LANGUAGES OF THE BURMA EMPIRE. C37 



fight, and the language of one race is totally unintel- 

 ligible to the others ; yet I can perceive in them all 

 lonie coincidence?, and a knowledge of the languages, 

 with their obiolete words, their phrafes, their in- 

 flections of words; and eliiions, euphonia can/a, would, 

 perhaps, fhew many more. Thofe that have the great- 

 eft affinity are in Tab. I. IV. and V. Mr. Gilchrist, 

 whofe knowledge of the common dialects in uie on the 

 banks of the Ganges is, I believe, exceeded by that of 

 no European, was fo obliging as to look over thefe 

 vocabularies, but he could net trace the fmalleit rela- 

 tion between the languages. 



I inall now add three dialects, fpoken in the Buirma 

 empire, but evidently derived from the language of the 

 Hindu nation. 



The firft is that fpoken by the Mohammejans, who 

 have been long fettled in Arakan, and who call them- 

 felves Rooinga, or natives of Arakan. 



The fecond dialect is that fpoken by the Hindus of 



Arakan. I procured it from a Brahmen and his attend- 

 ants, who had been brought to Amarapura by the 

 king's eldeit fon, on his return from the cenqueit of 

 Arakan. They called themfelves Rojfawn, and, for 

 what reafon I do not know, wanted to perfuade me 

 that theirs was the common language of Arakan. Both 

 thefe tribes, by the real natives of Arakan, are called 

 Kulaw Yak am, or ft ranger Arakan. 



The I ait dialect of the Hinduftanee which I fhall men- 

 tion is, that of a people called by the Burmas Aykonar, 

 many of whom are (laves at Amarapura. By one of them 

 I was informed, that th^y called themfelves Banga ; 

 that, formerly they had kings of their own, buttJ 

 in his father's time, their kingdom had been overturned 

 by the king of Murmypura 3 who carried away a great 

 part of the inhabitants to his reiidence. When that 



P 3 was 



