Also known as Elu Prakrit, Eḷu, Hela, Helu
Eḷa, also Elu, Hela or Helu Prakrit, was a Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE, that was used in Sri Lanka. It was ancestral to the Sinhalese and Dhivehi languages. R. C. Childers, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, states: The Pali scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids refers to Eḷu as "the Prakrit of Ceylon".
Key facts
- Language.name
- Eḷu
- Language.nativename
- Helu
- Language.region
- Sri Lanka
- Language.era
- 3rd century BCEEvolved into Sinhalese and Dhivehi
- Language.familycolor
- Indo-European
- Language.fam2
- Indo-Iranian
- Language.fam3
- Indo-Aryan
- Language.fam5
- Insular Indo-Aryan
- Language.script
- Ashokan Brahmi (Dhammalipi)
- Language.isoexception
- historical
- Language.glotto
- none
via Wikipedia infobox
~9 min read
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Eḷu in comparison with Pali and Sanskrit
- Vowels and diphthongs
- Sound changes
- Compound consonants
- Samples
- Tōṇigala Rock Inscription of [[Sirimeghavanna|Śrīmeghavarṇṇa]] (4th century A.D)
- List of Elu words with their Sanskrit and ''Pali'' equivalents
- References
- See also
Eḷa, also Elu, Hela or Helu Prakrit, was a Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE, that was used in Sri Lanka. It was ancestral to the Sinhalese and Dhivehi languages. R. C. Childers, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, states: The Pali scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids refers to Eḷu as "the Prakrit of Ceylon".
The Hela Havula are a modern Sri Lankan literary organisation that advocate the use of Eḷu terms over Sanskritisms. Eḷu is often referred to by modern Sinhalese as amisra, Sanskrit and Sinhalese term for "unmixed".