Rhythmic and Poetic Qualities in Sinhala Speech. By Mahagama Sekera. Translated by Garrett Field and Ravinda Mahagamasekera.

Mahagama Sekera (1929–1976) investigates how rhythmic qualities and poetics inhere in figurative language found in everyday Sinhala speech; the formation of original constructions in poetry and song lyrics; prosodic features in child storytelling; colloquial expressions generated from one light verb; aperiodic rhythms in context-specific utterances and proverbs; and the moraic structures of doublets (yugala pada). Citation: Sekera, Mahagama. “Rhythmic and Poetic Qualities in Sinhala Speech.” Translated by Garrett Field and Ravinda Mahagamasekera; edited by Richard K. Wolf. Ethnomusicology Translations, no. 16. Bloomington, IN: Society for Ethnomusicology, 2024. DOI: Originally published in Sinhala as pages 39–51 in chapter 2, “Rhythm and [Sinhala] Speech” in Sinhala Gadya Padya Nirmānayanhi Ridma Lakṣana (Rhythmic Qualities of Sinhala Prose and Verse), S. Godage & Brothers, 2007 [2001].