Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/610

598 CINEAS CINGALESE LANGUAGE of a band of patricians, rushed into the crowd and killed him. Though the dictator himself had not power to put Mselius to death, but only to bring him before the comitia centu- riata for trial, Cincinnatus and all the patri- cians approved of the act. Ahala was how- ever afterward brought to trial, and only escaped condemnation by voluntary exile. At the end of 21 days Cincinnatus retired from the dictatorship and returned to his farm. CINEAS, a Thessalian, the minister of Pyr- rhus, king of Epirus. He possessed great ora- torical powers, and Pyrrhus said that his elo- quence had won him more cities than his own arms. The most remarkable episode of his life was his being despatched by Pyrrhus to Rome after the battle of Heraclea (280 B. C.), to offer the Romans peace. His wonderful memory enabled him to address all the Roman senators by name ; and although the terms which he offered were hard, his persuasive power was so great that he would perhaps have succeeded had he not been defeated by the eloquence of old Appius Claudius the Blind. On his return he told Pyrrhus that the city of Rome was like a temple, the Roman senate an assembly of kings, and that to fight with the Roman people was to fight with the Hydra. In 278 he was again sent to Rome with an offer of more favorable terms, and was successful. He then went as ambassador to Sicily, and is supposed to have died there. CINGALESE LANGUAGE (more correctly Sin- halese), a language spoken in the interior of Ceylon and on its southern coast. The name is derived from Sinhabahu (lion-son) a king of Ladha on the Ganges, whose son Vyaya (Vic- tory) founded the kingdom of Ceylon in the 6th century B. C. This was called Sinhadvipa (lion isle), and by the Chinese Sze-tse-kw6 (lion kingdom). The language is a modifica- tion of the aboriginal Elu by the Sanskrit, with a slight tinge of Malay, and has many dialects. The language of religion and of learning is the Pali. Deveni Paetissa, the ninth king, becom- ing a Buddhist, introduced writing in the be- ginning of the 4th century B. C., and Pali books were brought in under Manamraja, the fifth king of the Suryya-vansa (Sun dynasty, 5th century A. D.), or earlier. The Cingalese has degenerated so much that there is now a material difference between the vernacular and the written language. The latter is copious, has a regular grammar, and is capable of ele- gant style, although its pundits disagree in or- thography. The graphic system of the Cin- galese is the Devanagari, but the figures of the letters are serpentine and slender, resembling the Pali. The 50 letters (8 vowels, 8 diph- thongs, and 34 consonants) represent only 30 sounds (7 vowels and 23 consonants), because some only occur in Sanskrit words, and some cannot he distinguished by the ear. Our tran- scription is Italian as to vowels, and English as to consonants, excepting g, which is al- ways hard. There are three genders : mascu- line nouns end mostly in a, plural o, an, aru ; feminine in i, plural , tarn; neuter in a, u, plural adding val or dropping the final syllable (thus : nuvaraval, cities ; Icadu, swords, from I kaduva). The principal masculine and femi- nine case endings are: genitive, ge, ne; dative, ta, da; accusative, va ; ablative, gen, nen ; there is no ge, gen in the plural, but only the other terminations. Neuter endings of both numbers are : e, ata, ava, and en, of the above named four cases respectively. Examples : mamtspayd, homo; gunl, mulier ; oluva, ca- piit; genitive, manuspaydge, hominis; gunlge, mulieris; oluvae, capitis; dative, manuspa- ydta, homini, &c. ; accusative, gunlva, mulie- rem, &c. ; ablative, oluven, capite, &c., as above detailed; plural, manuspayo, homines; guniu, mulieres ; olu, capita; manuspayinne, homi- num, &c., respectively, as pointed out. Adjec- tives are indeclinable and precede the substan- tives ; thus : sonda pirimiyd, bonus vir. Com- parative particles are : bohoma, much ; vadd, more; ati, most; thus: tsada naraka, worse; ati sudu, wisest ; sarirayata vadd sonda prdna- ya (body-than more-good soul), corpore melior anima (est). Numerals : ekay, 1 ; dekay, 2 ; tunay, 8; hatary, 4; payhay, 5; hayay, 6; hatay, 7; atay, 8; nevayay, 9; dahayay, 10; vissay, 20; tihay, 30, &c. ; slayay, 100; dahay, 1,000. Ordinals: palamu-veni, 1st; de-veni, 2d ; tun-veni, 3d, &c., suffixing veni to the car- dinals, with some alterations. Pronouns per- sonal: mama, ego; mange, mei; mata, mihi ; mdva, me; mangen, a me; api, nos; apage, nostri; apata, nobis; apava, nos; apagen, nobis. There are 14 terms in addressing the second person, regulated by the rank both of the speaker and of the person addressed, ac- cording to strictest etiquette; for instance, a person of the lowest caste is to, masc., ti, fern, (thou, you) ; a son or pupil is umba ; an equal is tamunnuhu, and somewhat respectfully ta- munse ; a superior is tamunvahanse ; the high- est person is addressed by etanavahanse ; with other varieties, all equivalent to thou and you, but modified by case and number. The third person is spoken of or pointed out with fewer variations. The verbs are very peculiar ; those of the Elu being radical and simple, but those derived from Sanskrit being nouns verbified by certain auxiliaries. Prepositions and post- positions, conjunctions and adverbs are numer- j ous. Nouns and infinitives of verbs are often joined, both receiving a final t, thus : gandat, dendat, in order to take and to give; or ut after consonants, thus: vachanavalut kriyd- valut, to become and to act. The Cingalese literature, being chiefly Buddhistic, has suf- fered very much from the intolerance of the Brahmans, who speak Tamulic and are Mala- bars. King Parakramabahu restored the sa- cred books in 1195, partly by the memory of priests, partly by new composition. Besides their own books, they also translated some sci- | entific Sanskrit Brahmanic works, which they call Sanna. There are also versions into Elu