Sinhala
names 24objects 18ISO 639-3 sin
Spoken in Sri Lanka.
vernacular 10 · folk 1 · borrowed 13
See the Sinhala sky on the chart →
The sky in Sinhala
| Name | Object | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| උළු uḷu | 'Constellation' as a word | also 'tiles' Compounds: උළු කැන uḷu kæna 'cluster of stars, constellation' (p. 130); උළිඳු uḷin̆du and උළු රජ uḷu raja, which Carter parses as 'උළු star, ඉඳු lord' — 'Star-lord, Star-king', an epithet of the moon (p. 130). | vernacular |
| තරුව taruva | 'Star' as a word | also 'tree' and 'pupil of the eye' The productive native element in the Sinhala sky vocabulary: පහන් තරුව morning star, ඉරබටු තරුව evening star, කළමුනිදුතරුව Canopus, වල්ගාතරුව comet, තරුගල 'star-stone' meteorite. | vernacular |
| දෙට, දෙටු deṭa, deṭu | Antares | — | borrowed |
| ස්වාති svāti | Arcturus | — | borrowed |
| කළමුනිදුතරුව kaḷamunin̆du-taruva | Canopus | Attested in the classical poem Sasadāvata: the rising of this star is what makes turbid water run clear. That belief — Agastya's heliacal rising as the moment water purifies — is the same one Sanskrit attaches to Agastya, but here it is carried by a Sinhala word. | vernacular |
| දුම්·කෙහෙලිය dum·keheliya | Comets | 'smoke-banner' (දුම් dum 'smoke' + කෙහෙලි keheli 'banner, trophy of victory') | vernacular |
| තරු·වැළ taru·væḷa | Figures with no secure modern identification | 'string of stars' | vernacular |
| උල්කාව ulkāva | Meteors and shooting stars | 'firebrand' | borrowed |
| Muwa-sirasa (muvasirasa) | Orion | 'deer's head' — Clough parses it, 'මුව and සිරස head' | borrowed |
| සාරමේය·තාරකාව sāramēya·tārakāva | Sirius | 'the dog star' (Sanskrit sārameya 'canine, son of Saramā') | borrowed |
| අහස් ගඟ ahas gan̆ga | The Milky Way | 'sky-river' (අහස ahasa 'sky' + ගඟ gan̆ga 'river') Carter attaches the Kailāsa origin-myth to it; Clough glosses it only 'the celestial river' and does not connect it to the galaxy at all. | vernacular |
| බහුලාව bahulāva | The Pleiades | — | borrowed |
| හත්·දින්න hat·dinna | The Pleiades | 'seven-produced' — හත් hat 'seven' (the inherited numeral, beside Sanskritic සත්) + දින්න, which Carter derives from දිනි 'produced' | vernacular |
| කැති නැකත kæti nækata | The Pleiades | The ordinary name of the third asterism, and the one that fixes the month Il: Jayatilaka quotes 'käti-nakat lada hil-masa', 'in the month of il when the constellation Pleiades has dawned'. | borrowed |
| නැකැත්·කෙළිය nækæt·keḷiya | The Pleiades | 'star-play' (Carter's own gloss) A festival at the full moon of Il (October–November) — the month in which the full moon stands near the Pleiades. Clough spells out the astronomy: 'when the moon is full near the Pleiades in the month ඉල් මස il-masa, (October-November)'. | folk |
| අස්විද, බෙරණය, කැති නැකත, රෙහෙණ, මුවසිරස, අදේ, පුනාවස, පුසේ·නැකත, අස්ලිස, මා·නැකත, පුවපල්, උතුරුපල්ගුන, හත, සිත, සාය, විසා·නැකත, අනුර, දෙට, මුළ, පුව·සළ, උතුරු සළය, සුවණය, දෙනට, සිය·වස, පුවපුටුපේ, උතුරු පුටුපය, රේවතිය asvida, beraṇaya, kæti nækata, reheṇa, muvasirasa, adē, punāvasa, pusē-nækata, aslisa, mā-nækata, puvapal, uturupalguna, hata, sita, sāya, visā-nækata, anura, deṭa, muḷa, puva-saḷa, uturu saḷaya, suvaṇaya, denaṭa, siya-vasa, puvapuṭupē, uturu puṭupaya, rēvatiya | The lunar mansions as a system | These are the working names of the Sinhala almanac and of nekata reckoning — the choice of auspicious moments that still governs Sri Lankan New Year observances, first ploughing, and the naming of children. | borrowed |
| නැකත nækata | The lunar mansions as a system | The everyday Sinhala word for the asterisms and for astrological time-reckoning generally; it is what the almanac and the nekatiyā (astrologer) work with. | borrowed |
| ධ්රැව·තාරකාව dhræva·tārakāva | The pole star | 'the fixed star' | borrowed |
| අරුන්දති arundati | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | Invoked by the bridegroom at marriage as the model wife (Carter, p. 61). | borrowed |
| ඍෂියා r̥ṣiyā | Ursa Major (the Big Dipper) | 'sage, ṛṣi' The living Sinhala reference to the Dipper is to the seven sages, not to a bear. | borrowed |
| අභි ජිත් abhi jit | Vega | The intercalated 28th asterism, squeezed between the 21st and 22nd. | borrowed |
| ඉරබටු තරුව irabaṭu-taruva | Venus as evening star | 'star after sunset' — Jayatilaka's own gloss; ඉරබටු ira-baṭu 'sunset' from ඉර ira, the inherited Sinhala word for the sun | vernacular |
| දවහත්·තරුව davahat·taruva | Venus as morning star | 'day-star' (Carter's own gloss) | vernacular |
| පහන් තරුව / පහන්·තාරකාව pahan taruva / pahan·tārakāva | Venus as morning star | 'dawn-star' — Carter's adjacent headword is 'පහන් pahan , a. pert. to light or morning' (p. 371) | vernacular |
Sources
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. උළු uḷu, p. 130 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. තරුව taruva, p. 253 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. දෙට, දෙටු deṭa, deṭu, p. 297 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. ස්වාති svāti, p. 711 link
- Jayatilaka (ed.), A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1935– ), s.v. කළමුනිදුතරුව kaḷamunin̆du-taruva, p. 2536 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. දුම්·කෙහෙලිය dum·keheliya, p. 292 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. තරු·වැළ taru·væḷa, p. 253 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. උල්කාව ulkāva, p. 128; Jayatilaka (ed.), A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1935– ), s.v. උල්කාව ulkāva, p. 1909 link
- Clough, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1892), s.v. Muwa-sirasa, p. 493 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. සාරමේය·තාරකාව sāramēya·tārakāva, p. 674 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. අහස් ගඟ ahas gan̆ga, p. 84 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. බහුලාව bahulāva, p. 444 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. හත්·දින්න hat·dinna, p. 713 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. කැති නැකත kæti nækata, p. 169; and Jayatilaka (ed.), A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1935– ), s.v. කැතිනකත käti-nakata, p. 2994 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. නැකැත්·කෙළිය nækæt·keḷiya, p. 322; Clough, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (1892), s.v. Nakat-keliya, p. 273 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.vv. අස්විද p. 84, බෙරණය p. 454, කැති නැකත p. 169, රෙහෙණ p. 542, අදේ p. 25, පුසේ·නැකත p. 400, අස්ලිස p. 83, මා·නැකත p. 491, උතුරුපල්ගුන p. 116, හත p. 713, සාය p. 673, විසා·නැකත p. 604, අනුර p. 37, දෙට p. 297, මුළ p. 507, පුව·සළ p. 399, උතුරු සළය p. 117, සුවණය p. 694, දෙනට p. 297, සිය·වස p. 682, පුවපුටුපේ p. 399, උතුරු පුටුපය p. 116, රේවතිය p. 542; Clough (1892) s.vv. Muwa-sirasa p. 493, Punáwasa p. 364, Puwapal p. 368 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. නැකත nækata, p. 322 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. ධ්රැව·තාරකාව dhræva·tārakāva, p. 312 link
- Jayatilaka (ed.), A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1935– ), s.v. අරුන්දති arundati, p. 641 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. ඍෂියා r̥ṣiyā, p. 132 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. අභි ජිත් abhi jit, p. 50 link
- Jayatilaka (ed.), A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1935– ), s.v. ඉරබටු තරුව irabaṭu-taruva, p. 1505 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. දවහත්·තරුව davahat·taruva, p. 278 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. පහන් තරුව pahan taruva, p. 371 link