#Vedda Language

[languagexs]

Exploring the Richness of Sinhala: Sinhalese Language of Sri Lanka

Unveiling the Captivating World of the Sinhala Language The Sinhalese language is a linguistic gem with deep roots in Sri Lanka’s vibrant culture and history. With its melodious tones and ancient origins, this Indo-Aryan language has fascinated linguists and culture enthusiasts alike. This article explores the fascinating intricacies of the Sinhala language, exploring its development, its…

[bigfootbeat]

Nittaewo of Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan folklore mentions the Nittaewo, a mysterious and intriguing concept. People believe that these fabled beings once resided in the deep forests of Sri Lanka, particularly in the eastern region. There are a few different ways to describe the Nittaewo, but in general, they are described as being humanoid creatures that are quite little and stand between three and four feet tall. They stand in stark contrast to their Bigfoot counterpart in North America which is huge. Reports stated that they had hair covering their bodies and used their strong claws to climb trees and hunt small creatures. Legends from the area assert that the Nittaewo were a primitive people that lacked the ability to communicate verbally or make use of tools. They lived in caverns and traveled in groups, conversing with one another through body language and noises. They were notorious for their aggressive attitude, and the indigenous Vedda people, who lived in the same woodlands, feared them not only because of their small stature but also because of their hostile nature. The connection between the Nittaewo and the Veddas was filled with tension, which resulted in stories of skirmishes and ultimately led to the demise of the Nittaewo.

One of the most well-known stories about the Nittaewo is that they met their end. According to legend, the Veddas decided to eradicate the Nittaewo after becoming fed up with their belligerent behavior and regular attacks. The Veddas imprisoned the Nittaewo in a cave, effectively sealing their fate with logs. It is believed that the Nittawo people became extinct over the course of time, leaving behind only myths and oral tales. Some people believe that the Nittaewo are nothing more than myths, while others wonder about the possible origins of these creatures. Numerous hypotheses suggest that the Nittaewo could have been a hominid species, potentially linked to Homo floresiensis, the Indonesian Hobbit people. It is believed that a small population of early humans, known as the Nittaewo, resided in Sri Lanka until relatively recently. This theory proposes that they continued to exist until relatively recently. However, there is currently no definitive archeological evidence to support this theory. This is the same narrative sometimes used to explain the Ebu Gogo in Indonesia.

Residents and researchers are still fascinated by the Nittaewo. In an effort to discover the reality that lies behind the mythology, numerous expeditions and investigations have been carried out, but, as of yet, no proof that can be considered conclusive has been discovered. It is a tribute to the rich tapestry of Sri Lankan mythology that the story of the Nittaewo continues to be an intriguing blend of myth and mystery. In contemporary times, the story of the Nittaewo serves as a cultural narrative that emphasizes the relationships that take place between people and the natural world. It reflects themes of survival, strife, and the unknown, and resonates with greater human experiences. In Sri Lanka's cultural heritage, the Nittaewo continue to be a fascinating feature, regardless of whether they are actual or imagined entities.

[yeli-renrong]

What's up with the things I hear about Dravidian in Australia??

Dravidian and Australian languages share a 'long and flat' phonological type - 5+ places of articulation for plosives and nasals, coronal liquid contrasts, no fricatives, either no plosive voicing/etc. contrasts or a simple fortis/lenis - that's barely attested anywhere else (although there's e.g. Yimas), so the idea is that this isn't due to coincidence. But Vedda likely also had this phonological type, and there's also the chronic otitis media hypothesis:

Middle ear infection (more precisely: chronic otitis media – COM) develops in almost all Aboriginal infants within a few weeks of birth and up to 70% of Aboriginal children consequently have a significant conductive hearing loss (Coates, Morris, Leach, & Couzos 2002). This commonly affects the low frequency end of the scale (under 500 Hz), but may also affect the upper end of the scale (above 4000 Hz). As we have seen, the vowel systems of Australian languages are in general quite small and the majority of them lack any true close vowels. In other words, these systems have no vowel quality distinctions which depend on formant frequencies below about 400 Hz. The consonant systems of Australian languages are also lacking in contrasts which depend on low frequency acoustic cues (voicing), but in addition lack contrasts which depend on cues at the high frequency end of the spectrum (friction, aspiration). On the other hand Australian sound systems are rich in contrasts which depend on rapid spectral changes in the middle of the frequency range. ... Thus it appears that Aboriginal languages are rich in sounds whose differentiation exploits precisely that area of hearing ability which is most likely to remain intact in sufferers of chronic middle ear infection. ... Perhaps most similar to Australian languages are the Dravidian languages of southern India. Tamil, for example, has five places of articulation in a single series of stops, paralleled by a series of nasals, and no fricatives (thus approaching the Australian proportion of sonorants to obstruents of 70% to 30%). Approaching the question from the opposite direction: according to the latest WHO data on the prevalence of chronic otitis media (Acuin 2004:14ff), Aboriginal Australians have the highest prevalence in the world – 10-54%, according to Coates & al (2002), up to 36% with perforations of the eardrum. They are followed – at some distance – by the Tamil of southern India (7.8%, down from previous estimates of 16-34%), Eskimos (Greenland 8% COM; Alaska 9.7% perforations); and Pacific Islanders (Solomon Islands 6.1% otorrhoea; TGuam 2.2-8.3% perforations).

I have a cousin who developed chronic otitis media in old age and, in his telling, can't hear fricatives anymore - "especially s-sounds". So this seems plausible to me, although it requires the high rate of chronic otitis media to have been present before British contact.

Fergus 2019 is a counterargument but I don't find it convincing. Fricativelessness can also develop from having very few consonants, so Gilbertese, Waorani, and Hawaiian have nothing to do with anything. Greenlandic is phonologically normal for its area, not too different from Chukchi, and at any rate has /s/. Rates of chronic otitis media are much lower among the Apache and Navajo than among Australian aborigines (4-8% vs. 10-54%) and I'd imagine the effect of the rate of high-frequency hearing loss on phonological typology would be nonlinear. So the only real difficulty is Nilotic. Dinka looks like an extreme case of phonological compression with the constraint of avoiding exploitation of higher frequencies. But who knows.

[fishklok]

1,20,5,17 Mihika or seth?

Send me a number and a character and I’ll post headcanons!

Sad headcanon

Mihika: She loses touch with Amber as she gets wrapped up with Dethklok Australia. Sometimes she'll see a news article featuring her and she'll go "oh hey that's my bestie :)"

Seth: He isn't oblivious to how Pickles was treated by their parents and he's terrified of repeating that with his own son.

Choose your own topic!

Topic: Languages

Mihika is fluent in English, Sinhala, and she can speak a few scattered words of Vedda

Seth can speak a little Irish (certainly more than Pickles can), but that's it. Meanwhile Amber is fluent in like 4 languages and he feels in awe but also a little inadequate.

Fear headcanon

Mihika hates being alone with her thoughts, especially during times of trauma. Which is why when her fiance left her, she instantly moved in with her most abrasive friend (Seonag) to fill the void.

Seth is afraid of all Australian wildlife

Technology headcanon

Mihika has one of those lawyer tiktoks, but she had to stop because people kept sending her detailed information about their cases and she got tired of saying "I'm not your lawyer so I can't give you legal advice please stop" so now she does dancing videos.

Seth repeatedly gets in trouble with Charles for vlogging every aspect of his life in DK Australia

[crime-bot]

Here, have some isolated languages

Ainu, Basque, Sumerian, Elamite, and Vedda

[westamo]

                                   TASK ONE: STATISTICS

BASIC INFORMATION.

Full Name: West Awan Samossen

Nickname(s): Samo

Age: 36

Date of Birth: February 11th, 1984

Hometown: Mystic, CT

Current Location: Mystic, CT

Ethnicity: Irish, French, German, and Native American

Nationality: American

Gender: Cis male

Pronouns: Masculine

Orientation: Heterosexual

Religion: Agnostic

Political Affiliation: Democratic

Occupation: (co) Owner of Getty’s Gas Sation, (co) Owner / “financial” Manager of Sea of Ink

Living Arrangements: Studio apartment

Language(s) Spoken: English

Accent: Central American

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

Face Claim: Blair Redford

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Dark Brown

Height: 5′11′’

Build: Athletic

Tattoos: Right chest & half sleeve / half sleeve on right leg

Piercings: None

Clothing Style: Basic, lots of old bands or plain tees usually paired with jeans (he also wears a lot of bracelets/leather straps around his wrists)

Usual Expression: Like this, usually!

Distinguishing Characteristics: Hair, jawline, physique

HEALTH.

Physical Ailments: None

Neurological Conditions: None

Allergies: None

Sleeping Habits: Has a steady schedule in which he’s out like a light around midnight and wakes up before 7am, he’s a heavy sleeper and snores a LOT

Eating Habits: Always hungry, always complaining about how he should go on a diet

Exercise Habits: Goes to the gym six times a week for about one hour and a half

Emotional Stability: 9, he’s only ever lost his cool one time, and swears to not lose control ever again (it’s been a struggle but he’s very diligent in maintaining his temperament)

Sociability: He’s pretty good being in crowds and maintaining small talk (thanks to his job), but is often more of an introvert than anything. He needs to recharge, one could say.

Body Temperature: Hot

Addictions: None

Drug Use: None

Alcohol Use: Moderate

PERSONALITY.

Label: The Fighter

Positive Traits: Loyal, Reliable, Protective

Negative Traits: Hot-headed, Stubborn, Grudge-Holding

Goals/Desires: Contentment

Fears: Never living up to his potential, remaining as he is for the rest of his life

Hobbies: Working out, watching sports

Habits: Loves wearing bracelets on his wrists (both if his parents are the same way), always has his hair tied, regularly stretches / yawns

FAVORITES.

Weather: Sunny

Colour: Brick Red / Earthy Green

Music: Emarosa, Soundgarden, Movements, Don Vedda

Movies: genre-ally… Adventure, Comedy, Thriller

Sport: Boxing / UFC Fighting

Beverage: Water, Orange Juice

Food: Barbeque

Animal: Eagle

FAMILY.

Father: Aaron Samossen / 62 / Owner of Getty’s Gas Station

Mother: Vivian Lee Samossen / 58 / First Grade Teacher at Mystic Elementary

Sibling(s): Adam Lee Samossen (@adamscmo) & Claudia Samossen (@claudiasamo)

Pet(s): None

Family’s Financial Status: Middle Class

EXTRA.

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

MBTI: ISTJ

Enneagram: The Protector

Temperament: Melancholic

Moral Alignment: Neutral Good

Primary Vice: Pride

Primary Virtue: Abstinence

Element: Earth

[ashotofpeace-blog]

Sri Pada

On our penultimate day in Sri Lanka, we (my girlfriend and I) bravely, perhaps stupidly, re-entered the Hill Country in order to climb Sri Pada, or Adam’s Peak. Sri Pada is a mountain over two-thousand meters above sea level.

Supposedly there is a foot print at the top. In line with the multi-denomination nature of this country, visiting the footprint is a pilgrimage for every faith. Buddhists believe the indent was made by Buddha; Muslims say it was left by Adam when he descended from heaven (hence the name); Christians claim it belongs to St. Thomas; the Hindus, Shiva. Others also claim it for their own. This was fitting - although the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict has some basis in Hinduism vs Buddhism, Sri Lankans, from what I have seen, do not really care what your religion is, as long as you have one. Every bus I have been on has contained paintings of Buddha, Shiva, and sometimes Jesus. You will often find dual Buddhist-Hindu temples. The only religion I haven’t really encountered in Sri Lanka is that of the Norse Gods or ancient Egyptians. But I bet down some side street in Kandy you can find someone pledging allegiance to Odin or Horus.

Getting to Adam’s Peak from Galle is a mammoth task: don’t be fooled by how close they look on the map. We left Galle just as the sun was rising and got to the bottom of Adam’s Peak at 9pm. Looking up at the summit in the dark, all you could make out is a daunting silvery line of lights, seemingly ascending forever. As with all hikes in the Hill Country, your aim is to reach the top for sunrise. Considering there are over eight-thousand steps to conquer, you have to set out at 2am in order to catch the transition from night to day. Having already spent the day in cramped and sweltering Sri Lankan public transport, our enthusiasm was dwindling.

Neither us wanted to do this, but neither of us knew the other also didn’t want to. The result - we began climbing at 1am, giving us an hour more than the recommended time. The first three-hundred meters or so were fine, but then the stairs started, and did not end for another three-and-a-half hours. There are, however, places to stop and buy supplies every two hundred steps or so, all the way up to the top. The merchants get their supplies of bottled water and cooking gas, amongst lighter items, by paying young men to physically carry them up the stairs, multiple times per day. My advice to these people: wonder off into the surrounding forest and spend the rest of your days foraging off the land. It will be a lifestyle of comparative paradise.

Eventually, after much grit and determination, we reached the temple at the top containing the impress. Just before we entered, a westerner asked a local a question, who replied with a hilarious fart. Everyone who heard broke into hysterics, making this whole ordeal worthwhile. Proof, if ever it was needed, that flatulence based comedy has no language barrier – our buttholes all speak the same dialect.

To my indifference, you cannot see the footprint as it is covered by solid Buddhist decadence at the centre piece of the temple. I assume it is not on show to preserve what is left of it, or perhaps if you could see it, the mythical allure would be lost. After all it is faith that brings pilgrims on this trek: believing it is there in all its divine glory is sufficient.

I didn’t do this to see a mythical footprint supposedly left by a deity or prophet of your choice (it was likely left by a Vedda - the ancient aboriginal Sri Lankan tribe, of which there are only five-hundred left – or one of the first Singhalese/Tamil migraters from India), I did it for the sense of accomplishment and to see the sun appear through the peaks of the other surrounding mountains to the east. After these had both been satisfied, we began the descent.

Getting down was easier, but it was still tiresome and frustrating. The combination of sleep deprivation and cardiovascular exercise had induced a hallucinogenic type of fatigue I had not felt before. When I saw that multiple vendors on the way down were selling large posters of nude Chinese babies, I questioned whether the last seven hours had happened or if I was still asleep somewhere on the Sri Lankan rail network, dreaming it all. To add to my deteriorating mental and physical state, upon completing Sri Pada we had to immediately catch a seven hour, non air-conditioned bus back to Colombo on a day where the temperature did not drop below thirty-five degrees.

Did I enjoy it all? I’m still not sure. All I know is that I would advise against doing Adam’s Peak unless you are already in the Hill Country.

[drtanstravels]

Anna and I came to a conclusion recently — She needs to relax more and take more holidays. Yes, we do go on a lot of trips and we have plenty coming up this year, but it is almost entirely for her work so she doesn’t really get to take a break. When we went to Thailand and a resort in Indonesia recently, she was a completely different person and got to unwind properly for the first time in about a year. We did go to Turkey late last year, but it was on the tail-end of a conference that Anna had put in a lot of work for, plus it was an extremely hectic trip anyway, hardly any time for relaxation. That’s why we decided to take part in the world’s largest annual human migration and get away at Chinese New Year this year; it’s a relatively quiet time for her at the Eye Centre as few people in Singapore want to have surgery done during this period and the timing of Chinese New Year meant that Monday, February fourth was a half-day public holiday, while the fifth and sixth were full days off. We wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been before and initially considered Taiwan, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to go there during Chinese New Year as everything would be closed and we kind of wanted to escape the stress of being in a Chinese environment during those celebrations, because constant drums, chanting, and fires aren’t conducive to a relaxing weekend. Instead, we opted for Sri Lanka, a place neither of us really knew a whole lot about. My knowledge of Sri Lanka was limited to what was shown when singer Kamahl did advertisements for teabags in Australia and the fact that their cricket team was abysmal when I was growing up. Well, here are the basics on Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.

Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule as Ceylon. A nationalist political movement arose in the country in the early 20th century to obtain political independence, which was granted in 1948; the country became a republic and adopted its current name in 1972.

The island is home to many cultures, languages and ethnicities. The majority of the population is from the Sinhalese ethnicity, while a large minority of Tamils have also played an influential role in the island’s history. Moors, Burghers, Malays, Chinese, and the indigenous Vedda are also established groups on the island.

‘Colombo,’ not ‘Columbo’

Sounds like it could be an interesting place to spend a few days so the plan was to fly out on Friday evening and stay the night in Colombo, catch a train to Galle and spend Saturday and Sunday night in the Fort area there, meeting up with our Australian friends from Singapore, Tom Cargill and Leonie Brown, whom it happened would be in the same place at the same time, and then come back for a final night in Colombo before flying out very early Wednesday morning. There was, however, the issue that I had had an epileptic seizure a few days prior to leaving that would require me to get my head stitched up in hospital, but wasn’t expected to put our trip in any jeopardy. Let’s see if all went to plan.

Friday, February 1, 2019 Anna finished work early on Friday afternoon so we packed, took Kermit to the dog hotel, and then got a cab to the airport. Our flight was at 7:30pm and it would take three-and-a-half hours to touch down in Colombo, however, Sri Lanka is two-and-a-half hours behind Singapore so it was barely 9:00pm by the time we landed. Getting through immigration wasn’t too much of an issue, although I did get a few sideways glances from officers because of my rather impressive black eye, but we were soon through the gate and one thing became abundantly clear; A lot of people landing at Bandaranaike International Airport must purchase fridges on impulse! Sure, there was the regular duty free store selling alcohol, cigarettes, perfume, and the usual stuff that you encounter in any international airport, but this was surrounded by endless shops selling duty free white-goods — refrigerators, washers, dryers, ovens, vacuum cleaners, and everything else any complete home requires were all available and all tax-free at any of the countless electronics and homewares stores in the arrivals area. I think Harvey Norman may have to rethink their business model, I’m not kidding, there are tons of these stores so they must be selling something, take a look around for yourself:

Anna looking a little confused

Just a couple of the stores

Looking from the standard duty free section

Even more

We managed to resist the urge to pick up a reasonably priced chest freezer and walked down to the taxi rank. Initially we thought that maybe we should’ve requested a hotel transfer, but we had nothing to worry about, getting a taxi without getting ripped off wasn’t a problem as there was a fixed-priced taxi counter. Now onto our home for almost the next 24 hours, Colombo:

Colombo is the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the city proper. It is the financial centre of the island and a popular tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is within the urban area of, and a suburb of, Colombo. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant place with a mixture of modern life and colonial buildings and ruins. It was the legislative capital of Sri Lanka until 1982.

Due to its large harbour and its strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known to ancient traders 2,000 years ago. It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, and its status as capital was retained when the nation became independent in 1948. In 1978, when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Colombo was designated as the commercial capital of Sri Lanka.

To make matters even better, we were staying at the legendary Galle Face Hotel. Just have a click around that website and you’ll see why we were excited to be staying there or if you’re too lazy, just read a portion of what Wikipedia has to say about our humble abode for the night:

The Galle Face Hotel, founded in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1864, is one of the oldest hotels east of Suez. It is listed as one of the “1000 Places to See Before You Die” in the book of the same name.

Celebrity guests include Mahatma Gandhi; the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin; John D. Rockefeller; former British Prime minister Edward Heath; Princess Alexandra of Denmark; Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; First Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru; Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India; journalist Eric Ellis and photographer Palani Mohan; future British RAF officer and MI6 agent F. W. Winterbotham; Prince Sadruddhin Aga Khan; then-Prince Hirohito of Japan; Roger Moore; Carrie Fisher; Richard Nixon, US President; Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; Noël Coward, English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer; Josip Broz Tito, Marshal of Yugoslavia. In January 2018 Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex stayed at the hotel during their five day official visit.

I guess I can now name two hotels in which Richard Nixon has stayed. Anyway, once we had arrived we checked into our room and then went down to King of the Mambo, a Cuban-themed bar and restaurant within the hotel, right on the water. We pulled up a seat, ordered a couple of drinks and just started chatting while a Latin band played in the background when, before long, a couple on the next table, an Italian man and an Indian woman, must’ve overheard us say something about Singapore and asked if we were “Jacu’s friends.” It turned out that they both live in Singapore too and knew someone there whose friends were also traveling to Sri Lanka this weekend as well. We told them that we were from Singapore, but didn’t know a Jacu. I later had a look at Facebook and saw that there were comments on my friend’s page tagging me as traveling to Colombo, as well as another couple. This particular friend doesn’t use his real name on Facebook and I thought that maybe I had just forgotten his name as he is someone I only know from the pub so I showed his photo to the couple on the next table. “Yes, that’s Jacu!” they replied, so we settled in, ordered some food and got chatting with them. Not only did we have the mutual friend we knew of, but it turned out that the Indian girl, Adita, also went to university and is friends with one of Anna’s best friends, Roshini. To quote the comedian Steven Wright, “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to have to paint it.” Here’s a look around our room in the Galle Face Hotel and King of the Mambo that night, although we didn’t get one our new drinking buddies:

Looking toward our bed

looking away from it

toward our bathroom

Out our window

Getting a bit rough on the way to the bar

Part of the view of King of the Mambo from our table

Looking along the shore

Inside the bar

Another area

Part of the skyline in the background

Saturday, February 2, 2019 We were still operating on Singapore time so we were up pretty early by our holiday standards. One thing that we didn’t realise was that Sri Lankan National Day, or Independence Day, also happened to fall during our trip, being celebrated on the Monday so there were thousands of soldiers rehearsing for the National Day parade when we left the hotel in the morning. Our plan for Saturday was to catch a train down to Galle, however, first-class trains only departed at around 6:30am, which wasn’t an option for us. Instead, we could get an express train at 3:50pm, but we would only be able to get either second or third class tickets with unreserved seating. You’re probably thinking, “Oh, poor Tim and Anna, can’t get first class tickets, boo-hoo,” but anyone who has ever caught public transport anywhere on the Indian subcontinent would understand that even first class could be deceptive in definition, second class with unreserved seating could mean absolutely anything, and third class with unreserved seating may possibly resemble something like this:

Still, we had a few hours to kill so we hit the street, taking in some of the military rehearsals along the way. We began walking toward the centre of town along Colombo-Galle Main Rd. when we were almost immediately approached by a very well-dressed, albeit extremely sweaty, local man who burst into a power-walk to catch up to us. Sri Lanka is famous for its gemstones and this dodgy guy insisted on taking us to a gemstone museum and then a shop afterward. We’re used to dealing with scammers overseas so we made it clear that we weren’t interested and that’s when the bullshit began. “Today is National Day so nothing else will be open anyway, as you can see by the parade on the beach.” We explained to him that we were more than aware that National Day was on Monday, the shops were clearly open, and that the parade on the beach was a rehearsal, but he wasn’t deterred. “I work at your hotel, what sort of representative would I be if I didn’t show you the best of Colombo?” We then pointed out that it was one of his alleged coworkers that told us about the rehearsals and he wasn’t dressed like any of them, but still he insisted we see the gemstone museum, going on and on about it as we sped up, him struggling to keep pace. It was finally when he called over a tuk tuk for us and told the driver where to take us that we both finally snapped, telling him that we saw through his bullshit and that we were doing something somewhere else. He kept talking, but soon realised he wasn’t getting anywhere, muttered something under his breath, and walked away. We were expecting to meet hustlers like this after the time we’ve spent in India and the first person we encountered on the streets of Colombo was exactly that, but fortunately we wouldn’t meet too many more.

We continued exploring, but everyone we know that has been to Sri Lanka told us beforehand that there wasn’t a whole lot to do or see in Colombo, just tons of construction, and Galle was where the real action was. Still, we had a look around, grabbed a decent lunch, and then soon we had to head back to the hotel to grab our luggage in order to catch our train. A look around our hotel and the surrounding area of Colombo:

A panoramic view from our balcony

Inside the lobby of the Galle Face Hotel

Our doorman about to let us out

Looking across the road

The parade rehearsals from a distance

Part of the exterior of the Galle Face Hotel

Part of where we had spent the previous night

More of the parade action on the beach

The local police station

A building that seems to be missing a roof and some walls

One of many construction sites

A cool mural on a building on our way to lunch

These photos may not paint a particularly beautiful picture of Colombo, but it is really nice, just the area we stayed on that first night may have been a little less aesthetically pleasing. After lunch we walked back to the hotel, got our luggage and checked out, and then we were on our way to the train station. The train station wasn’t far away, but we had to get there about an hour early in order to get halfway-decent tickets for our two-and-a-half hour journey to Galle. Anna read online that if we wanted to get a seat on the train, it was best to go to the first station on the trainline, but the concierge at our hotel said it was too far out of the way and we only needed to go to the nearest station. We got our first tuk tuk in Sri Lanka, negotiated a decent price due to the fare metre still being sealed in its original packaging, and rode in our three-wheeled deathmobile, weaving recklessly through traffic, all the way to the station. Anyone that has ever ridden in a tuk tuk before knows that you never feel all that safe in one and that’s not including the time a tuk tuk driver in Pondicherry, India (the vehicle called an “auto” there) made a piss-poor attempt at kidnapping me! These things are completely unstable, you’re not secured into the vehicle in any way, the drivers just throw caution to the wind, and in some countries they’ll do anything to screw you over to make an extra buck or two. Only some of them in Sri Lanka have a fare metre, but they are never used so you just have to haggle first and fortunately we never had any drivers try to scam us. Tuk tuks are the cheapest, and sometimes only, option, but all the ones we encountered on this trip could be trusted. We soon arrived at the train station and I watched the bags while Anna bought our tickets and then we walked down to platform 5 where our train would eventually be arriving. We managed to get second class tickets with unreserved seating, which meant that the process for getting a seat was first in, first served when entering the carriage, however, our carriage would have ceiling fans. When we saw a train arriving on another platform, we realised exactly what this meant; the carriages in both classes were extremely crowded with people getting on and off while the train was still moving, others just hanging out of the doors as the only convenient place to stand in third class. After we saw this, I decided to ask someone on our platform where to board the second class carriage. I approached a friendly-looking young woman, only for her to let out a little scream and grab her handbag. Train stations around the globe are generally seedy areas so I guess when a female is approached by a rather large man with a black eye and facial stitches, she needs to be on her guard. I apologised, explained our situation, and she advised us to wait in the middle of the platform, as that is where the second class carriages would most likely be.

Our train soon arrived and we boarded, and although I wasn’t expecting complimentary champagne, we were also unable to get a seat despite how proactive we were, instead relegated to standing in the centre of the carriage, the end nearest to us only having two of the seven ceiling fans operating. Initially the carriage was overcrowded, people even sitting in the open doorway, legs hanging outside the train. There were handles hanging from bars from the ceiling, but it was easier for me to hold the bar, Anna grabbing a handle, and we were soon on our way. Sri Lanka is infinitely cleaner than India, but as we were departing we crossed a river that could almost be tasted as we passed, the horrendous stench of raw sewerage hanging in the air. None of the locals really reacted to fragrant aroma of human waste, but almost every foreigner on the train instantly gagged. I’ve also heard awful rumours about the toilets on trains in this part of the world, essentially just a seat with a hole that drops turds directly onto the tracks, the room ending up ankle deep in human waste. How much truth there is to those stories can really be neither confirmed nor denied for me, but we both decided it was best to clench for the next couple of hours and take in the scenery. Any photos from inside the train were captured as it was still moving, the view almost always obstructed by another passenger’s arm gripping a handle or pole:

In a tuk tuk en route to the station (note the sealed metre)

Looking down at Anna on our platform, early for our train

Inside the station

An earlier train that would resemble ours

Not sure what class this is, but it looks like it’s going to a concentration camp!

Our train has finally arrived

A gentle reminder not to rub your nuts on seated passengers

Looking one way up our carriage at a worried-looking European tourist

And we’re off!

The other way down our carriage

This guy sat like this for the bulk of the journey

Crossing the festering river

Some of the scenery out of the door was beautiful

Some not so much

Going behind some houses

Location, location, location

You also shouldn’t rub your nuts on standing passengers

Trying my best to blend in while onboard

That bar was a little dirty

Finally made it to our destination

Our ride only stopped four or five times en route to Galle, but for the last ten minutes or so enough people had exited the train so Anna could have a seat and I could sit on the table in front of her.

Me with some of our dinner

Once we arrived in Galle we took a tuk tuk to our hotel, The Bungalow in Galle Fort, and by that time it was already about 7:00pm so we decided to hit the town. The first plan of attack; get some hoppers. Hoppers are kind of like a bowl-shaped pancake made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk, generally eaten with curry and sambol. Not long after we had walked out the door and around the corner, we stumbled upon a small store simply called Hoppa so we pulled up a seat and ordered what we had come for. We got some egg hoppers and cheese hoppers, as well as some curried prawns and black curry pork and Anna later ordered some dessert hoppers that came with treacle. To be honest, I could happily eat hoppers for every meal daily, but I don’t know how my waistline would handle it. After dinner we walked down to the Old Dutch Hospital, one of the oldest buildings in Galle, dating back to the 17th century Dutch occupation of Sri Lanka when the building actually functioned as a hospital. Now it serves as a shopping and dining precinct so we sat down in a bar, ordered some drinks and a shisha, but it wasn’t going to be a long night as it turns out most, if not all, bars in this town shut at 11:00pm, even on a Saturday. Oh well, it had been a packed day so we really weren’t complaining.

This concludes the first part of our Sri Lankan adventure, stay tuned for the second half when we spend more time wandering around Galle and getting into a couple of weird situations before returning to Colombo again for a final night.

Chinese New Year in Sri Lanka, pt.1: Colombo to Galle Anna and I came to a conclusion recently -- She needs to relax more and take more holidays.

[amerraka]

Even numbers for fantasy asks :D

02. do any of your characters have magical abilities? what kind?

People are either born with magic, or they never get it. The only way to get magic is to go into Silverwood Forest and hope it accepts you or to enslave a mage and take their magic, which is forbidden. Oh, and there are the magic words. Powerful. They have magic of their own. 

Fralenn, my main character, wants magic. But she wasn’t born with it and because she hasn’t gotten it by age 16, has lost most hope of getting it. 

Revall has wordweaving, which is the ability to make matter obey through speaking words. His specialty is fire. 

Choya is a dreamer, and she can see future events. 

Shavash gets powerful wordweaving, and he ends up being able to command earth, air, water, and fire– which is unprecedented. 

Geb is a Truthseeker, and he can read minds. So can Malak, his former apprentice. So can Tay, Malak’s new master…. 

Mordeth, who killed his niece, the queen, to take the throne of Ardaynenn (Fralenn’s country), is a wordweaver.

There are also healers, but I don’t have a main character who does that yet. 

04. is there a royal family? if so, talk about them a little bit!

The royal family in Ardaynenn is the Rithas. They were in a feud with the Thamadhs over the throne for the past 40 years, and the capital city went back and forth between them both several times, until the Rithas prevailed and banished all Thamadhs from the country. Mordeth, brother of the king, actively hunted them down. Fralenn’s father was a Thamadh, her mother a Ritha, and they married in secret but they had to run away when they were found out. They lived in the wilderness several years with their little daughter until they were killed. Fralenn’s father managed to hide her so Mordeth never knew she existed. She’s not first in line for the throne, but she’s a legitimate heir for both Thamadhs and Rithas, which makes her a target of both sides. 

06. are there different creatures in your world? what kind of creatures?

There are liandir, large reptiles with long graceful necks who live in the swamps. And there are lir birds, who live in Silverwood Forest, and have a hauntingly beautiful song. There are tora, little two-legged reptiles. There are Velta, horses with golden or silver coats. Restet, from Rajel, fast, two-legged reptiles, which the Rajel ride into battle. Slithers–sea serpents, which make the sea very dangerous. Cafani, flying feathered serpents, in Anapaso (the north). Salilet, flying reptiles which people ride–from Sheshan (the Lost Isle). Tamba– huge spider-like creatures. 

08. are there any armies? do they have special armor?

Ardaynenn’s army is phasing out armor as archaic, as it doesn’t defend against the new powerful firearms imported from Rajel. They wear blue uniforms. The Rajel wear black uniforms–and are the most efficient fighting force on the planet. The Sheshan warriors wear green and use poison darts and arrows. 

10. what type of clothing do your characters wear?

Fralenn wears pants, a robe, tora-leather boots, and a kafal over her face, when she’s in the desert. When she reaches the jungles of Sheshan, these are impractical so she just wears pants and a loose shirt.

12. is there an ocean in your story? what kind of creatures lurk in it?

The slithers lurk in the ocean. Sea serpents which shatter ships with their silver armor and devour their contents. Only the Wafin can sail the seas with relative ease, and some have been known to not only kill a slither, but tame it. 

14. who are the main antagonists? do they have any special weapons?

Main antagonists for Book 1–

Tayshadozek is a Truthseeker, and she can read minds. 

Vedda has no magic, but he has guns and restet and he gains half of the force of the skyships against the original leader, Stav.

16. is there a forest? is there something strange about the forest? [answered]

18. what kind of jobs exist in your fantasy world?

most people are farmers, as it’s an agrarian society. Soldiers, craftsmen, hunters, fishermen…. In Sheshan, these are turned into strict color-coded castes.

20. are there pirates? what role do they play in the story?

Wafin live on the sea, and many of them are pirates. They haven’t played a role yet as we have sailed over the sea rather than on it, but they probably will in the future. One of Fralenn’s ancestors, Tayranayr, was half-Wafin who became queen of Ardayenn.

22. are there certain plants? flowers? fruits? spices? poison?

kai root is important in Ardaynenn. Kind of like our potato, but it grows in swampland. Used for lots of different dishes, like soup or pies. Also ground into flour and used for bread. Rainflower is a beautiful purple flower in Sheshan.

24. is there a kingdom in your story? if so, what keeps it thriving?

Ardaynenn is a kingdom. The past 40 years, it was riven by civil war. Mordeth came in with a strong hand, saw his opportunity when his brother died, and became harsh and authoritarian. In some places, it’s worked– there is no division, and so peace is good for the land; stability is good for growing and trade. But when many people live in fear, a country cannot survive for long before their souls are crushed.

26. do any of your characters have scars with meaning? how did that happen?

Revall has scars from fire on his face and arms. He covers his arms most of the time. It happened when he tried to defend his family – but he used a magic word with his fire, and it was too powerful and killed them all. He secluded himself in the desert, until Fralenn found him, and began to heal him. She reminded him of his daughter….

28. do you have a language for your book? are there any examples you want to share?

Ardayn, Sheshan, Rajel, Anapasan…. and others who are not as important to the story. 

Ardaynenn is the country where my main character was born. 

Lahainenn valrayan– “bright flower”

Eshann dohanai– “dancing flame”

30. what message does your fantasy story have? does it correspond with reality?

not totally sure what this means…. Theme? in-universe or according to our reality?

Power corrupts is one of them. This sounds original, doesn’t it. [I haven’t written this story since last summer so I am a little vague on the details. But I need to revise it if it’s going to get anywhere!]

[gontsa]

Sri Lanka. Blue Edition #maps #qgis #blender #mapmaking #cartografia #mapping #gis #map #cartographyart #mapoftheday #lovemaps #color #cityplan #lovemaps #mapoftheday #ilovemaps #instamaps Sri Lanka — officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located southeast of India and northeast of the Maldives. The island is home to many cultures, languages and ethnicities. The majority of the population is from the Sinhalese ethnicity, while a large minority of Tamils have also played an influential role in the island's history; Christians in both groups are recent converts who have kept the traditional culture. Moors, Burghers, Malays, Chinese, and the aboriginal Vedda are also established groups on the island. Sri Lanka's documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. It has a rich cultural heritage and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, the Pāli Canon, date back to the Fourth Buddhist council in 29 BC. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to the modern Maritime Silk Road. (Wikipedia) Source: #SRTM + #OpenStreetMap Software: #QGIS, #Blender, #Inkscape / on Instagram http://ift.tt/2ApHiJ0

[yeli-renrong]

There are dialects of Bengali that have no fricatives. What’s up with that? The Australian typological system, also seen in Dravidian, has a basic contrast between plosive and nasal and then various liquids -- but you don’t get phonation contrasts of any kind, except in Dravidian through Indic influence. (You also don’t get large vowel systems -- usually it’s /a i u/, sometimes with length or /e/.)

Bengali is nothing like that. You have the standard Indic four-way plosive MOA contrast, gaps in the nasal system, one lateral, one or two rhotics, /h/, and seven vowels plus a length contrast. (The length contrast is recent and developed the same way as (IIRC) one source of vowel length in a lot of Ryukyuan: lengthening of monomoraic words. It’s probably too recent to be of typological interest.) This is weird! What the hell kind of substrate could’ve caused that?

The four-way plosive MOA contrast seems robust enough in the context of India that maybe it could’ve been retained even given substrate influence, but we’re obviously not dealing with the Australo-Dravidian type here. It can’t be Munda either, of course; as far as I can tell, aspiration contrasts are foreign to it.

It’s too bad we don’t know more about the original languages of the Vedda and the Andamanese... or, for that matter, the para-Kusunda languages that must have once existed. Kusunda doesn’t bear much typological resemblance to the surrounding languages, and Watters thinks it got its four-way plosive phonation contrast from IA/TB influence, but it could’ve been an outlier within its family, like Punjabi (or Tocharian, or Polynesian) -- or Watters could just be wrong, since Kusunda has aspirates in vocabulary that I’d guess would be basic: bhəya ��younger brother’ (maybe < IE?), qhai- ‘be frightened’, dhũ- ‘stand sth. up’, ghu- ‘move sth.’, phurluŋ ‘red’. But I don’t know anything about the surrounding languages, so those could all be loans...

Anyway, you also get languages with no fricatives in South America, and there are a few in Africa (most notably Dinka) too. But I don’t have anything to say about them because PHOIBLE’s inventory display is Not Good.

[yeli-renrong]

Blazek thinks there’s a para-Pama-Nyungan substrate in Dravidian. Weird.

By the way, did Vedda have fricatives? It looks like some Sinhalese words with /s/ were adapted with /c/... And what’s the deal with this?

(The alternative hypothesis to an Indian-Australian connection, once coincidence is ruled out as improbable, is that the faculty of language isn’t entirely invariant and the dudes who look kind of like Australians [the Veddas, mostly] ended up with a language that shares the unusual traits of the Australian languages because deep racial characteristics. Which would be even weirder than a para-Pama-Nyungan substrate in Dravidian! But something like this has been proposed -- apparently Australians and Tamils both have unusually high rates of a sort of middle-ear infection that can cause the band-pass hearing loss for which the ‘long and flat’ consonant inventory seems optimized for. But the possibility that the infectious agency was introduced by recent contact can’t be ruled out. Nor can the possibility that that’s a red herring.)

There’s not enough to say anything with any confidence yet, but there’s enough to cast the occasional glance a few feet above the seat of that particular barstool-ward and start thinking about pickup lines.