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University of Ruhuna                                                               ISSN: 2706-0063
               Matara, Sri Lanka

               Neologisms Entering Sri Lankan English in the Backdrop of
               Aragalaya; an Analysis of Print Media

               P.V.S.S. Ranthilini
               University of Ruhuna.
               ranthilinivithanage@gmail.com


               The  vocabulary  of  Sri  Lankan  English  (SLE)  has  been  a  promising  field  that  is
               growing  continuously,  reflecting  the  developments  and  changes  in  the  social,
               political, and economic landscapes of the country. In this context, it seems that the
               recent developments in Sri Lanka, namely the people’s movement that erupted as a
               response  to  the  plunging  economy,  impact  SLE  as  a  new  variety  of  English,
               expanding  its  vocabulary  in  accordance  with  societal  changes.  In  this  light,  this
               research intends to identify neologisms that have entered the vocabulary of SLE in
               print media in the backdrop of current social unrest, or the people’s movement. The
               second research objective is to identify the strategies used to create them. To achieve
               the  objectives,  a  qualitative  content  analysis  was  conducted.  In  terms  of  data
               collection, 86 articles from The Sunday Observer and Ceylon Today published in
               February and July 2022, following the development of the people’s movement that
               erupted in March 2022 and reached its culmination in July 2022, were studied to
               identify  neologisms.  The  relevant  literature  and  a  native  speaker  of  SLE  were
               consulted  in  identifying  and  analyzing  the  SLE  words.  The  research  shows  that,
               within the sample of the study, 10 neologisms (aragalaya, jana aragalaya, aragalaya
               activists,  aragalaya  representatives,  aragalaya  people,  aragalaya  youth,  deal
               politics, Galle Face protestors, Gotagogama protest site and BASL) have entered SLE
               vocabulary  through  the  morphological  processes  of  forming  loan  words,  loan
               translations, compounds and acronyms.


               Keywords:  Aragalaya,  Neologisms,  Sri  Lankan  English,  Sri  Lankan  Crisis,
               Vocabulary














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