1877.] Peninsula and the Indian Archipelago. 209 



Karen are purposely left independent both of the British and Burmese 

 Governments : their dialects differ so much as to render communication as 

 difficult as if they were separate languages. Sir A. Phayre reports within 

 the limits of British Burmah the following subdivisions : Pakee, Maune 

 Pagha, Bghae, Wee-Waee, and Sgae. 



" It is asserted that the Kakhyens, who will be noted hereafter, and 

 Karens, are identical : the legends of the Karens certainly point to a de- 

 scent from the mountains. Out of fifty thousand nearly one-half are Chris- 

 tians. They have no literature, and no indigenous character : the Eoman 

 and Burmese are both employed. The field has l)een well worked. We 

 have grammars by Wade and Mason, in two dialects ; dictionaries by Wade 

 and Mason ; vocabularies by Hunter, Bennett, Wade, and Mason. Por- 

 tions of the Bible have been translated into three dialects, and numerous 

 contributions made to journals, and many separate volumes published in 

 Europe and America, 



" Ascending the Irawadi, we find its middle course occupied by the 

 Burmahs, or Burmese, speaking the great Burmese language, called in 

 early days the Avan, a language great in religion, politics, and literature, 

 the chief language of the eastern portion of the Tibeto-Burman grouj), as 

 the Tibetan is of the northern. The word Burmah is a corruption of 

 Myamma, or Marumma, which is again a contraction of the Sanskrit Ma- 

 havarna, the honorary title of the Khshatrya. The Burmese are a nation 

 of boundless pride and great pretension, but they point to the Rakheng, or 

 Arrakanese, as the oldest dialect of their language. The Burmese and 

 Tibetan are the only literary languages in the midst of a series of unletter- 

 red and savage congeners, but a closer scrutiny will, before long, point out 

 the distinguishing features, and enable a proper classification to be made of 

 sub-families, while admitting a common origin. In addition to those 

 already named, and the Kakhyens, to be noticed in next paragraph, there 

 are numerous kindred languages of the Tibeto-Burman family within the 

 government of Bengal and Assam, and noticed in the report of last year. 

 There were seven races of the Myamma stock, Eakheng, Burmese, Talain, 

 Khyen, Karen, Yo, and Tavoyi. The Burmese have their own character, 

 derived from the Indian. The Pali is their sacred language as Buddhists. 

 Leyden, as far back as 1808, remarked that the Burmese was not purely 

 monosyllabic, but a connecting link between monosyllabic and polysyllabic 

 languages ; this opinion has been justified by a more intimate acquaintance. 

 By many authorities Burmese and Karen are classed as monosyllabic. 

 Max Miiller thinks that they are not so ; but, as before stated, before any 

 decision is arrived at, we must settle what the line of demarcation is. If 

 the occasional use of particles, which have no meaning by themselves, 

 removes them from the monosyllabic order, then Chinese itself, with its 



