Eḷu, also Hela or Helu, is a hypothesized language

Middle Indo-Aryan language The Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Middle Indic languages, sometimes conflated with the Prakrits, which are a stage of Middle Indic) are a historical group of languages of the Indo-Aryan family. They are the descendants of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA; ...

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

of the 3rd century BCE. It is ancestral to the

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

and Dhivehi languages.
R. C. Childers, in the ''Journal of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

'', states: The Pali scholar

Thomas William Rhys Davids Thomas William Rhys Davids (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies. ...

refers to Eḷu as "the Prakrit of Ceylon". The

Hela Havula The Hela Havula is a Sinhalese literary organisation founded by Kumaratunga Munidasa in January 1941. 'Hela Hawula' was formed as the only organization in Sri Lanka to protect and uplift the Sinhala language, Sinhala land and Sinhala culture. 'H ...

are a modern Sri Lankan literary organization that advocate the use of Eḷu terms over

Sanskritism Sanskritism is a term used to indicate words that are coined out of Sanskrit for modern usage in India, in Sri Lanka and elsewhere or for neologisms. These terms are similar in nature to taxon terms coined from Latin and Greek Greek may refer to: ...

s. Eḷu is often referred to by modern Sinhalese as ''amisra'', Sanskrit and Sinhalese term for "unmixed". A feature of Eḷu is its preference for short

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

s, loss of aspiration and the reduction of compound consonants found frequently in other Prakrits such as

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

Eḷu in comparison with Pali and Sanskrit

Being a Prakrit, Eḷu is closely related to other Prakrits such as Pali. Indeed, a very large proportion of Eḷu word-stems are identical in form to Pali. The connections were sufficiently well known that technical terms from Pali and Sanskrit were easily converted into Eḷu by a set of conventional phonological transformations. Because of the prevalence of these transformations, it is not always possible to tell whether a given Eḷu word is a part of the old

lexicon, or a transformed borrowing from Sanskrit.

Vowels and diphthongs

*Sanskrit ''ai'' and ''au'' always monophthongize to Eḷu ''e'' and ''o'', respectively ::Examples: ''maitrī'' → ''met'', ''auṣadha'' → ''osada'' *Sanskrit ''avi'' becomes Eḷu ''e'' (i.e. ''avi'' → ''ai'' → ''e'') ::Example: ''sthavira'' → ''thera''

Sound changes

* Initial ''ca'' in Sanskrit and Pali becomes ''s'' or ''h'' ::Examples: ''canda'' → ''saⁿda'', ''haⁿda'' * ''P'' if not omitted becomes ''v'' ::Examples: ''rūpa'' → ''ruva'', ''dīpa'' → ''diva'' * The Sanskrit sibilants ''ś'', ''ṣ'', and ''s'' merge as Eḷu ''s'' ::Examples: ''śaraṇa'' → ''saraṇa'', ''doṣa'' → ''dosa'' * The Sanskrit ''kti'' becomes ''ti'' or ''vi'' ::Examples: ''bhakti'' → ''bätiya'', ''shakti'' → ''saviya''

Compound consonants

At the beginning of a word only a single consonant can remain ::Examples: ''dharma'' → ''dahama'' ::Examples: ''prāna'' → ''pana'' In the middle of a word no group may exceed one consonant ::Examples: ''artha'' → ''aruta'' ::Examples: ''danta'' → ''data''

List of Elu words with their Sanskrit and ''Pali'' equivalents

Eḷu in comparison with Pali and Sanskrit

Vowels and diphthongs

Sound changes

Compound consonants

List of Elu words with their Sanskrit and ''Pali'' equivalents

References

See also