507 



APPENDIX B. 



LIST or BURiTESE VERIJTACXJLAK NAMES. 



rpHE present list of vernncnlar names is compiled mainly from Dr. Mason's list, 

 J_ -with numerous additions from other sources; but for its accuracy I must disclaim 

 any responsibility, from the fact that I have an extremely slender acquaintance, oven 

 Colloquially, with the Burmese lan^ua<je. In compiling it, however, I have been 

 most efficiently aided by Mr. Alfred Housh, of the Burmese Commission, to whom is 

 really due wliatever credit attaches to the work. But the difficulty in ])rcpariug 

 a trustworthy list is after all not so much in finding a competent tran.slator as in the 

 subject-matter itself. 



For certain well-known species of animals and plants there are no doubt names 

 as fixed in the yernaeular as in scientific language, but these are few compared with 

 the host of species dilferentiated by science ; aud to affect to find out and bestow 

 vernacular names on the numberless species duo to modem scientific research, is to 

 simply perpetrate a sham. The idea that every species, or even the majority of 

 species, possesses a vernacular name, is an absurdity. As an instance of the length 

 to which this hankering after vernacular names is carried, there are actually given 

 in the earlier edition (of 1860, p. 7.'5-t) distinct vernacular names for the .six varieties 

 of Tourmaline enumerated, tvhile, red, yellow, green, black, and the decoloured stone ; 

 though it may safely be affirmed that there are not half a dozen Burmese-speaking 

 men of any race throughout the world who could discriminate by their projierties one 

 Tourmaline from another, or from similarly coloured stones. This is an extremo 

 instance and example of manufacturing vernacular names by translating the English 

 word into Burmese, when the idea which the word represents has no existence in the 

 minds of the men speaking the language. Exscinding then all the misbegotten 

 vernacular names of this stamp, we have still a large number to deal with which are 

 objectionable on other grounds. In Burmese, as in English, there are many names 

 which are applied loosely (so to say) to many different animals — some which apply 

 generically, and some which apply more loosely still. For example, Nga-sin-hpyu 

 is applied to Stjstomm, Leuciscus, and Opsarion (I.e. p. 698), and is clearly applicable 

 to any white-looking little fish resembling the members of those genera, and has 

 really no proper reference to any one particular species ; and this comprehensive 

 vagueness in the application of a vernacular name may be said to be the rule, in. 

 a greater or less degree, with the majority of them. An equally pregnant example 

 is afforded by the vernacular name for a Snipe, Mye-wot, which also stands for a 

 bird utterly dissimilar and unlike in appearance, the Goatsucker, the idea attaching 

 in the mind of a Burman being that of " crouching on the earth," which both the 

 Snipe and the Goatsucker habitually do, and hence go by one and the same name. 



Tlie list now given is divided into columns, the first giving the Burmese name 

 in th(; Roman character, and the second column its scientific equivalent. 



The names in the first column are spelt phonetically, and are not transliterations 

 of the Burmese words. To pronounce them, therefore, properly, attention must be 

 paid to the simple rules which have been adopted ; but, unfortunately, where the 

 names have been copied from Kurz or other authors, wlio give neither the name in 

 the vernacular character, nor a standard whereby it can be pronounced, it is not 



