Deshamanya Jayaratna Banda Dissanayake — better known in Sri Lanka as J B Disanayaka — is an Emeritus Professor Linguistics and one of the leading authorities of the Sinhala language (or Sinhalese).
The still active octogenarian professor has been Sri Lankan ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. A prolific writer, he has penned numerous books on linguistics, journalism and education. Children have also been the recipient of his affections with dedicated books for them.
He was in Qatar to attend the annual prize distribution ceremony at Stafford Sri Lankan School as a chief guest recently.
Community spoke to him about his academic work and other achievements.


Please give us a brief insight into your life
I am a teacher and have been my entire life. I taught at the University of Colombo for about 45 years, primarily linguistics.
I studied linguistics as a subject at the University of Sri Lanka which was the only such back then. Then, I went to the US on scholarship and pursued linguistics there. Later, I headed to London to further my studies in the tutelage of some prominent professors at that time around 1963. When I was in the US, I also studied archaeology as a subject.
I returned to Sri Lanka and established the first Department of Linguistics at the University of Colombo in 1969. Linguistics was a new subject in Sri Lanka at the time. The linguistic centre at the University of Colombo was in three mediums; English, Sinhalese and Tamil. Since then, a number of students have attended the centre and pursued linguistics as a subject.
The first book that I wrote was Patterns of Language in 1969. It was about language as a culture, changes in it, and its modern aspects. The focus was on the study of Dhivehi (an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives, where it is the national language). I, along with one of my colleagues, carried out research on the language and its close proximity to Sinhalese. Many people from Sri Lanka migrated to the Maldives hundreds of years ago. They used to speak Sinhalese that kept on evolving. Later when the Maldives became an Islamic state, they changed their script to one similar to Arabic. They forewent the original Sinhala script. We studied and discovered links between the two languages and countries.
As far as my study of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka is concerned, I studied the verbal language. I focused on old idioms used by rural people and these idioms have long been ignored. People often focus on classical writings and literature in a language. I recorded Sinhala spoken idioms. 
I also studied how the language has changed over a period of time. I also added an alphabet in Sinhalese. There was no sound for ‘f’ in the language and we added an alphabet for the sound. We are still trying to add another alphabet for ‘th’ sound in our language.
Later in the 1980s, I set up the first ever Department of Journalism at the university. The University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka tasked me to set up the department. Using my close ties with media persons and media houses, we set up the department.
In the latter part of my career, I turned towards writing books for children. I have tried to make learning easier for children. We have a total of 58 alphabets in Sinhalese. I divided them into two (for convenience); the easy and difficult ones. I wrote songs starting with every alphabet for children. I have also composed these songs for children to follow.
I have got many literary and academic awards in Sri Lanka for my work and have also won the highest Presidential award for my achievements.


What have you been doing post-retirement?
I have also written books in English on Sinhalese. I have also compiled a complete encyclopaedia on Sinhala language and culture. The encyclopaedia is not in alphabetical order; rather, it is based on themes.
Nowadays, I am helping a government department related to languages. I continue writing on Sinhalese and for mass media.
My wife is also a writer. My daughter is an English teacher while my son lives with his family in Australia.


How was your visit to Qatar?
This is the first time that I am in the Middle East and I am really enjoying being here. The principal of the school invited me to address the students. 
For me everything is different, the people, the landscape, and the weather. I like the way they dress. I have been to many countries but Doha is the most planned city. It is still in the making. I also enjoy Arabian food.


What is your take on the education system at the Stafford Sri Lankan School?
I am happy to see students from different backgrounds at the school. Although the majority is Sri Lankan, there are students from other countries as well. It was good to see most modern facilities and techniques being used to impart education. I had a good sitting with school teachers and discussed with them how they teach and handle students.
I got a chance to visit every class in the school and spoke to students at the assembly. I told them that education means adding something new to existing knowledge. The students after getting education need to work to expand the horizons of knowledge — for themselves and others.


Do you agree that languages are facing extinction? 
The world is becoming a global village. English has become a language of knowledge. Everyone is interested in learning it. There is every possibility that some languages spoken by smaller groups of people may lose their identity in the coming years.
However, languages like Hindi, Urdu or Sinhalese will survive as millions of people communicate in these. Though people in urban surrounding prefer English for their children as primary language, people in rural areas still stick to their mother tongue. As long as they continue teaching mother languages to their children, there is no danger.


What are your future plans?
Well, I have been a teacher and author all my life. I will continue to write about linguistics and local languages. I will continue expanding the horizon of my knowledge and that of others.


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