User talk:Sebastian rajalingam

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Batticaloa
I have edited out Matta Killapu derivation of batticaloa as it is incorrect Tamil- Sebastian I see that Raveen (?) has reverted to his (?) older version. What I don't like in your version is the "matta kilappu" derivation. Give some reference if you have some and justify it. The best I could do was to check with the people at Madras (chennai-Madura UniversitY who suggested the analysis that I have given (12/6/2006).


 * I know you are a newbie hence the problems in communicating, the Matta Kilappu derivation is what is called folk etymology, it is what the local people believe. It is similar to what Karave etymology which is fancifully derived from Kurukula in Sanskrit instead of the obvious Karaiyar or coastal people in Tamil. That’s why the article says the local Tamils believe it is derived from Flat lagoon. Also etymology is not very scientific either like Black and white, there is lot of fanciful derivations. Although I tend to believe it is derived from Sinhala Mada Kalapuva does not mean an encyclopedic article has to sensor what local people believe.  I hope you understand.RaveenS 13:59, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Hello Raveen, I may be a newbie to Wikipedia - but not to Tamil and south indian languages. I didn't bother about Wikipedia as it is not considered authoritative. But I began to take a look and ended up adding corrections. If you or soneone (say Mr. X and Y) have evidence that there is a local word "kilappu", or that the form 'Kalappuva' has become 'kilappu' (as conjectured to me by one of Varadarajan's students), then Mr. X should communicate it to see what repected scholars think. Even within the sri lanka community you have Prof. Sitrampalam in Jaffna, or Peter Shalk in Upsala, or even the people in the University in Batticaloa, presumably. Just send them an e-mail and ask them. I am sure most of them would be as surprised as I was to see the vowel "a" and "i" being interchanged in a proposed allonymic change, even in "Folk etymology". By including impure or unlikely pseudo-tamil forms you sre destroying the credibility of the whole article. But if you can get some reference to field work establishing what you (or Mr. X and Y) say, then I am sure that would be very good. Until then it is best to get rid of this "kilappu' form. I am sure you know that here in Tamil Nadu there is even a strong movement to de-Sanskritze Tamil, to go to the pure form. But you are going the other way. Also, a good part of the "local people" are muslims who speak some form of "Tamil". If there is a local varaiant word, quote your sources. That makes it all the more important if it is correct. But most people I know are surpirsed and don't accept it. -Sebastian R 1112/17/2006