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| Tuesday, 19 August 2003 |
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by Colombo east group correspondent Pada Nena Vinisa' or Wisdom in the Choice of Words the latest book by journalist and writer Tilaka Navaratna was launched last Tuesday at the John de Silva Memorial Theatre presided over by poet and scholar Arisen Ahubudu amidst a gathering of students, teachers, poets, writers and scholars. Edward Jayakody and Sudath Samarasinghe sang felicitation lyrics composed by Navaratne himself for the occasion. Over 30 modern Sinhala writers and about 10 Buddhist monks occupied the stage. Secretary of the Hela Hawala, K.I.E. Kalyanaratne who addressed the gathering first made a brief introduction of Tilaka Navaratne's Pada Nena Vinisa he said that it is a manual of Sinhala terms with guidance to their effective and accurate use. It can serve as a handbook for students, beginners and writers in their effort to develop their vocabulary for the purpose of writing in Sinhala. What is significant in Navaratna's work is that he has selected words which can be used in modern writing and given their definitions. Navaratna has followed the model of the work titled, 'Word Power From The Reader's Digest' published in 1967. Like the Reader's Digest method Navaratna employs the question and answer method to educate the user of words. To begin with allied words and their meanings are given and questions are raised to bring out words with similar meanings. There are 74 exercises with 15 questions in each. The answers are supplied at the end of the lesson. This book is bound to become an essential handbook for those interested in enhancing their vocabulary to express their thoughts in writing and speech. Former Secretary General of Parliament, Sam Wijesinghe said that although he had'nt a claim to be a Sinhala scholar he was able to appreciate the author Navaratna's effort to educate the younger generation of students and writers with a book full of easy, simple Sinhala words. The words found in the new book are easy to pronounce and write. Unlike the words he had come across earlier in the expression of modern concepts in Sinhala, which were difficult to pronounce, understand and write. They were cumbersome and required dictionaries to get the meaning. But Navaratna's book does not need any such external aid. The book itself provides the definitions in simple terms. He said that his experience in Parliament for well over 18 years was that the Sinhala used there was not that good. It had hardly any standard. Occasionally there were one or two who could speak good Sinhala. In Parliament then the use of Sinhala was more or less a makeshift affair. Sinhala language and literature have to be developed by individuals, private associations and institutions. It is meaningless to expect governments to perform this function. Because governments are concerned with political parties and not with the development of Sinhala language and literature, concluded the speaker. |
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