Kasiya, kokiya: Getting artistic with shared words
It makes sense that Sri Lanka shares an element of its linguistic heritage with the countries that colonised it from the 16th century onwards.
The Embassy of Netherlands in Colombo highlighted this shared cultural heritage in celebrating the friendship between the two countries at ‘Borrowed Words: spoken then & now”, part of a design collaboration with the Academy of Design.
Some words in the Sinhala language that we use in common parlance today derive their origin from Dutch words. Some are still in use today- for example ‘kokiya’ (cook) was originally kokin, ‘Kasiya’ (coin) was kwartje, and ‘baas’ (mason) was, well, baas.
Some words, like ‘Wortal’ for carrot and ‘kraan’ for tap have disappeared from usage, replaced by their English counterpart.
The exhibition, which was open at the Dutch Burgher Union last weekend, featured the work of graphic design students from the Academy of Design.
“We were given a list of words to choose from,” says Nikhila De Silva, a student who exhibited at the show (his chosen word was kwartje for coin). Most were surprised by the commonalities between the two languages.
Malika Jinadasa, who conceptualised his posters as a hand of cards featuring ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ (Hera and Porova in Dutch) used both Lankan and Dutch design elements in designing costumes for the characters featured on his cards.
Arunthathi Thiyagarajah chose the word ‘kokiya’, using utensils from traditional Lankan and Dutch kitchens for her artwork.
The posters were also entries for a competition held during the exhibition’s opening on Friday, November 13.
J. Tissera was placed first, with Sujan Amaratunge and Hamdhoon Waheed as runners up. Hamdhoon, a Maldivian national studying in Sri Lanka, said that even though the words did not hold a special significance for him he was intrigued by the shared linguistics between the two countries.
Commenting on the exhibition, Ambassador of Netherlands to Sri Lanka Mevrouw Joanne Doornewaard said, “Language is a significant expression of culture, and I find it amazing that there are Dutch words still being spoken in Sri Lanka.
It’s great to see the level of creative design from the AOD students and young designers from Sri Lanka.” AOD founder and Managing Director Linda Speldewinde noted that the initiative was an “unusual way to think about diplomacy.”