70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MALALASEKERA'S ENGLISH SINHALA DICTIONARY by Hemantha Situge

70^th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MALALASEKERA'S ENGLISH SINHALA DICTIONARY

by

Hemantha Situge

70^th Anniversary of the Malalasekara's English Sinhala Dictionary a publication of M.D. Gunasena company falls on 15^th of September this year.

The Dictionary emerged in the year 1948 and the first preface of Prof. Gunapala Malalasekara's is dated 15^th September 1948, while he was academic of par - excellence and a pre - eminent scholar at the University of Ceylon.

The second edition of the dictionary was published after ten years while Prof. Malalasekara was away in Moscow as Sri Lanka's first ambassador on 10^th September 1958. Prof. Malalasekara in his preface to this edition stated that: "I was away from Ceylon while this book was going through the press. It was very fortunate, therefore, that my erstwhile pupil Mr. Lionel Lokuliyana volunteered to undertake  the task of revising the entries and reading the proofs. His suggestions for the improvement of the work have been very valuable and I am most grateful to him for his assistance.

The third edition was released only after twenty four years in 1992, where Nanda Malasekara of Peradeniya, G.D Wijayawardana of Colombo and D.R.M. Walton of Sussex were instrumental in releasing same which was facilitated by the then H.E the President R. Premadasa. This edition contained new 5000 words. The new features contained in this edition were thus : "Other innovation include use of slanted Sinhala characters for the English pronunciation guide, and of the universally popular Helvetica typeface for main and subheadings. Modern internationally accepted definitions and associated units (SI system) , together with chemical formulae for simple compounds and the one two letter codes for the elements have been introduced. Finally, the abbreviations section has been expanded to cope with the diverse range of acronyms commonly used, especially for international organizations."

After an interval of six years in the year 2000 at the eve of the millennium the Dictionary was completely revised as the fourth edition, was expanded and updated with a board comprised of Prof A.J. Gunawardene, Prof Chandrasiri Palliyaguru, Mr. Piyadasa Hettihewa Mr. Athula Manchanayaka and Mr. Percy Jayamanna functioning as the coordinating editor. This edition of the Malalasekara's English-Sinhala Dictionary was a landmark as it marked the Golden Jubilee year of the Dictionary which coincided with the birth centenary of Prof. G.P Malalasekara.

The publisher's prefatory note date 3^rd May 2000 asserted that : "The never - ending popularity of this Dictionary vouched for by the fact that its sales have far reached those of any other similar publication in Sri Lanka".

The fifth edition of the Dictionary the editorial consultants, comprised Professor Chandasiri Palliyaguru, Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa, Prof. R.D. Gunarathne Dr. Harischandra Wijayathunga, Piyadasa Hettihewa, Athula Manchanayake. The editorial team comprised of Thusitha Malalasekara, A.S. Gunawardana and D.D.S Jayasundera. The coordinating editor was Percy Jayamanna.

The introduction to the fifth edition dated 08th Sep 2007 stated that :

" This fifth edition comes out seven years after the fourth. It is seen from the English Dictionaries that the English Language has been gradually transformed...."

The sixth edition emerged to mark the centenary of the Gunasena's on 2014 September. The  principal editior was Prof. Kusuma Karunarathne, Dr. Lakshmi de Silva and Dr. Sandagomi Coperahewa were the members of the editorial board while Ms. Buddhini Ramanayake functioned  as the Assistant to the said editorial board. The Dictionary was completely revised. The publisher's note for this edition states inter alia thus :

" A living Language is subject to change continuously with time. As such, we consider the updating of the dictionary, a necessity. It is with this in mind as well that the Malalasekara English Sinhala Dictionary has been presently updated and edited. The Dictionary is titled : "Most Trusted Dictionary in Sri Lanka - New Edition - Malalasekara English - Sinhala Dictionary"

Malalaseakara English - Sinhala Dictionary is a towering landmark which is a gift for posterity. This Dictionary would continue to serve its readers as an epitome of legacy from a significant  intellectual repast.