රට and රුහුණ, leaving the heavily forested central high lands to the ancestors of Veddas.[16] With the collapse of the lowland dry zone civilization starting in the 9th century, descendants of the Indian settlers who had begun to speak Sinhalese moved in the central highlands. The trade and other connections made by the speakers of Sinhalese and the Vedda language's/languages' unknown genetic affinities gave rise to a period of use of a Pidgin of the languages.[16]  Initial borrowing of terms was limited to trade purposes, but was eventually adopted by the Vedda elite and subsequently by the rest of the Veddas. The Veddas also seemed to have moved further way from Sinhalese contact by moving into inaccessible forests of Binttanne and now reforested former dry zone areas. This led to the arresting of the contact between the language communities thus allowing new Vedda language to stabilize and become an independent language. As a relict of this limited period of contact, Vedda maintains