Know the Etymology: 384
Place Name of the Day: Saturday, 20 December 2014

Su'lu-gunea

ஸுளுகு₃னே
Suḷugunē

Su'lu+gune

The small part

The small land belonging or attached to the Buddhist Sangha/ temple

Gunea 1	from Gu'na: part, share, Kotasa, Bhagaya (Sinhala, Sorata); Kuni: a bit of land (Telugu, DED 1927); Ga'n'na: a division of paddy land (Kannada, DED 1355); Ka'nu: joint in bamboo etc., and hence a divided part (Tamil, DED 1444); Kaa'ni: a fraction, a land measure (Tamil, DED 1444); a fraction of time or space (Malayalam, DED 1444)
Gunea 2	from Ganea, Ga'na: a property belonging or attached to the Buddhist Sangha or a Buddhist temple cum monastery; “ Ga'nayata ho vihaarayata ayath” (Sinhala, Sorata); Ga'na: multitude, assembly (Sinhala); troop, flock (Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, CDIAL 3988). Also see column on Divul-gane
Su'lu	also Sulu: small, little, short, insignificant (Sinhala); Culla, Coola, Coo'la: equivalent to Sulu (Sinhala, Sorata); Culla: small (Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, CDIAL 4877); Kshulla: small (Sanskrit, CDIAL 3732); Kshudra: minute (Sanskrit, CDIAL 3712); Choatta: small (Sanskrit, CDIAL 5071); Chil: some, few, small, slight (Tamil, DED 1571); Cilipi: small, slight (Telugu, DED 1571); Chil, Chilli: small piece (Tamil, DED 1577); Chu'l'li: small stick (Tamil, DED 2706); Chinna: small (Tamil, DED 2594, L/ N interchange); Chi'ru: small (Tamil, DED 1594, L/ R interchange); Ku'ru: small (Tamil, DED 1851, C/ K interchange); Chiddu: anything small (Tamil, DED 2513, L/ D interchange); Chuddi: small ornament on forehead (Tamil, DED 2657, L/ D, Chi/ Chu interchange); Choddu: small quantity (Tamil, DED 2835, Chi/ Cho, L/ D interchange); Chu'ndan: small-sized as in Chu'nd-eli for small mouse and Chu'ndang-kaay for the small berry of Solanum torvum (Tamil, DED 2661, Chi/ Chu, L/ D interchange plus nasalisation); Churungku: (verb) to shrink, to become small (Tamil, DED 2787, Chi/ Chu, L/ R interchange); Churukkam: conciseness (Tamil, DED 2687); Curk: (verb) to make small (Kota, DED 2687); Coo'luka: (verb) to shrink, contract (Malayalam, DED 2687)

Gunea is a seldom-found suffix in Sinhala place names. It could be a variation of Ganea (from Gana or Ga'na), which is a more popular place name component that in some instances may mean a property belonging or attached to the Buddhist Sangha/ temple. In other instances it means a multitude, usually of trees, as in Divul-gane.

However, a term Gu'na itself is found to have a relevant toponymic meaning, i.e., a part or share (Kotasa, Bhagaya) in the Sinhala dictionary of Sorata. The etymology of this shade of meaning is not clear. See box for etymological possibilities.

Su'lu meaning small in Sinhala is a cognate of Culla in Sanskrit/ Indo-Aryan, meaning the same (CDIAL 4877). But the Indo-Aryan term, with usual phonetic interchanges, has parallels in Dravidian also. See box.

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Su'lu-gunea is a place in Wilgamuwa division of Matale district.

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Some related place names:

Thala-gunea: The plain part (of land); or the plain belonging or attached to Buddhist Sangha/ temple; Udadumbara division, Kandy district. See column on Thalaha-gam-waaduwa for the various meanings of the word Thala.

Kingchi-gu'nea: Weeraketiya division, Hambantota district; Imbulpe division, Ratnapura district

Sora-gu'nea: Haldummulla division, Badulla district. Sora: a tree (Sinhala, Sorata)



First published: Saturday, 20 December 2014, 13:08