it exists as a
written language in the literature of the island, presents unequivocal
proofs of an affinity with the group of languages still in use in the
Dekkan; Tamil, Telingu, and Malayalim. But with these its identification
is dependent on analogy rather than on structure, and all existing
evidence goes to show that the period at which a vernacular dialect
could have been common to the two countries must have been extremely
remote.[1]

[Footnote 1: The _Mahawanso_ (ch. xiv.) attests that at the period of
Wijayo's conquest of Ceylon, B.C. 543, the language of the natives was
different from that spoken by himself and his companions, which, as they
came from Bengal, was in all probability Pali. Several centuries
afterwards, A.D. 339, the dialect of the two races was still different;
and some of the sacred writings were obliged to be translated from Pali
into the Sihala language.--_Mahawanso_, ch. xxxvii. xxxviii. p. 247. At
a still later period, A.D. 410; a learned priest from Magadha translated
the Attah-Katha from Singhalese into Pali.--_Ib_. p. 253. See also DE
ALWIS, _Sidath-Sangara_, p. 19.]

Though not based directly on either Sanskrit or Pali, Singhalese at
various times has been greatly enriched from both sources, and
especially from the former; and it is corroborative of the inference
that the admixture was comparatively recent; and chiefly due to
association with domiciliated strangers, that the further we go back in
point of time the proportion of amalgamation diminishes, and the dialect
is found to be purer and less alloyed. Singhalese seems to bear towards
Sanskrit and Pali a relation similar to that which the English of the
present day bears to the combination of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman
French, which serves to form the basis of the language. As in our own
tongue the words applicable to objects connected with rural life are
Anglo-Saxon, whilst those indicative of domestic refinement belong to
the French, and those pertaining to religion and science are borrowed
from Latin[1]; so, in the language of Ceylon, the terms applicable to
the national religion are taken from Pali, those of science and art from
Sanskrit, whilst to pure Singhalese belong whatever expressions were
required to denote the ordinary wants of mankind before society had
attained organisation.[2]

[Footnote 1: See TRENCH on the _Study of Words_.]

[Footnote 2: See DE ALWIS, _Sidath-Sangara_, p. xlviii.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 543.]