A colloquial Sinhalese reader in phonetic transcription

74 Pages·04.698 MB·Sinhala-English

by  Daniel Jones, Henry S Perera

PK
2813
P4
.OLLOQUIAL
1919 ,\
MAIN
INHALESE READER
;!U-:ra a OAiNiEL jONES
UC-NRLIf
UNCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

A COLLOQUIAL SINHALESE READER
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2008 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/colloquialsinhalOOpererich
A COLLOQUIAL
SINHALESE READER
IN PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
(WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON THE PHONETICS
OF SINHALESE)
BY
H. S. PERERA, B.A.
HonoraryAssistantin thePhoneticsDepartment, University College^ London
AND
DANIEL JONES, M.A.
ReaderinPhoneticsinthe Uni-versityofLondon
MANCHESTER
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, ETC.
I9I9
PublishedbytheUniversityof Manchesterat
THEUNIVERSITYPRESS(H. M. McKechnie, Secretary)
12 LimeGrove, OxfordRoad, MANCHESTER
LONGMANS, GREEN &CO.
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PA
PKEFACE
For the benefit of readers to whom phonetics is a new
subject we would explain that phonetics is the science of
pronunciation. The primary object of this science is to
analyse themechanism ofspeech with thegreatestpossible
accuracy.
Phonetic theory is mainly-concerned with describing
how speech-sounds are made,and with instructinglanguage
learners how to learn toproduce foreign sounds. Phonetic
transcription is an adjunct to the study of phonetics. It
is a special kind of writing based on the principle "one
letter per phoneme. "^ Its object is to inform the reader
what sequences of sounds are used in particular words
and sentences.
This book is not primarily a treatise on the phonetics
of Sinhalese, but we have thought that a useful purpose
wouldbe servedbygiving a certainamountof information
on this subject in the Introduction.
Learners of the language mustremember that in order
to profit by the texts it is essential that they should first
be able to make the isolated Sinhalese sounds. To do
^ See Introduction, §6.
^69355
A COLLOQUIAL SINHALESE READER
vi
this with complete success requires a certain study of
phonetic theory under the guidance of a teacher.
Learners of Sinhalese using this book should read the
texts aloud, taking each sentence at first slowly and
gradually increasing the speed. They should endeavour
to work them up to the rate of five or six syllables per
second, which is about the average rate at which a
Sinhalese speaks.
H. S. PERERA
DANIEL JONES.
University College, London,
January 1919.