Vedda is an endangered language that is used by the indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka . Additionally, communities such as Coast Veddas and Anuradhapura Veddas who do not strictly identify as Veddas also use words from the Vedda language in part for communication during hunting and/or for religious chants, throughout the island.
88-574: Hokandara is a suburb of Colombo district . It is located approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the city centre of Colombo, adjacent to Thalawathugoda to the west, Pelawatte on the north-west, Malabe on the north, Aturugiriya on the east and Pannipitiya on the south. It sits astride the Hokandara-Kottawa Road and the Malabe-Aturugiriya (Borella) Road. Originally a working-class and farming area, since
176-420: A marker). Inanimate nouns use suffixes such as –rukula and –danda with nouns denoting body parts and other suffixes such as -pojja , -tana , and -gejja . Suffixes are used when the words are borrowed from Sinhalese. There are number of forms that are from the original Vedda language that lack suffixes such as Vedda inanimate nouns are formed by borrowing Sinhalese adjectives and adding
264-469: A tropical rainforest climate ( Af ). Colombo's climate is hot throughout the year. From March to April the average high temperature is around 31 °C (87.8 °F). The only major change in the Colombo weather occurs during the monsoon seasons from April to June and September to November, when heavy rains occur. Colombo sees little relative diurnal range of temperature, although this is more marked in
352-709: A GDP (PPP) of $ 122 billion or 40% of the GDP, making it the most important aspect of the Sri Lankan economy. The per capita income of the Colombo Metro area stood at US$ 8623 and purchasing power per capita of $ 25,117, making it one of the most prosperous regions in South Asia. The Colombo Metropolitan (CM) area is the most important industrial, commercial and administrative centre in Sri Lanka. A major share of
440-589: A Municipal Council as a means of training the local population in self-governance . The Legislative Council of Ceylon constituted the Colombo Municipal Council in 1865 and the Council met for the first time on 16 January 1866. At the time, the population of the region was around 80,000. During the time they were in control of Colombo, the British were responsible for much of the planning of
528-430: A category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. It lists naramba (to see) and kolamba (fort or harbour) as deriving from the indigenous Vedda language . Kolamba may also be the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo. Traveller Ibn Battuta who visited the island in the 14th century, referred to it as Kalanpu . Arabs, whose prime interests were trade, began to settle in Colombo around
616-631: A commercial hub. In 1638 the Dutch signed a treaty with King Rajasinha II of Kandy which assured the king assistance in his war against the Portuguese in exchange for a monopoly of the island's major trade goods. The Portuguese resisted the Dutch and the Kandyans but were gradually defeated in their strongholds beginning in 1639. The Dutch captured Colombo in 1656 after an epic siege, at the end of which
704-530: A ferry service to Tuticorin , India. Ferry services between the two countries have been revived after more than 20 years. Ratmalana Airport is the city's airport, located 15 km (9.3 mi) south of the city centre. It commenced operating in 1935 and was the country's first international airport until it was replaced by Bandaranaike Airport in 1967. Ratmalana Airport now primarily services domestic flights, aviation training and international corporate flights. The two World Trade Centre towers used to be
792-407: A gender classification in inanimate and animate nouns. Formerly distinct Vedda nouns have two types of suffixes, one for animate and another for inanimate. The animate suffixes are –atto for personal pronouns and –laatto for all other animate nouns and –pojja and –raaccaa for personified nouns. Examples are These suffixes are also used in singular and plural forms based on
880-578: A large area of the kingdom and the Sinhalese King Mayadunne established a new kingdom at Sitawaka, a domain in the Kotte kingdom. Before long he annexed much of the Kotte kingdom and forced the Portuguese to retreat to Colombo, which was repeatedly besieged by Mayadunne and the later kings of Sitawaka, forcing them to seek reinforcement from their major base in Goa , India. Following the fall of
968-536: A limited lexical stock. Vedda maintains many archaic Sinhalese terms from the 10th to 12th centuries, as a relict of its close contact with Sinhalese, while retaining a number of unique words that cannot be derived from Sinhalese. Vedda has exerted a substratum influence in the formation of Sinhalese. This is evident by the presence of both lexical and structural elements in Sinhalese which cannot be traced to either Indo-Aryan or neighboring Dravidian languages . It
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#17327936529961056-476: A long history. Colombo has many of the prominent public schools in the country, some of them government-owned and others private. Most of the prominent schools in the city date back to the 1800s when they were established during the British colonial rule, such as the Royal College Colombo established in 1835. Certain urban schools of Sri Lanka have some religious alignment; this is partly due to
1144-520: A mere 93 Portuguese survivors were given safe conduct out of the fort. Although the Dutch (e.g., Rijcklof van Goens ) initially restored the captured area back to the Sinhalese kings, they later refused to turn them over and gained control over the island's richest cinnamon lands including Colombo which then served as the capital of the Dutch maritime provinces under the control of the Dutch East India Company until 1796. Although
1232-408: A mix of numerous ethnic groups, mainly Sinhalese , Sri Lankan Moor and Sri Lankan Tamils , . There are also small communities of people with Chinese , Portuguese Burgher , Dutch Burgher , Malay and Indian origins living in the city, as well as numerous European expatriates. Colombo is the most populous city in Sri Lanka, with 642,163 people living within the city limits. In 1866 the city had
1320-547: A population of around 80,000. Religion in Colombo Municipality area (2012) Colombo is a charter city , with a mayor-council government . The mayor and council members are elected through local government elections held once in five years. For the past 50 years the city had been ruled by the United National Party (UNP), a right leaning party, whose business-friendly policies resonate with
1408-476: A rupture is created in their relationship with their original language. Such situations were often the consequences of slavery and trade that occurred from the 17th to the 19th centuries owing to the process of colonization. As far as the Vedda community is concerned, although the features of a creole are visible in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon, a number of distinctions have been identified between
1496-518: A short time, however, they expelled the Muslim inhabitants of Colombo and began to build a fort in 1517. The Portuguese soon realised that control of Sri Lanka was necessary for the protection of their coastal establishments in India, and they began to manipulate the rulers of the Kotte kingdom to gain control of the area. After skilfully exploiting rivalries within the royal family, they took control of
1584-514: A significant result of the colonial era. These cultural changes were followed by the strengthening of the island's economy. Even today, the influence of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British is visible in Colombo's architecture, names, clothing, food, language and attitudes. Buildings from all three eras stand as reminders of the turbulent past of Colombo. The city and its people show an interesting mix of European clothing and lifestyles together with local customs. Historically, Colombo referred to
1672-655: A suffix. Kavi is the Sinhalese adjective for the noun Kaviya , whereas the Vedda noun is kavi-tana , where tana is a suffix. Examples of pronouns are meeatto ('I'), topan ('you'), eyaba ('there'), koyba ('where?'). Compared to Sinhalese, which requires five forms to address people based on status, Vedda uses one ( topan ) irrespective of status. These pronouns are also used in both singular and plural denotations. These are found in definite and indefinite forms, for example ekama 'one' (def.) and ekamak 'once' (indef.) They count ekamay , dekamay and tunamay . Vedda also reduces
1760-479: A treaty with the King of Kotte , Parakramabahu VIII (1484–1518), which enabled them to trade in the island's crop of cinnamon , which lay along with the coastal areas of the island, including in Colombo. As part of the treaty, the Portuguese were given full authority over the coastline in exchange for the promise of guarding the coast against invaders. They were allowed to establish a trading post in Colombo. Within
1848-546: Is St.Paul's Church Milagiriya , one of the oldest churches in Sri Lanka, first built by the Portuguese and rebuilt by the British in 1848. The Cargills & Millers building in Fort is also a protected building of historical significance. Cannons that were once mounted on the rampart of the old fort of Colombo were laid out for observance and prestige at the Green. The colonial styled Galle Face Hotel , known as Asia's Emerald on
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#17327936529961936-429: Is added to the infinitive. In Sinhalese, all indicative sentences whether negative or affirmative, exhibit two tenses – past and non past, but in Vedda a three-term tense system is used in affirmative sentences, but not in negative. Sinhalese pronouns have number distinction, but Vedda does not have number distinction. The Vedda verbal and nominal inflexions are similar to Sinhalese but are not identical. Vedda also exhibits
2024-545: Is believed to be derived from the classical Sinhala name කොලොන් තොට , கொல்லம் துறைமுகம் Kolon thota , meaning "port on the river Kelani ". Another belief is that the name is derived from the Sinhala name කොල-අඹ-තොට , பெருங்குடல் துறைமுகம் Kola-amba-thota which means 'Harbour with leafy/green mango trees'. This coincides with Robert Knox 's history of the island while he was a prisoner in Kandy. He writes that "On
2112-445: Is divided into four postal subdivisions - north, east, south and west. This Western Province, Sri Lanka location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Colombo Colombo ( / k ə ˈ l ʌ m b oʊ / kə- LUM -boh ; Sinhala : කොළඹ , romanized: Koḷam̆ba , IPA: [ˈkoləᵐbə] ; Tamil : கொழும்பு , romanized: Koḻumpu , IPA: [koɻumbɯ] )
2200-607: Is more crowded than the Fort area. Pettah's roads are always packed and pavements are full of small stalls selling items from delicious sharbat to shirts . Main Street consists mostly of clothes shops and the crossroads, which are known as Cross-Streets where each of the five streets specialises in a specific business. For example, First Cross Street is mostly electronic goods shops, the Second cellular phones and fancy goods. Most of these businesses are dominated by Muslim traders. At
2288-597: Is one of the most distinctive landmarks of Colombo and was used for centuries by colonists to defend the city. It remains a tourist attraction, hosting regattas , and theatrical events on its shores. The northern and north-eastern border of the city of Colombo is formed by the Kelani River , which meets the sea in a part of the city known as the Modera ( mōdara in Sinhala) which means river delta . Colombo features
2376-626: Is one of the most important temples in Colombo. The temple's architecture demonstrates an eclectic mix of Sri Lankan, Thai, Indian and Chinese architecture. The Viharamahadevi Park (formerly Victoria Park) is an urban park located next to the National Museum of Colombo and the Town Hall . It is the oldest and largest park in Colombo and features a large Buddha statue. As part of the Urban Regeneration Program of
2464-461: Is seen in other Creole languages like Melanesian Pidgin English and Jamaican English Creole . The preponderance of the palatal affricates is explained as a remainder from days when the original Vedda language had a high frequency of such phonemes. In Sinhalese, indicative sentences are negated by adding a negative particle to the emphatic form of the verb, whereas in Vedda, the negative particle
2552-635: Is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution , the Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality . It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte ,
2640-511: Is unknown which languages were spoken in Sri Lanka before it was settled by Prakrit -speaking immigrants in the 5th century BCE. The term Vedda is a Dravidian word and stems from the Tamil word Vēdu meaning 'hunting'. Cognate terms (such as bedar, beda in Kannada ) are used throughout South India to describe hunter-gatherers. Sri Lanka has had other hunter-gathering peoples such as
2728-823: The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the Upper Adriatic region with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe . Colombo has an extensive public transport system based on buses operated both by private operators and the government-owned Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) . The three primary bus terminals – Bastian Mawatha, Central and the Gunasinghapura Bus Terminals – are in Pettah. Bastian Mawatha handles long-distance services whereas Gunasinghapura and Central handle local services. Train transport in
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2816-458: The Government of Sri Lanka , many old sites and buildings were revamped into modern public recreational spaces and shopping precincts. These include Independence Memorial Hall Square , Pettah Floating Market and Old Dutch Hospital , among others. Ethnicity in Colombo Municipality area (2012) Colombo is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural city. The population of Colombo is
2904-626: The Metropolitan Range headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Metropolitan), this also includes the Colombo Crime Division. As with most Sri Lankan cities, the magistrate court handles felony crimes while the district court handles civil cases. As in other large cities around the world, Colombo experiences certain levels of street crime and bribery . Indeed, the corruption extends to
2992-621: The Military headquarters , Naval headquarters ( SLNS Parakrama ), Air Force headquarters ( SLAF Colombo ) and Police national and field force headquarters. Colombo is divided into 15 numbered areas for the purposes of postal services. Within these areas are the suburbs with their corresponding post office. The great majority of Sri Lankan corporations have their head offices in Colombo including Aitken Spence , Ceylinco Corporation , Stassen group of companies, John Keells Holdings , Cargills , Hemas Holdings, SenzMate and Akbar Brothers. Some of
3080-508: The Rodiya and Kinnaraya . The earliest account of Vedda was written by Ryklof Van Goens (1663–1675), who served as a Director General of the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka. He wrote that the Veddas' language was much closer to Sinhalese than to Tamil . Robert Knox , an Englishman held captive by a Kandyan king , wrote in 1681 that the wild and settled Veddas spoke the language of
3168-405: The 10th century until the 13th century, the purported period of close contact between the original Vedda language(s) and Old Sinhala leading to the development of the creole. Some examples are: According to research at the turn of the 20th century by British anthropologists Charles and Brenda Seligman, the use of archaic Sinhalese words in Vedda may have arisen from the need to communicate freely in
3256-461: The 1980s the national capital of the island was Colombo. During the 1980s plans were made to move the administrative capital to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and thus move all governmental institutions out of Colombo to make way for commercial activities. As a primary step, the Parliament was moved to a new complex in Kotte, with several ministries and departments also relocated. However, the move
3344-534: The 1990s Hokandara has become an increasingly upper-middle and middle-class residential area. Sub areas such as Arangala, Everihena, Wellangiriya and Horahena belongs to Hokandara. The Rajavaliya mentions that King Rajasinghe I levied troops from Hokandara, prior to the Battle of Mulleriyawa in 1561. An Area which highly agriculture is done . The area is served by the Hokandara Post Office. It
3432-486: The British captured Colombo in 1796, it remained a British military outpost until the Kandyan Kingdom was ceded to them in 1815 and they made Colombo the capital of their newly created crown colony of British Ceylon . Unlike the Portuguese and Dutch before them, whose primary use of Colombo was as a military fort, the British began constructing houses and other civilian structures around the fort, giving rise to
3520-597: The Colombo area also involves the construction of numerous expressway grade arterial road routes. The first of these constructed is the Southern Expressway , which goes from Kottawa , a southern suburb of Colombo, to Matara City in the south of the country. Expressways constructed in the Colombo metropolitan area include the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway , which was opened in October 2013 and
3608-470: The Colombo orbital bypass Outer Circular Highway ( Arthur C. Clarke Expressway ). The Colombo-Katunayake Expressway (E03) runs from Peliyagoda , a northern suburb of Colombo, to Colombo International Airport and it is linked with one of the major commercial hubs and a major tourist destination of the country, the city of Negombo . An international ferry liner, the Scotia Prince , is conducting
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3696-665: The Green since 1864, is adjacent to Galle Face Green. The hotel has played host to guests such as the British Royal Family and other royal guests and celebrities. After a stay at the hotel, Princess Alexandra of Denmark commented that "the peacefulness and generosity encountered at the Galle Face Hotel cannot be matched." Also facing Galle Face Green is the Ceylon Inter-Continental Hotel. Education institutions in Colombo have
3784-409: The Sinhalese people. The Portuguese friar Fernão de Queiroz , who wrote a nuanced description of Vedda in 1686, reported that the language was not mutually intelligible with other native languages. Robert Percival wrote in 1803 that the Veddas, although seemingly speaking a broken dialect of Sinhalese, amongst themselves spoke a language that was known only to them. But John Davies in 1831 wrote that
3872-399: The Vedda language and the classic creolization which occurred during the colonial period. Here it is also important to acknowledge the existence of many issues in relation to the process of creolization that remain unresolved in the domain of linguistics. Therefore, the classification of the Vedda language either as a dialect or as a creole becomes a difficult task, although it is clear that in
3960-603: The Vedda language was undertaken by Hugh Neville, an English civil servant in British Ceylon . He founded The Taprobanian , a quarterly journal devoted to the study of everything Ceylonese. He speculated, based on etymological studies, that Vedda is based on an Old Sinhalese form called Hela. His views were followed by Henry Parker , another English civil servant and the author of Ancient Ceylon (1909), who wrote that most Vedda words were borrowed from Sinhalese, but he also noted words of unique origin, which he assigned to
4048-436: The Veddas spoke a language that was understood by the Sinhalese except for a few words. These discrepancies in observations were clarified by Charles Pridham, who wrote in 1848 that the Veddas knew a form of Sinhalese that they were able to use in talking to outsiders, but to themselves they spoke in a language that, although influenced by Sinhalese and Tamil, was understood only by them. The first systematic attempt at studying
4136-623: The Vedi rata or Maha vedi rata. Subsequently, the Vedda language was subjected to hybridisation depending on the geographical locality of the community. For instance, the language of the Veddas living in the North Central and Uva regions was affected by Sinhala, while the language of the coastal Veddas in the East was influenced by the Tamil language. However, there are still many arguments regarding
4224-761: The West, the City of Columbo, so-called from a Tree the Natives call Ambo, (which bears the Mango-fruit) growing in that place; but this never bear fruit, but only leaves, which in their Language is kola and thence they called the Tree Colambo: which the Christians in honour of Christopher Columbus turned to Columbo." The author of the oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsangarava, written in the 13th century wrote about
4312-403: The addition of inanimate suffixes . Morphologically, the Vedda word classes are nouns , verbs and invariables, with unique gender distinctions in animate nouns . It has reduced and simplified many forms of Sinhalese such as second person pronouns and denotations of negative meanings. Instead of borrowing new words from Sinhalese or other languages, Vedda creates combinations of words from
4400-691: The area around the Fort and Pettah Market which is known for the variety of products available as well as the Khan Clock Tower , a local landmark. At present, it refers to the city limits of the Colombo Municipal Council . More often, the name is used for the Conurbation known as Greater Colombo , which encompasses several Municipal councils including Kotte , Dehiwela and Colombo. Although Colombo lost its status as
4488-406: The busiest ports in Sri Lanka. Colombo was established primarily as a port city during the colonial era, with an artificial harbour that has been expanded over the years. The Sri Lanka Navy maintains a naval base , SLNS Rangalla , within the harbour. The Port of Colombo handled 3.75 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2008, 10.6% up on 2007 (which itself was 9.7% up on 2006), bucking
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#17327936529964576-441: The capital of Sri Lanka in the 1980s to Sri Jayawardanapura, it continues to be the island's commercial centre. Despite the official capital of Sri Lanka moving to the adjacent Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte, most countries still maintain their diplomatic missions in Colombo. The geography of Colombo consists of both land and water. The city has many canals and, in the heart of the city, the 65-hectare (160-acre) Beira Lake . The lake
4664-677: The city is limited since most trains are meant for transport to and from the city rather than within it and are often overcrowded. However, the Central Bus Stand and Fort Railway Station function as the island's primary hub for bus and rail transport respectively. Up until the 1970s, the city had tram services, which were discontinued. Other means of transport include auto rickshaws (commonly called "three-wheelers") and taxicabs . Three-wheelers are entirely operated by individuals and hardly regulated whilst cab services are run by private companies and are metered. Post-war development in
4752-623: The council liaises with the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) , the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and telephone service providers operating in the country respectively. Colombo was the capital of the coastal areas controlled by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British from the 1700s to 1815 when the British gained control of the entire island following the Kandyan convention . From then until
4840-452: The country's export-oriented manufacturing takes place in the CM area, which is the engine of growth for Sri Lanka. The Western province contributes less than 40% to the GDP and about 80% of industrial value additions although it accounts for only 5.7% of the country's geographic area and 25% of the national population. Given its importance as the primary international gateway for Sri Lanka and as
4928-404: The country, Colombo has the highest degree of infrastructure. Electricity, water and transport to street lights and phone booths are to a considerably good standard. Apart from that, many luxurious hotels, clubs and restaurants are in the city. In recent times there has been an outpour of high-rise condominiums, mainly due to the very high land prices. Colombo Harbour is the largest and one of
5016-473: The country. Although in phonemic inventory Vedda is very similar to Sinhalese, in phonotactics it is very dissimilar to Sinhalese. The usage of palatal plosives ( [ c ] and [ ɟ ] ) is very high in Vedda. Some comparisons: This effect is heightened by the addition of inanimate suffixes such as pojja , gejja or raacca . These suffixes are used in tandem with borrowings from Sinhalese. These transformations are very similar to what
5104-537: The cumulative effect that Vedda resembles Sinhalese in many particulars, but its grammatical core remains intact. The parent Vedda language(s) is of unknown linguistic origins, while Sinhalese is part of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family . Phonologically , Vedda is distinguished from Sinhalese by the higher frequency of palatal sounds [c] and [ɟ]. The effect is also heightened by
5192-615: The current City of Colombo. Initially, they placed the administration of the city under a " Collector ", and John Macdowell of the Madras Service was the first to hold the office. Then, in 1833, the Government Agent of the Western Province was charged with the administration of the city. Centuries of colonial rule had meant a decline of indigenous administration of Colombo and in 1865 the British conceived
5280-527: The current context the Vedda language is not an independent language of its own. However based on recent studies conducted on the Vedda community, it has been revealed that the Vedda language is on the verge of facing extinction since the younger generation is keen on using Sinhala or Tamil as their first language, being influenced by the dominant language of the region of residence due to an array of reasons including fragmentation of settlements, economic policies, national education structure and political factors of
5368-562: The differences can be explained by the substrate influence of parent stock of the Vedda language. Sinhalese has many words that are only found in Sinhalese or it is shared between Sinhalese and Vedda and cannot be etymologically derived from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Common examples are kola in Sinhalese and Vedda for 'leaf' (although others suggest a Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola in Sinhalese for 'pig' and 'offering' in Vedda. Other common words are rera for 'wild duck' and gala for 'stones' in toponyms found throughout
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#17327936529965456-473: The drier winter months, where minimum temperatures average 22 °C (71.6 °F). Rainfall in the city averages around 2,500 millimetres (98 in) a year. Galle Face Green is located in the heart of the city along the Indian Ocean coast and is a destination for tourists and residents alike. The Galle Face Hotel is a historic landmark on the southern edge of this promenade. Gangaramaya Temple
5544-505: The eighth century AD mostly because the port helped their business by the way of controlling much of the trade between the Sinhalese kingdoms and the outside world. It was popularly believed that their descendants comprised the local Sri Lankan Moor community, but their genetics are predominantly South Indian. Portuguese explorers led by Dom Lourenço de Almeida first arrived in Sri Lanka in 1505. During their initial visit they made
5632-520: The end of Main Street further away from Fort is Sea Street – Sri Lanka's gold market – dominated by Tamil interests. This mile-long street is full of jewellery shops, including the former head office of SriLankan Airlines . The Sri Lanka Police , the main law enforcement agency of the island, liaise with the municipal council but is under the control of the Ministry of Defence of the central government. Policing in Colombo and its suburbs falls within
5720-452: The forest', which later transformed into vadi . The language contact that might have occurred between the Aryan immigrants and the aboriginal inhabitants could have led either to a language shift or to the crystallization of a new language through the creation of a pidgin. The first instance could have been in effect in relation to the members of the Vedda community who were absorbed into
5808-466: The global economic trend. Of those, 817,000 were local shipments with the rest transshipments. With a capacity of 5.7 million TEUs and a dredged depth of over 15 m (49 ft), the Colombo Harbour is one of the busiest ports in the world and ranks among the top 25 ports (23rd). Sri Lanka's Port of Colombo is said to be the busiest, largest port in the Indian Ocean. Colombo is part of
5896-482: The indigenous population of Sri Lanka is said to have inhabited the island prior to the arrival of the Aryans in the 5th century B.C. and after the collapse of the dry zone civilization in the 15th century, they have extended their settlements once more in the North Central, Uva and Eastern regions. However, with the entering of the colonization schemes to the island after the 19th century, the Vedda population has shrunk to
5984-554: The industries include chemicals, textiles, glass, cement, leather goods, furniture and jewellery. In the city centre is the World Trade Centre . The 40-story Twin Tower complex is the centre of important commercial establishments, in the Fort district, the city's nerve centre. Right outside the Fort area is Pettah which is derived from the Sinhala word pita which means 'out' or 'outside'. The Colombo Metropolitan area has
6072-413: The influence of the British, who established Christian missionary schools. These include the Anglican , Bishop's College (1875); the Methodist , Wesley College Colombo (1874); the Buddhist , Ananda College (1886); the Muslim , Zahira College (1892); the St. Benedict's College, Colombo (1985), the Catholic , St. Joseph's College (1896). The religious alignments do not affect the curriculum of
6160-411: The island (although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhalese such as oluva for 'head', kakula for 'leg', bella for 'neck' and kalava for 'thighs' that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The author of the oldest Sinhalese grammar, Sidatsangarava, written in the 13th century has recognized
6248-401: The kingdom in 1593, the Portuguese were able to establish complete control over the coastal area, with Colombo as their capital. This part of Colombo is still known as Fort and houses the presidential palace and the majority of Colombo's five star hotels. The area immediately outside Fort is known as Pettah ( Sinhala : පිට කොටුව , Tamil : புறக் கோட்டை piṭa koṭuva , "outer fort") and is
6336-419: The language comprehensively. Initially there was considerable debate amongst linguists as to whether Vedda is a dialect of Sinhalese or an independent language . Later studies indicate that the language spoken by today's Veddas is a creole which evolved from ancient times, when the Veddas came into contact with the early Sinhalese, from whom they increasingly borrowed words and synthetic features, yielding
6424-639: The language was restricted to the older generation of people from the Dambana region, with the younger generation shifting to Sinhalese, whereas Coast Veddas were speaking a dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spirit possession sometimes use a mixed language that contains words from Vedda. Veddas of the Anuradhapura region speak in Sinhalese, but use Vedda words to denote animals during hunting trips. The Vedda community or
6512-480: The legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia . Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is itself within the urban/suburban area of Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District . Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments. It
6600-472: The main economic driver of the country, the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has launched an ambitious program to transform Colombo and its area into a metropolis of international standards. Bottlenecks are preventing the Colombo metropolitan area from realizing its full economic potential. To facilitate the transformation of Colombo, the government has to address these bottlenecks which have for long been obstructing economic and physical urban regeneration. Pettah
6688-753: The most recognised landmarks of the city. Before they were completed in 1997, the adjacent Bank of Ceylon tower was the tallest structure and the most prominent city landmark. Before the skyscrapers were built, the Old Parliament Building that stood in the Fort district with the Old Colombo Lighthouse close to it used to be the tallest building. Another important landmark is the Independence Hall at Independence Square in Cinnamon Gardens. Another landmark
6776-503: The new settlements, while in the second instance the occasional contact of the Veddas with the new settlers would have resulted in the crystallization of a new language instead of the original Vedda language. The term creole refers to a linguistic medium which has crystallized in a situation of language contact and the process of this crystallization begins as a pidgin. A pidgin is spoken natively by an entire speech community, whose ancestors have been geographically displaced through which
6864-826: The number formations found in Sinhalese. Another example of simplification in Vedda is the minimisation of negative meanings found in Sinhalese: Many Vedda words are directly borrowed from Sinhalese or Tamil via Sinhalese while maintaining words that are not derivable from Sinhalese or its cognate languages from the Indo-Aryan language group. Vedda also exhibits a propensity for paraphrases and it coins words from its limited lexical stock rather than borrowing words from other languages including Sinhalese. For example: Vedda maintains in its lexicon archaic Sinhalese words that are no longer in daily usage. These archaic words are attested from classical Sinhalese prose from
6952-483: The origin of the Vedda language. Ariesen Ahubudu calls the Vedda language a "dialect of Sinhala", saying that it is a creole language variety derived from Sinhala. According to him, "Veddas belong to the post Vijayan period and they use a language which has its origins in the Sinhala language." He further explains this with an etymological explanation of the term vadi , that evolved from dava , meaning 'forest, timber'. This became davi , meaning 'those who live in
7040-400: The original language of the Veddas. The second most important study was made in 1935 by Wilhem Geiger , who also sounded the alarm that Vedda would be soon extinct and needed to be studied in detail. One of the linguists to heed that call was Manniku W. Sugathapala De Silva who did a comprehensive study of the language in 1959 as a PhD thesis, which he published as a book: according to him,
7128-450: The population of Colombo. However, the UNP nomination list for the 2006 Municipal elections was rejected, and an Independent Group supported by the UNP won the elections. Uvais Mohamed Imitiyas was subsequently appointed Mayor of Colombo. The city government provides sewer, road and waste management services to the residents. In the case of water, electricity and telephone utility services,
7216-400: The presence of Sinhalese speakers without being understood. They claimed that this need encouraged the development of a code internal to the Vedda language that included archaic Sinhalese words (as well as mispronounced and invented words) in order to intentionally obfuscate meaning. According to Geiger and Gair, Sinhalese has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of
7304-513: The present city. In some parts of the city, tram car tracks and granite flooring laid during the era are still visible today. This era of colonialism ended peacefully in 1948 when Ceylon gained independence from Britain. Due to the tremendous impact this caused on the city's inhabitants and on the country as a whole, the changes that resulted at the end of the colonial period were drastic. An entire new culture took root. Changes in laws and customs, clothing styles, religions and proper names were
7392-406: The school except for the demographics of the student population. Colombo has many International Schools that have come up in recent years. Vedda language When a systematic field study was conducted in 1959, the language was confined to the older generation of Veddas from Dambana . In the 1990s, self-identifying Veddas knew few words and phrases in Vedda, but there were individuals who knew
7480-443: The verbal and non-verbal context. The dependence on verbal (and non-verbal) context for semantic specification, which is accomplished by inflectional devices by natural languages is an indication of a contact language. Certain words that appear to be from original Vedda language do not have these suffixes; also, animate nouns also have gender distinctions, with small animals treated as feminine ( i marker) and larger ones masculine (
7568-419: The very top, US reports show. In addition, in the period from the 1980s to 2009, there have been a number of major terrorist attacks. The LTTE has been linked to most of the bombings and assassinations in the city. Welikada Prison is situated in Colombo and it is one of the largest maximum-security prisons in the country. Colombo has most of the amenities that a modern city has. Compared to other parts of
7656-522: Was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948. In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte , Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. The name 'Colombo', first introduced by the Portuguese explorers in 1505,
7744-564: Was never completed. Today, many governmental institutions still remain in Colombo. These include the President's House , Presidential Secretariat , Prime Minister's House (Temple Trees), Prime Minister's Office , the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka , Central Bank of Sri Lanka , important government ministries and departments; such as Finance (Treasury), Defence , Public Administration & Home affairs, Foreign affairs , Justice and
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