The Taprobanian (2.1887)

78'

lese kukula, which come from the Sanskrit root
kuka, to scratch, now used in Sinhalese only as
kuchu, kichi, c to tickle/ often hardened to kuth-
thi, kithi, when it links with English tickle and
kitel, whence in a still further sense came Tamil
kusu, to be shy, ‘ to be ticklish/ and kucham
shyness, coyness, English Toy’ perhaps being
connected. This varied use shows Sanskrit
kuka and Sinhalese kuchu are tatsamas. From
it comes kukula, a scratcher, which like kukkuta
recalls the Seori, ‘ gogori.’ The Goyi language
of Ceylon has the name pahuru-gana, ‘ scratcher/
pahuru gana being the common term for scratch-
ing used now, doubtless through the influence
of this class, the dominant one for very many
centuries.
The Tamils mark the gender by affixed words’
koli saval or seval for the cock, koli pettei for the
hen. The origin of our ‘ hen* is from Canarese
hennu, Lappish hene, a form of Tamil pen, a
female. Caldwell says he does not know the
derivation of seval, saval, a cock ; it is simply
the root sev, c red/ with the irrational affix of the
plural, the cock being red-hackled in the wild
species both of Ceylon and India. Of course
the affix may, as in Sinhalese manamala, a bride-
groom, be from ala, a male, and not from the
neuter plural, but unless the ala is clearly used,
the plural form seems most likely to have been
taken.
Kulir, cold.
Although we have kulir, kudal, kudir, in
Tamil, akin to all the European family of ‘ cool/
’ cold,’ it stands quite alone in the Dravidian,
and is evidently imported. For the true Dravi-
dian we must consult the other allied languages.
Telugu and Canarese chali, Sinhalese hael,
ael, Permian cheli, English ‘ chill,’ Latin ‘ gelu’
seem of one family with Kola and Irula jalli,
Kurumba jayi, and I am disposed to think this
the true Dravidian root. Sanskrit shela, Tamil
chela, Sinhalese saela, haela, ‘ to shiver,’ f to
tremble/ seem allied roots. Hihil, sihil, hil, are
two Sinhalese forms that stand apart as for ‘ cold,’
hil being now used almost entirely for cold rice,
as in hil bath, but they are connected with Tamil
silir, tremble, and French tressailler, and classical
Sinhalese sisira, Told/ which is used in Sanskrit,
while there may bo connection distantly with
another set of words greatly used in modern
Sinhalese for f cold,’ sithala, hithala, sitha, hitha.
Kur, a spike.
The Tamil derivatives can be traced in any
dictionary, and Caldwell also refers to Hebrew

[June, 1887
kur, to pierce, to bore. This root is deeply fixed
in Sinhalese, where we use it in yakada kura, an
iron spike, or small crowbar, also in kura, ‘ a
hair-pin/ haendi kura, handle of a spoon, hitaewa
kura, quill of a porcupine, kuru hikkanala, ‘the
spike-(taded) lizard.’ As the spoon handle or
kura is used for stirring by cooks, we get a
general sense of kuraganawa, ‘ to stir.’ This now
takes us to some remote derivatives, for two
kuras being used as a compass to mark circles,
we get karakawa, ‘ to turn/ as if from kura harawa,
‘ to turn the spike’ (harawa being ‘ turn’), whence
through this kur(a)-harawa as kur-karawa, we
can get the form karakawa by corruptions in
colloquial use. From karakawa in this sense of
turning a circle or spiral, we get later on the
forms karanduwa, a casket, karak-kuwa or
sarak-kuwa, an encircled fort or camp, a spiral
building, and from this latter idea I think came
also our ‘ kirk’ and ‘ church.’ I mention this
here as the Sinhalese seems to indicate the origin
of ‘ circle,’ in 6 kur’ a spike, so very clearly. No
doubt, I think, it is a tatsama with all the words
allied to ‘ circle’ in the Indo-Germanic languages.
Kuru, short.
The Tamil kurei, ‘ a defect/ kuriya deficient, is
represented in Sinhalese by kuru, 6 dwarf,’ kuda,
‘ less,’ and a curious form huru, used as in rathu-
wata huruyi, ‘ it is less than red/ that is reddish.
With kuda we must compare Latin curtus,
Persian chord, German kurz, English ‘ short/
when we see the connection between kuda and
kuru or huru must be through an abandoned
form ku(r)da, with which we may compare Tamil
kurudu, ‘ blind/ apparently originally meaning
only ‘ defective.’
Mala, hill.
This word in its origin is very obscure; we
have in old Sinhalese Mala or Malala Rata,
a mountainous division of Ceylon, and Malala
Deva, an ancient God. I am inclined to invoke
the digamma to explain it; and to take fala as the
primitive form. This then suggests pala, pala, to
protect, and bala, vala, ‘ strong / and from the hills
being the place of refuge, or of protection, they
came to acquire the name fala, whence English,
fell, German fels, and Dravidian mala, the
m replacing the f which has no existence
among Dravidians. Hence Malala Deva is the
‘ Protector.’ It is then of Indo-Germanic origin.
Albanian malli, Vogoul molima, Wolgian mar,
Samoiede mari, must be compared. The original
Vala-nadu of South India may have been in this
sense named from Vala, hilly • and I am disposed

THE TAPRO BANIAN.