1853 (150 years ago) - June 2003 newsletter - Oxford English Dictionary

This is very good historical information to know.

By Richard Boyle, Sri Lankan English Consultant, OED
It appears reasonable to assume that the roots of Sri Lankan English (SLE) go back to 1796 with the commencement of British dominion over the maritime provinces of the island then known as Ceylon. However, the real beginnings occurred some one hundred and fifty years earlier, when captured British sailors confined to remote villages in the island’s Kandyan kingdom started using Ceylonese terms conversationally for everyday items and common fauna and flora with no English equivalent.

One of these sailors, a captain’s son called Robert Knox, managed to escape from the kingdom in 1679 after nineteen years’ confinement. On returning to London the following year, Knox made the acquaintance of Robert Hooke, then Secretary of the Royal Society, who assisted him in refining his manuscript containing an account of Ceylon, the first in the English language.

Knox’s An Historical Relation of Ceylon, published in September 1681, laid the foundation for SLE. This popular book introduced British readers to many exotic words of Sri Lankan origin or association with a diverse future in the English language. The usage of some of these loan words, such as dissava, kittul, and kurakkan, would remain restricted to the island. Others, such as gaur and toran, would enjoy wider regional usage. Then there were those, such as bo-tree, Buddha, puja, rattan, rillow, Vedda, and wanderoo, which would attain international usage. All these words and many more eventually ended up in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Publication of Knox’s narrative enhanced British comprehension of Ceylon at a time when other European powers possessed greater knowledge of the island. However Knox’s liberal use of Sri Lankan words turned out to be premature, for the Dutch ruled the maritime provinces of Ceylon and discouraged competitors. In consequence these words had little relevance to writers of English until one hundred and fifteen years later.

Nevertheless there was limited use of these words during this period. Defoe used dissava in his novel Captain Singleton (1720), while rillow and wanderoo appeared in Goldsmith’s Natural History (1774). Bo-tree and kittul were recorded in Birch’s History of the Royal Society (1756). Buddha appeared in Asiatic Researches (1784), and rattan in Philosophical Transactions (1777).

After Britain acquired Ceylon in 1796, books began to be published in London describing the island and promoting its commercial potential. The authors tended to rely on Knox, indeed some quoted lengthy passages from his book. In this way Sri Lankan words recorded by Knox reached readers in the island, and their use was reinforced, even in official correspondence. Moreover, military personnel seconded from India brought with them terms from the Anglo-Indian lexicon to add to the colonial aspect of the language.

SLE expanded in a more pertinent direction with the rise in the mid-nineteenth century of a Ceylonese elite anxious to embrace the English way of life, in particular the language. So began the process whereby English was wrought by the indigenous inhabitants until it became suited to their needs and nature. Words of local origin referring to cultural and environmental characteristics were introduced, as were grammatical features considered erroneous by speakers of other varieties of English, and a host of idioms that do not exist in British English—’Ceylonisms’ as they are known to this day.

A crucial step in the documentation of SLE occurred with the compilation of the first edition of the OED. After James Murray assumed duties as editor in 1879, a scholar resident in the colony by the name of Donald Ferguson was assigned to read An Historical Relation of Ceylon for potential inclusions. Ferguson was responsible for the appearance in the OED of a number of words and senses of Sri Lankan origin or association first employed in English by Knox, such as the familiar Buddha and rattan.

Apart from ‘Knox’s words’, scores of other words from SLE entered the first edition of the Dictionary, among them beriberi, bilimbi, cadjan, calamander, chatty, cutcherry, dagoba, domba, hackery, kokoon, marmala-water, olla, parangi, patana, poonac, puja, and punatoo. Then there are anaconda and serendipity, two words of remarkable etymology with Sri Lankan connection, yet which did not form part of the lexis of SLE.

Around Independence in 1948 there arose a conviction among the Sinhala-speaking majority that SLE was divisive, and it was termed kaduwa, or ’sword’. Subsequently Sinhala replaced English as the official language and medium of education. This resulted in the emigration of the Dutch Burgher community and other first-language English speakers. Together with the contraction and dispersion of SLE came a merging of it with Sinhala so that the hybrid ‘Singlish’ was formed.

The creative stimulus provided by the political turbulence, ethnic conflict, social changes, and terrorism that have characterized the country’s recent history resulted in a number of acclaimed works of fiction in English by authors of Sri Lankan origin belonging to the national diaspora. Romesh Gunasekera (Reef) and A. Sivanandan (When Memory Dies) in Britain, Yasmine Gooneratne (The Pleasures of Conquest) and Michelle de Kretzer (The Hamilton Case) in Australia, and Michael Ondaatje (Running in the Family) and Shyam Selvadurai (Funny Boy) in Canada, have been instrumental in forging a post-Independence literary identity for SLE.

Meanwhile in Sri Lanka the abandonment of isolationist attitudes and the embracing of open-market policies resulted in much greater exposure to British, American and Australian language and culture. In addition the growth of English-medium schools, of the expatriate community, and of the number of expatriate Sri Lankans returning from abroad, has meant another evolutionary path for SLE.

More words of Sri Lankan origin or association were included in the Supplement to the OED (1972-86). When the Supplement was incorporated into the first edition of the OED, for the publication of the second edition in 1989, the number of SLE words covered increased to over two hundred, with the inclusion of such examples as chena, illuk, kangany, kumbuk, mudalali, pansala, pol sambol, poya, ratemahatmaya, Sinhala, and Sri Lankan. Furthermore, the number of words first exemplified by Knox rose to twenty-four, with the inclusion of kabaragoya, kurakkan, perahera, and vihara, among others.

As I reside in Sri Lanka and have an interest in English literature pertaining to the island, I answered the 1999 OED Appeal for volunteers to assist with the revision programme in the hope of making a contribution in the sphere of SLE. Since then I have trawled this literature for antedating, interdating, and post-dating references for the words mentioned, and assisted with amendments to derivation and definition. Incidentally, the third edition will contain at least two relevant additions, ambalama and malkoha, the latter already being published online.

It remains for me to report that a fellow British resident, Michael Meyler, has compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of SLE, to be published next year. Long overdue, this defining work will be invaluable to SLE-speakers and indeed to the editors of the OED.

It is the first point of reference for anyone interested in the people who have made a mark on the history of the British Isles. The Oxford DNB replaces and extends the original Victorian DNB, and includes:

re-written biographies of the people included in the Victorian DNB, reflecting new research, and an up-to-date assessment of their lives
13,500 biographies of new subjects from all periods.
Published in a 60-volume print edition and online, the dictionary is an essential resource for checking facts, learning about people involved in a historical event or associated with a place, or undertaking new research into any aspect of the British past.

The Oxford DNB provides accurate, concise and readable articles on noteworthy people from all walks of life. Entries offer detailed and extensive biographical information drawn from primary and secondary sources and range from a few dozen to more than 35,000 words in length. With more than 10,000 illustrations, researched in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Oxford DNB includes the largest selection of national portraiture ever published. Where possible, entries provide a person’s:

full name at birth and name changes throughout life
dates and places of birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial
parents’ names, life dates, and occupations
records of siblings and other noteworthy family members
education history
Each article also provides an extensive reference section listing:

primary and secondary works consulted by the author of the biography: over 300,000 bibliographic references in total
paper, film and sound archives for further research
portrait likenesses
where known, details of wealth at death—making this the largest public collection of such information.

STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 0.01HRS 6 OCTOBER 2005
Have You Been Bigging It Up?
Why is today’s language so inflated? Why do we need to exaggerate words that stand up perfectly well on their own? This tendency to ‘big up’ what we say is one of the trends explored in Susie Dent’s eagerly awaited annual round-up of the latest linguistic novelties and shifts in the English language: fanboys and overdogs: the language report.
Published on 6 October 2005 by Oxford University Press, it is compiled with the help of the language monitoring programme behind the Oxford English Dictionary.
According to Susie Dent, ‘talking up’ is nothing new, and yet it looks to be on the increase and to be becoming one of the most significant linguistic trends of the moment. Great acts today are performed not just by heroes, but by superheroes; nothing is ever simply ‘good’: it is OVA-WICKED, or UBERBUFF; government appointees are TSARS, and experts are MEISTERS. Such supersizing of language can be found in job titles too: receptionists carry the lofty title of HEAD OF VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS, while shelf-stackers are STOCK REPLENISHMENT EXECUTIVES. And watch out for the relentless positivism in business and political jargon, in which FALLING FORWARD is learning from your mistakes, public spending is cleverly couched as PUBLIC INVESTMENT, and situations are no longer complicated: they are NUANCED. In restaurants, our food is not just cooked: it is CRISPED, SEARED, GLAZED, TRUFFLED, and even LACQUERED.
Visibly different?
Appearance is, as ever, high on the list of things that generates new vocabulary. Today’s fashion-conscious male may well be carrying a MANBAG (or MURSE); if on the other hand they are a FANBOY, they will be too taken up with their chosen passion for comic books or computer games even to consider their appearance at all. Cosmetics companies are also playing with language in an attempt to appeal to our vanity. Lipstick – or LIP-GUNK or GOO – is no longer ‘dusky rose’ or ‘pillar box’: the new colour choices range from ASPHYXIA to STRAY DOG. Face creams, meanwhile, promise - rather puzzlingly - to make us FEEL VISIBLY DIFFERENT.
Our puzzled nation
The leading candidate for Word of the Year - the one that has ignited the nation’s interest and filled its newspapers - reveals a picture of
bowed heads, intense concentration, and quietly scratching pencils. It is of course SUDOKU (sometimes sudoku or su-doku), the logic puzzle with the Japanese name, which has knocked the crossword off its pedestal as Britain’s favourite coffee-break activity.
Here are some more 2005 words and phrases in the news:
Political phrase of the year: DOG-WHISTLE POLITICS - a political strategy of using language intended to rouse a specific audience without disturbing the rest of the electorate, in the same way that a high-pitched dog whistle is only audible to some dogs.
Catchphrase of the year: THE ONLY GAY IN THE VILLAGE, from the British comedy series Little Britain, is now a formula: take out ‘gay’ and you can put in lesbian/bisexual/catholic/Tory/socialist/liberal or indeed any other group you can think of.
Musical word of the year: CRUNK (probably a blend of ‘crazy’ and ‘drunk’), America’s hottest urban style of Southern hip-hop, is the newest trend on the musical horizon. Look out for CRUNK’N'B and CRUNK ROCK.
Nastiest phrase of the year: HAPPY SLAPPING, the recording on a mobile phone camera of an attack on a stranger by a group of young people - one of 2005‘s most unwelcome additions to our vocabulary.
Then and Now: 1905 vs. 2005
fanboys and overdogs takes a look beyond highly topical words to consider those that represent the past hundred years. A comparison of the new words of 1905 and 2005 suggests in some cases giant leaps of imagination and, in others, a remarkable consistency. If at the beginning of the twentieth century suffragettes were in the news, the turn of the new century brought us LADETTE and DUDETTE. 1905 saw TRUNK MURDERS and STAGGER JUICE; today the talk is more of HOOPTIES and CUDDLE PARTIES. Such words give us a remarkable insight into the social preoccupations of their time. And yet some things don’t change: were HIGH FINANCE and BIG BUSINESS, both coined a hundred years ago, simply early examples of BIGGING UP?
Read about these and hundreds of other new words and phrases, language trends, catchphrases, headlines, and slogans that have gripped our nation in 2005 in fanboys and overdogs: the language report by Susie Dent.
Publishes on 6 October 2005, price £10.99 hardback
Susie Dent, who has dedicated fanboys and overdogs to her friend the late Richard Whiteley, with whom she spent over ten years on Countdown testing the nation’s love of words, is available for interview. For more information contact Sarah Kidd on 01865 353911 or email sarah.kidd@oup.com

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