Puttalam District
and Gampaha District
of Sri Lanka
. Those who still identify them as ethnic Tamils are known as Negombo Tamils
or as Puttalam Tamils but most residents of these districts identify
them as ethnic Sinhalese
and are some are bilingual in both the languages.
fishers of Negombo. NFT has many distinctive traits, some of which may have arisen as a consequence of contact with Sinhala. It is also proposed that it may have undergone considerable morphosyntactic convergence with spoken or colloquial Sinhala (CS), as a consequence of contact with it.
For example, NFT has mostly lost Tamil verb agreement morphology for person and number. Colloquial Sinhala (unlike Literary Sinhala) has a single verb form for all persons, singular and plural. Most Tamil dialects, by contrast, retain in both the spoken and the written languages a well-developed system of person and number verb agreement morphology. Thus in NFT we have, with Jaffna Tamil dialect (JT) which a major dialect of the Sri Lankan Tamils ethnic group for comparison:
I Colombo go (I go to Colombo)
I Colombo going (I am going to Colombo)
I Colombo go (I go to Colombo)
NFT has also developed a number of other grammatical traits under the probable influence of Sinhala, including a postposed indefinite article, an indefinitizing postclitic –sari (apparently modeled on Sinhala –hari), and case assignments for defective verbs that follow the Sinhala, rather than Tamil, patterns of agreement.
, but has subsequently adopted, and is still adopting, Sri Lankan Tamil traits
. The dialect is spoken by perhaps as many as 50,000 people, is thus a very distinctive dialect. With Karnataka
based Saraswat Konkani
(Nadkarni 1975), Tamilnadu based Saurashtri (Smith 1978), Sri Lankan Creole Portuguese
and the Urdu
, Marathi
, and Kannada dialects of Kupwar (Gumperz and Wilson 1971), NFT grammar is the outcome of pervasive structural realignment as a result of stable bilingualism.
Negombo Fishermen's Tamil (NFT): A Sinhala Influenced Dialect from a Bilingual Sri Lankan Community
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRAVIDIAN LINGUISTICS XXXVII (2) pp133-140.
Steven Bonta, Ph. D. 2004,
"Negombo Fisherman's Tamil: A Case of Contact-Induced Language Change from Sri Lanka" Cornell University
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n Tamil language
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
used by the fishers of Negombo
Negombo
Negombo is a town of about 121,933, approximately 37 km north of Colombo, in Sri Lanka. It is located at the mouth of the Negombo Lagoon, about 7 km from the Bandaranaike International Airport...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. This is just one of the many dialects used by the remnant
Remnant
Remnant may refer to:* Remnant , in the Bible** Remnant , remnant concepts within the Seventh-day Adventist Church*The Remnant * Remnant...
population of formerly Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
speaking people of the western Puttalam District
Puttalam District
Puttalam is a district situated near to the west coast of Sri Lanka. It has an area of . Along with the Kurunegala District, it formulates the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. The district capital is Puttalam, which borders the Kala Oya and Modaragam Aru in the north, Anuradhapura District and...
and Gampaha District
Gampaha District
- Local Authorities in Gampaha district:Gampaha is the District Capital of Gampaha District and is a principal town around Colombo. It is about 4 km from Miriswatte on the Colombo - Kandy Road.- Urban Councils :* Katunayake-Seeduwa * Ja-ela* Wattala...
of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. Those who still identify them as ethnic Tamils are known as Negombo Tamils
Negombo Tamils
Negombo Tamils or Puttalam Tamils is a term usually used for native Sri Lankan Tamils who live in the western Gampaha and Puttalam districts of Sri Lanka. It does not apply to Tamil immigrants from other parts of Island into these districts...
or as Puttalam Tamils but most residents of these districts identify
Sinhalisation
Sinhalisation is a term that has number of meanings in Sri Lanka. Etymologically it is derived from Sinhala.-Sociological:From a sociological point of view it could mean the assimilation of ethno cultural minorities in Sri Lanka such as the Sri Lankan Tamils, Colombo Chetties and indigenous Veddas...
them as ethnic Sinhalese
Sinhalese people
The Sinhalese are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group,forming the majority of Sri Lanka,constituting 74% of the Sri Lankan population.They number approximately 15 million worldwide.The Sinhalese identity is based on language, heritage and religion. The Sinhalese speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and the...
and are some are bilingual in both the languages.
Morphology
The specific dialect known as Negombo Fisherman’s Tamil (NFT) spoken by the Karava casteCaste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
fishers of Negombo. NFT has many distinctive traits, some of which may have arisen as a consequence of contact with Sinhala. It is also proposed that it may have undergone considerable morphosyntactic convergence with spoken or colloquial Sinhala (CS), as a consequence of contact with it.
For example, NFT has mostly lost Tamil verb agreement morphology for person and number. Colloquial Sinhala (unlike Literary Sinhala) has a single verb form for all persons, singular and plural. Most Tamil dialects, by contrast, retain in both the spoken and the written languages a well-developed system of person and number verb agreement morphology. Thus in NFT we have, with Jaffna Tamil dialect (JT) which a major dialect of the Sri Lankan Tamils ethnic group for comparison:
- a. naan kolumbu-kki poo-ra (NFT)
I Colombo go (I go to Colombo)
- b. naan kolumbu-kku poo-r-een (JT)
I Colombo going (I am going to Colombo)
- c. mamə koləmbə-Tə yanəwa (CS)
I Colombo go (I go to Colombo)
NFT has also developed a number of other grammatical traits under the probable influence of Sinhala, including a postposed indefinite article, an indefinitizing postclitic –sari (apparently modeled on Sinhala –hari), and case assignments for defective verbs that follow the Sinhala, rather than Tamil, patterns of agreement.
Unique dialect
NFT probably originated in IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, but has subsequently adopted, and is still adopting, Sri Lankan Tamil traits
Sri Lankan Tamil dialects
The Sri Lankan Tamil dialects or Ceylon Tamil dialects form a group of Tamil dialects used in the modern country of Sri Lanka by Sri Lankan Tamil people that is distinct from the dialects of modern Tamil spoken in Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of India...
. The dialect is spoken by perhaps as many as 50,000 people, is thus a very distinctive dialect. With Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
based Saraswat Konkani
Konkani language
KonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...
(Nadkarni 1975), Tamilnadu based Saurashtri (Smith 1978), Sri Lankan Creole Portuguese
Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole Manuscript
The Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole Manuscript is a significant record of the Indo-Portuguese creole, as spoken in the 19th century among the Burgher and Kaffir communities...
and the Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, and Kannada dialects of Kupwar (Gumperz and Wilson 1971), NFT grammar is the outcome of pervasive structural realignment as a result of stable bilingualism.
Further reading
Steven BontaNegombo Fishermen's Tamil (NFT): A Sinhala Influenced Dialect from a Bilingual Sri Lankan Community
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRAVIDIAN LINGUISTICS XXXVII (2) pp133-140.
Steven Bonta, Ph. D. 2004,
"Negombo Fisherman's Tamil: A Case of Contact-Induced Language Change from Sri Lanka" Cornell University
External links
- Focus on traditional fishing methods by Bernard Sri Kantha (Sinhalese)