22-482: The Uva Province ( Sinhala : ඌව පළාත , romanized: Uva Paḷāta , Tamil : ஊவா மாகாணம் , romanized: Uvā Mākāṇam ) is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka . The province has an area of 8,500 km and a population of 1,266,463, making it the 2nd least populated province. The provincial capital is Badulla . Uva is bordered by the Eastern , Southern , Sabaragamuwa , and Central provinces. It
44-662: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
66-779: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
88-519: A rebel leader celebrated by the Sinhalese even today, who was sent initially by the British government to stop the uprising. The rebels managed to capture Matale and Kandy before Keppetipola fell ill and was captured and beheaded by the British. His skull was abnormal, as it was wider than usual, and was sent to Britain for analysis. It was returned to Sri Lanka after independence, and now rests in
110-463: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of siṁha , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to
132-543: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
154-484: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
176-546: Is home to several tourist attractions, waterfalls and two national parks : Yala National Park and Gal Oya National Park . Uva's provincial history records an 1818 uprising (also known as the Third Kandyan War) against the British colonial government which had been controlling the formally independent Udarata (Sinhalese: Up-Country ), of which Uva was a province. The uprising was led by Keppetipola Disawe ,
198-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
220-709: The Badulla District and 11 in the Moneragala District . [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
242-671: The Kingdom of Kandy to British Ceylon in 1817. The Uva province has an area of 8,500 km and a population of 1,259,880. Uva is home to several major tourist attractions, like the waterfalls of Dunhinda falls, Diyaluma Falls, and Rawana Falls, and the Yala National Park (lying partly in the Southern and Eastern Provinces) and Gal Oya National Park (lying partly in the Eastern Province). The Gal Oya hills and
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#1732766246394264-729: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
286-587: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
308-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
330-716: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
352-706: The Kandyan Museum. The rebellion, which soon developed into a guerrilla war of the kind the Kandyans had fought against European powers for centuries, was centred on the Kandyan nobility and their unhappiness with developments under British rule since 1815. However, it was the last uprising of its kind. In the Uva Province, a scorched earth policy was pursued, and all males between 15 and 60 years were driven out, exiled or killed. The British Crown annexed
374-616: The border with the Nuwara Eliya District . There are views of the Welimada basin, Katharagama and Hambantota from Namunukula peak on a clear day. The Haputale - Beragala gap gives a view of the Southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces on a clear day. Uva is divided into 2 districts: The districts of the Sri Lanka are divided into administrative sub-units known as divisional secretariats . These were originally based on
396-474: The central mountains are the main uplands, while the Mahaweli ( Sinhalese : great-sandy ) and Menik (Sinhalese: gemstone ) rivers and the huge Senanayake Samudraya and Maduru Oya Reservoirs are the major waterways of the province. Uva's symbolic mountain is Namunukula , which stands tallest among the mountain range surrounding Badulla. The highest mountain in the Uva Province is Totapolakanda , which lies on
418-681: The chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
440-536: The features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are: ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නවා dannavā know ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā it new having-said I know "I know that it is new." ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new ද da Q කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නේ Moneragala District Monaragala ( Sinhala : මොණරාගල දිස්ත්රික්කය , Tamil : மொணராகலை மாவட்டம் )
462-555: The feudal counties , the korale s and rata s. They were formerly known as "D.R.O. Divisions" after the Divisional Revenue Officer. Later the D.R.O.s became Assistant Government Agents and the Divisions were known as "A.G.A. Divisions". Currently, the Divisions are administered by a Divisional Secretary and are known as "D.S. Divisions". There are 26 divisional secretariats in the Uva Province. There are 15 in
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#1732766246394484-607: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
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