Ravi Can’t Pronounce English Either
By Helasingha Bandara –November 23, 2015
“I guess I should have paid more attention during Sinhala class when I was in school. Oh, well. But it would absolutely stupendous, dear Speaker, if someone in Parliament sponsors me to improve my Sinhala; both writing and pronunciation. Or we could come to terms with me reading the Budget in English, which is easier for me, next year.” – Ravi Karunanayake (Ceylon Today, 22 November 2015)
First, let us look at his claim that he cannot pronounce Sinhala words, at least some of them. This leaves him in the category of incapable, inefficient, untalented, unsuitable, incompetent people because he cannot pronounce English either, obvious isn’t it?
Wikipedia information
“Born to Tissa Anuruddha Mahanama Karunanayake and Carmaleka Karunanayake, daughter of former DIG Cyril Dissanayake. He is the eldest son in a family of two. Educated at S. Thomas’ Preparatory School, Kollupitiya up to his GCE Ordinary Level, after which he proceeded to Royal College Colombo for his Advanced Level examinations. He became a management accountant and worked for Delmege Group before heading up several directorships of new ventures in the travel industry”.
Wikipedia states that he is a Roman Catholic although his father’s name is very Buddhist. His maternal grandfather is a Dissanayaka, a typical Singhalese name. There is no mention of Ravi’s higher education at University level, local or foreign, if there is any. That leaves us with the billion Dollar question that how he cannot pronounce Sinhala words. Ravi was not born to native English speaking parents, he has not migrated to an English speaking country at a tender age, he has no education at a recognized educational institute in an English speaking country and he has not lived a considerable length of time in an English speaking country ( meaning over 20 years minimum). Linguists agree, if someone does not fulfill any of the above criteria he/she cannot speak English in the manner a native speaker would. In other words he/she will have a different pronunciation or an accent that is foreign to native speakers of English. Therefore in the context of his claim that he cannot pronounce Singhalese well he cannot pronounce English well either. I do not mean that he cannot speak English. He speaks our own brand of English. So our own brand of Singhalese would do for the reading of the budget.