Promote Sinhala language - Governor

‘English, Hindi do not have alphabet of their own’:

Sinhala language should be promoted to establish the Sri Lankan identity as in India where Hindi is used to promote the Indian identity, Sabaragamuwa Governor W J M Lokubandara said.

He was addressing a ceremony to mark World Hindi Day at the Sabaragamuwa University in Belihuloya on January 10.

The Governor said India, which is a multi-lingual country, used Hindi as national language to unite India, despite objections by several states.

“The Indian example could be used by us to build a united nation,” he said.

Lokubandara said Hindi has its origins from Sanskrit as much as the Sinhala language.

“Even though Hindi used many Sanskrit words, Sinhala language instead of directly using Sanskrit words, had used them in a manner which is endemic to it,” the Governor said.

He said even though English and Hindi were extensively used worldwide, these two languages did not have an alphabet of their own. “But Sinhala has an alphabet of its own,” the Governor said.

Indian Deputy High Commissioner A Nadaraja said he highly appreciated the Hindi language skills shown by students of the Sabaragamuwa University.

He said the Sabaragamuwa University extended opportunities for Hindi graduates to pursue MA and PhD courses in Hindi under a joint programme implemented with Indian universities.

Provincial Council member Kanapathi Ramachandran, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Languages Sunil Shantha, Vice Chancellor Mahatma Gandhi Hindu University of India Vibuthi Narayan Prof Padma Patel, Sabaragamuwa University lecturer Shwetha Sharma Jayawickrama and Sangeeth Ratna also spoke.