A passion for languages led him to dictionaries
“I will always remember Edward as a passionate intellectual, with great wit and someone with whom I could always have an entertaining and profoundly interesting debate. If I remember right, we would both resolutely stick to our opposing views. Edward also had a knack to always find out some bit of information, even on the most obscure of all topics or entertain us with one of his hilarious tales, which we used to thoroughly enjoy. I am sure that his legacy would live on in the dictionary he so carefully compiled, in generations of future French and Sinhala learners.” (Extract from a letter sent by an excolleague. It sums up his personality so beautifully. Yes, we are sure his legacy will live on).
Edward’s love for languages started early in his schooldays at St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, with basic studies in Latin, Pali, and Sanskrit, in addition to English and his mother-tongue Sinhala. He studied Tamil a couple of years later. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree (Sanskrit and French) from the University of Peradeniya in 1966. Proceeding abroad, he did his postgraduate Diploma in General Linguistics at the University of Strasbourg (1969), and went on to obtain a Ph.D. (Linguistics), from Sorbonne, University of Paris (1972); also learning the German language at the Goethe-Institute, Munich, during the same period.
While working in Brussels, he followed Cognitive Psychology classes at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and finally added the Dutch language to his collection.
With his passion for languages, Edward’s wish was to compile a dictionary. In 1989, together with 16-year-old Rohan Jayawardena, who was learning French from him, and with the help and support of his wife Irene, he authored Sri Lanka’s first (and only) bilingual French-Sinhala Pocket Dictionary, published by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Sri Lanka. In 1997, Edward revised and expanded it into the bilingual FrenchSinhala, Sinhala-French Dictionary; and revising it still further, a third edition was printed and published in 2009 by Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha Publishers. Both revised editions were printed and published with funds received from the French authorities, through the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka.
With the wide use of the electronic media, Edward’s work went on-line. In 2012, supported by his son, he created his website ‘Spoken Sinhalese for Dutch and French speakers’; which also helped Sinhala learners of Dutch and French. Collaborating with his wife, he produced an on-line ‘Sri Lankan Malay Lexicon’, using the Sinhala alphabet for easy pronunciation.
On retiring from the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Brussels, he took up a life of social service, working as a benevolent coordinator at a social complex of the Association ‘Les Trois Pommiers’ Brussels, where the theme was to promote inter-cultural and inter-generational living. In addition, he did voluntary language teaching for the network ‘Réseau d’échange de Savoirs R.E.S.59’ – Exchange of Knowledge.
In 2013, Edward compiled an online Sinhala-French lexicon, freely available to everyone (cinghalais. com). His greatest joy was adding new words and phrases daily, and noticing how many visitors had been to the site, and from which parts of the world.
Edward was first and foremost a family man, and involved his wife and sons in his academic work. A loving person, always with a gentle smile and a desire to chat with whoever he met, he was extremely attached to children and students. Many were the happy hours Sri Lankan university students in Belgium spent in his home, listening to him talking of Sri Lanka’s ancient history, culture, explaining the origin of the Sinhala language, and so many other interesting topics.
On January 24, 2015, he fell unconscious following a severe stroke, and suddenly, Edward, with his passionate intellectual curiosity, left us quietly and peacefully leaving his legacy to future learners of Sinhala and French, to begin his journey to new horizons.
‘Adieu Edouard’.