QCAA Sinhala (SEE) flashcards

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Sinhala script type

Sinhala is written in an abugida: each consonant sign carries an inherent vowel /a/, changed by attaching vowel signs (pili) or removed with the hal kirima mark.

Hal kirima

The hal kirima is the diacritic that cancels the inherent vowel of a consonant, producing a bare consonant or consonant cluster, as in the final sound of many Sinhala words.

Anusvara and visarga

Anusvara (ං) marks nasalisation and visarga (ඃ) marks a final voiceless breath. Both appear mainly in learned and Sanskrit-derived vocabulary, not in ordinary native words.

Sinhala case suffixes

Nouns inflect for case: dative -ට, instrumental and ablative -ෙන්, locative -ෙහි or -ේ, genitive -ගේ or -ෙග්. The nominative is usually unmarked.

Honorific pronoun series

Sinhala pronouns encode status: ඔයා for equals or juniors, ඔබ/ඔබතුමා for respected addressees, and එතුමා/එතුමිය for honoured third persons. Verb agreement must match.

Deictic pronoun pairs

Near-deictic forms (මේ, මෙය, මෙයා) contrast with far-deictic forms (ඒ, එය, එයා). The choice depends on proximity in space, time or discourse reference.

Sinhala perfect construction

Completed action with present relevance is expressed with a past participle plus ඇත or a colloquial form such as කරලා තියෙනවා, contrasting with the simple past කළා.

Sinhala passive formation

Passives commonly use a past participle with a form of යනවා or ලැබෙනවා, often with විසින් marking the agent, as in ඔහු විසින් ලියන ලදී.

කියා and යැයි complements

Reported speech is introduced by කියා or the more formal යැයි after the quoted clause. Converting direct to indirect speech also shifts pronouns, tense and deictic words.

Kunddaliya

The kunddaliya (෴) is a traditional Sinhala end-of-sentence or end-of-verse mark. Modern prose generally uses the ordinary full stop instead, especially in examination writing.

Sibilant distinction ශ ෂ ස

Sinhala spelling distinguishes three sibilants: ශ (palatal, Sanskrit ś), ෂ (retroflex, Sanskrit ṣ) and ස (dental s). Correct choice matters in learned and loan vocabulary.

Nasal distinction ණ and න

Retroflex ණ and dental න are separate letters with different origins and spelling rules, even though many speakers pronounce them alike. The same contrast applies to ල and ළ.

Sinhala conjunct letters

Consonant clusters are written with touching or ligatured forms such as ක්‍ර and ප්‍ර. Producing the wrong ligature or separating the letters counts as a spelling error.

Formal letter structure

A formal Sinhala letter orders sender address, date, recipient address, salutation (ගරු ...), body, and closing formula (ඉතා හොඳින්, ඔබගේ ...). Each element occupies a conventional position.

Register in Sinhala writing

Formal register uses standardised written Sinhala with full verb endings and honorific pronouns. Colloquial register uses contracted endings and different pronouns. Register must stay consistent throughout a task.

Sinhala idiom (වාක්‍යාංශය)

An idiom is a fixed multi-word expression whose meaning is not compositional, such as those describing anger or poverty. Examination items test contextual meaning, not literal translation.

Sinhala proverb

Proverbs are fixed traditional sayings expressing communal wisdom, often with rhyme or parallel structure. Items ask for the situation in which the proverb applies rather than a word-for-word gloss.

උපමා and රූපක

උපමා is a simile, an explicit comparison usually marked by වගේ or මෙන්. රූපක is a metaphor, an implicit identification without a comparison marker.

උත්ප්‍රේක්ෂා

උත්ප්‍රේක්ෂා is personification: attributing human qualities or actions to non-human things, such as a wind that speaks or a river that weeps.

ශබ්දාලංකාර

Sound figures of speech, including alliteration and rhyme, exploit repeated sounds for effect. They are distinguished from figures of meaning such as simile and metaphor.

Sinhala poetic metre

Classical Sinhala verse follows fixed syllabic metres with regulated patterns of heavy and light syllables. Identifying the metre supports analysis of rhythm and of the poem's genre.

Sigiri graffiti

The Sigiri graffiti are short ancient Sinhala verses inscribed on the mirror wall at Sigiriya, valued as early evidence of Sinhala poetic expression and everyday emotion.

Sandesha poetry

Sandesha poems are messenger poems in which a bird or other messenger carries a message to a deity or place. They follow a fixed structural sequence and use ornate description.

Jataka poetry

Jataka poems retell birth stories of the Bodhisatta in Sinhala verse. They combine narrative with moral instruction and are a major classical genre.

Sinhala short story

The modern Sinhala short story developed in the twentieth century, typically presenting a single incident with realistic social detail and an implied theme rather than explicit moralising.

Narrator and persona

The narrator is the voice telling a story; the persona is the implied speaker of a poem. Neither should be automatically equated with the author when analysing a text.

Theme versus subject

The subject is what a text is about; the theme is the idea or comment the text makes about that subject. Analysis items usually ask for the theme, supported by textual evidence.

Summary word limit

A summary must stay within the stated word limit, retain only main ideas, and be expressed in the writer's own words. Lifted sentences and minor detail are penalised.

Sinhala-English translation criteria

Translation is judged on meaning equivalence, natural idiom in the target language, and preserved register. Word-for-word rendering that breaks target grammar loses marks.

Inference in comprehension

An inference is a conclusion not stated explicitly but supported by textual clues. Answers must cite the relevant clue rather than rely on general knowledge.

Writer's purpose and tone

Purpose is the intended effect, such as to persuade, inform or entertain. Tone is the attitude conveyed, such as ironic, sympathetic or critical, signalled by word choice.

Direct to indirect speech

Converting quoted speech to reported speech changes pronouns, tense and deictic words (අද to එදා, මෙතන to එතන) and replaces quotation marks with කියා or යැයි.