Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Word for the Travel Wise (02/06/07)
Seeing this music video from the Sri Lankan Tamil born artist M.I.A. yesterday reminded me that it is time for a lesson in the language and also world music. Now based out of England, M.I.A. still turns her focus to her homeland, making music that makes you think as well as move your feet. If you're just as unfamiliar with M.I.A. as you are with the Sinhala language, I suggest getting with the program - at least one of them. (See comments for both "yes" and "no" in Tamil.)Today's word is a Sinhala word used in Sri Lanka:
owu - yes
English is spoken by ten percent of the population and Sinhala is the official and national language of the country. I've actually never tried to learn this one much, but judging from the alphabet it looks like a challenge. Omniglot has a great starter page on learning all the characters and use of this English to Sinhala dictionary could slowly help in distinguishing common travel words. Let's Speak Sinhala offers lessons at a very small and reasonable fee. They appear to be one of the better Sinhala language-learning websites.
Past Sinhala words: hari shook, a da, ga ma, ida netu, purusha, sthree, Senasuraa da
Filed under: Learning, Asia, Sri Lanka, Foreign Language
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jjohnsto Feb 7th 2007 1:22PM
I would hate to see what clever insult M.I.A. would coin for you if she read this post. You're right to state that she is of Sri Lankan origin, but she's a Sri Lankan TAMIL, and much of her music is concerned with the Tamil struggle for independence from Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority. The word you should have been teaching was "aama" (Tamil for "yes"). Or, even more appropriately, "illay," the Tamil word for "no," which I'm sure M.I.A. has plenty of occasion to use.
Adrienne Feb 8th 2007 11:18AM
Fierce! Thanks for throwing out the additional words in Tamil. You're right M.I.A would probably school me the same way you did and I'll be sure to make the additional notes above. Keep listening and reading!
A
N Mar 27th 2007 2:36PM
Oh please, M.I.A singing about the 'liberation struggle' (one in which the liberators have killed more moderate Tamils than the State ever has)...singing about throwing a pipe bomb and using LTTE imagery in her videos is just a cheap attempt at getting 'street cred' and sell more records. At a time when moderates in Sri Lanka on both sides should stand up and be taken note of its depressing to think that extremism has found a 'pop' mascot.
Tamil and English are also official languages, sadly the former is not awarded its due status institutionally and the latter is not widespread enough.