7i Report of the Xlllth Congress of Orientalists) Hamburg. [ApR. 



Indo-Chinese languages have presented far the greatest difficulties. 

 Specimens of numerous languages which were hitherto almost unknown 

 have been prepared, and have been illustrated by short grammars and 

 vocabularies. That the result has been altogether satisfactory cannot 

 be maintained. Students of languages will not require to be told of the 

 difficulties which are experienced in reducing an unknown language to 

 writing for the first time. Moreover, few of the specimens were record- 

 ed b}' scholars. Many of them were obtained by Government officials, 

 who were ignorant of the languages dealt with, aud had to trust to un- 

 educated interpreters. Mistakes were, therefore, almost inevitable. No 

 other method was, however, possible for obtaining specimens of the 

 tongues of some of the wild tribes who inhabit the eastern frontier of 

 India, and I am fully sensible of the care and enthusiasm which have 

 been displayed by many of my brother officials in their collection. On 

 the whole, considering the means at their disposal, the various speci- 

 mens have been found to be surprisingly correct. Although absolute 

 accuracy has not been attained, a great step in advance has been made 

 in our knowledge of the languages of a number of little known Indo- 

 Chinese tribes. For instance, Dr. Konow has been able to make 

 a satisfactory grouping of that mass of kindred languages which goes 

 under the name of Kuki-Chin, and this volume will be one of the most 

 interesting of the Survey. Thanks to friends, it has been found possible 

 to give some account of the dialects of the interesting Khassi language, 

 one of which employs infixes as well as prefixes in its word-formation, 

 and thus throws considerable light on the structure of the speeches of 

 the Mou-Khmer family. Through the kind help of Sir Charles Lyall, a 

 full account has been given of Mikir, one of the most important Tibeto- 

 Burinan languages of Assam, about which very little has hitherto been 

 known. Finally, an attempt has been made to give a description of 

 Ahom, the ancient Tai language of Assam, now for many years extinct. 

 Dr. Konow has been able to finally place Marathi in its true relation 

 in regard to the other Aryan languages of India, and has incidentally 

 thrown much light on the relationship of the various Prakrit dialects to 

 each other. A summary of the results of his enquiries will shortly ap- 

 pear in the "Indiau Antiquary." He has also succeeded in classing the 

 Bhil languages. These are certainly closely connected with Grujarati. 

 Towards the south they borrow a little from Marathi, but the basis of 

 their language is still Gujarati. Closely connected with the Bhil lan- 

 guages is Khandesi, which can no longer be considered to be a dialect of 

 Marathi as hitherto supposed. None of the Bhil languages shows any 

 traces of connection with the Munda tongues, except a very few words 

 which have survived in their vocabulary. 



