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Introduction
An analysis of the English language as manifest in the prose work
(novels, short stories) of Sri Lankan writers. Sri Lankan writing can be
classified as:
1.
English before 1950: Colonial period
2.
English between 1950 and 1970: Post-Colonial Period
3.
English after 1970 to the
present: Post-Colonial Period
The bases for the choice of the 1950s and 1970s as points to
stratify are political and social changes that had taken place in the Sri
Lankan society. The qualities of language we will focus on:
1.
“Deviations” from “standard”
English.
2.
The colour of the language as
Sinhala and Tamil come into contact with it.
3.
The expression of Sri Lankan
realities through English
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Reading
a substantial number of works of both established as well as relatively new
writers active in this period, I have come to a conclusion that the
socio-economic changes brought about by the introduction of the open economic
policies have acted as a catalyst for the changes brought about by the 1956
Language Act. According to Prof D.C.R.A.Goonetilake, in the period following
1956, English has been “neglected and even reviled. Paradoxically, it was in
this context that literature in English by Sri Lankans came into prominence” (12).
As a possible reason for the relative dearth of Sri Lankan writers in English
in the earlier periods Prof. Goonethilake states, “The English Department in
the 1930s, 40s and early 50s in our single university under its Professors at
the time, E.F.C. Ludowyk, maintained high standards, but was rarefied and
Eurocentric and had the inhibiting effect on creative writing” (12). Those who
wrote in the language of their colonial masters had to “reconcile their own
sensibilities, indigenous traditions and the realities, on the one hand, and
Western literary and other traditions and influences on the other” (Gunethileke
12-3).
Sri
Lankan writers who use the English language, by now use two strategies to deal
with the above mentioned demand:
o
Using a
form of English that is almost identical to the Standard English with minimum amount
of lexical borrowings
o
Using a
mesolect that has emerged out of the diachronic and synchronic changes the English language has undergone as a
transplanted language. This mesolect borrows heavily from both Sinhala and
Tamil at both lexical and structural levels. It also contains a remarkable
amount of what Passé calls Ceylonisms
Those
writers who use SE in their works usually come from the Colombo-based upper
class Anglicized background. Some of these like Yesmine Gooneratne are based
abroad. Vijitha Fernando can be
quoted as a representative of this category of writers. She uses Standard
English with very little borrowings.
It
is my understanding that, a feeling alienation and the constant demands made on
them by their international readership for a taste of the exotic has compelled
some of these writers to bring in local colour by setting their works in the
rural Sri Lanka. Rural setting of Sri Lanka is outside the linguistic and
socio-political realities of the English language. In order to include the
reader who is marked as an ‘outsider’ by the context of the text, the writer has
to make important decisions.
Some
writers who use Standard English have risen to the occasion by incorporating
more local terms in their works while others have resorted to often
unsatisfactory translations of the local lexical items and metaphors:
o
Chitra Fernando and Neil
Fernandopulle use an increasing amount of local flavour through Ceylonisms,
clichés and idiomatic borrowings.
o
However,
in trying to keep lexical borrowings to a minimum, they often make –do with
English words which fail to capture the essence of the ‘native’ idiom
o
Punyakante Wijenayake, on
the other hand, allows a greater
degree of code mixing in her works
Proponents
of the use of SLE in speech and writing like Professor Thiru Kandaih in an
article published in New English Writing states that the language of the Sri
Lankan writers should reflect “in an ideal form the actual rhythms and idioms
of living Ceylon English speech” and that it gains validity if “derived from
Sinhala” (92, 93). Sunethra
Rajakarunanayake and Elmo
Jayawardena attempt to capture what Prof Kandaih calls the ‘rhythm and idiom’
the ‘native’ context through an unprecedented incorporation of local terms
Conclusions:
o
The introduction to English in Sri Lanka
edited by Fernando, Gunasekera and Parakrama
traces four stages in the English language used in Ceylon/ Sri Lanka
1. 1st stage – SLE is laughed at as
being deviant and full of crass errors
2. 2nd stage – It is excused as a
fledgling version whose infelicities would pass as it came of age
3. 3rd stage – SLE is considered a
special variety requiring some modification of the global standard of the
so-called native varieties which were both historically and linguistically
purer
4. 4th stage – SLE is considered equal
in every way to first world varieties with its own standard and community of
native speakers while at the same time taping into Sinhala, Tamil, and Malay
linguistic and cultural resources to creatively engage with the everyday world
of the user
o
The
language of the writers - before the introduction of the vernaculars as
language of instruction and administration - was noticeably closer to the
Standard British English. [Stages 1 & 2]
o
Language
policy changes put in motion in the 40s and 50s have pushed the English language
used by Sri Lankans towards the Stages 3 & 4
o
The Open
Economic policies introduced in the late 1970s and the ongoing process of
Globalization have created a further need for an instrumental variety of
English of Stages 3 & 4
o
Prose
works produced in English language from 1977 onwards display all the above
stages synchronically; hence, forming
a continuum with SBE and SLE forming
the ends of the cline
o
Most of
the writers who continue to write in SE such as Punyakanthe Wijenaike and
Yasmine Gooneratne belong to the older generation and the younger generation
show an ever increasing bent towards the mesolect - SLE
o
Recently
some amount of Americanism also started to creep into the language.
Writer: Vijitha Fernando
(Uses SE with very little borrowings)
Work: Homecoming
Lexical borrowings:
o
Now the
last drops were being diluted with kasippu.
(1)
Writer: Chitra Fernando –
increasing amount of local flavour, but very few Sinhala words
Work: Missilin - 1994
Lexical borrowings:
o
…chatty pot (6)
Ceylonisms:
o
…I can’t
be a cook-woman (4) a thundering lie (8) My little golden Kalu (9)
o
Every time
I go to bring the rice, there he is grinning and grinning away at me like a
monkey (5).
Idiomatic borrowings:
o
Like the
buffalo he was content to wallow in his mud hole (6)
Cliché:
o
Her head
is like the Fort railway station (SL Version of ‘like the Grand Central
Station’)
o
When
troubles came, they fell on you like a monsoon torrent (7).
Writer: Neil Fernandopulle – like
Chitra Fernando – increasing amount
of local flavour, but very few Sinhala words
Work: Afterglow
Lexical borrowings:
o
Loku Hamuduruwo had done so much for him (11)
Ceylonisms:
o
‘The usual,’ Nimal said. ‘Plain tea with a lot of sugar.’ (9)
Idiomatic borrowings:
o
Life is
but a line drawn on water (10)
Inappropriate use of English terms:
o
It is the merit that one obtains (11)
Writer: Punyakante Wijenayake – lexical
level code mixing
Work: Brothers 2001
Lexical borrowings: a large number of lexical borrowings
o
Aiya! You came (123)
o
I will
hold bodhi
poojas for my brother (129)
Idiomatic borrowings:
o
he worked
alone in the sun and rain (121)
Inappropriate use of English terms: do not capture the essence of the
term
o
…she gave me the dane (122)
o
I tied a charmed thread on her before she left
(123)
Cliché:
o
…yet he
and I had been different as the sun from the moon (121)
o
…passing
exams with flying colours (121)
Writer: Sunethra Rajakarunanayake
Work: Sambol - 2005
Lexical borrowings:
o
On such
days she made katta-sambol, a fine
chilli paste (3)
o
I only had
to inquire from the kade or grocery
store (5)
Ceylonisms:
o
Our
children’s father lost his job (8)
o
Now,
eating or starving, we are together (10)
Idiomatic borrowings:
o Oh seven gods! (6)
o There should be a way to eat even salt and rice
(8)
Inappropriate use of English
terms: over explanation
o
…the first
day of every month we had kiribath or milk-rice (3)
o
she made katta-sambol, a fine chilli paste (3)
02) Writer: Elmo Jayawardena
Work: Sam’s Story - 2005
Lexical borrowings:
Ceylonisms:
o
…this
brother’s woman was from our village (15)
o
Harrison go and pay the telephone bill (15)
Idiomatic borrowings:
o
…hanging
like dead bats on current wires (12)
Inappropriate use of English terms:
o
But why pick on me? I don’t like questions (2)
(Why pick me?)
o
She was
tall and had a brown shining coat
(9)
Cliché:
o
…to put
food on our table (3)
o
I would
watch the sky like a hawk (7)
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