18 Alphabets of the Tai anguage. [Jan. 



of the other Shydn families whose literature is hut a direct trans- 

 lation of Burmese Buddhism, as their alphabets, the Shyan,-Khamti, 

 Laos, &c, are seen to be mere modifications of the Burmese or Pali 

 alphabet. 



This fact would seem to argue that tbe emigration of the Ahoms 

 from their own country Siam, had taken place prior to the introduc- 

 tion of the Buddhist religion into that country — but how can this be 

 reconciled with the date of Chukapha ? — Ed.] 



The Language of the Ahoms. 



The Ahom is a branch of the Tai language, which is spoken, with 

 some variations, by the Khamtis, the Shyans, the Laos, and the Sia- 

 mese, all of whom designate themselves by the general appellation of 

 Tai. Among the Ahoms, or that portion of the Tai race inhabiting 

 Assam, the language is nearly extinct, being cultivated only by the 

 priests, as the ancient language of their religion ; while their vernacu- 

 lar and common dialect, as well as that of the people, is Assdmese. 

 As the Ahoms once ruled over Assam, it is somewhat surprising that 

 more traces of their language are not to be found in the present dialect 

 of the Assamese, which contains very few words of Tai origin. 



As might naturally be expected, the Ahoms, from disuse of their 

 original tongue, have lost many of its peculiar sounds. In conformity 

 with the pronunciation of the Assamese, they give to w the sound of b ; 

 and y, they pronounce as^' or z. The sound of the French w, which is so 

 common in the Tai, they change sometimes to ti and sometimes to t. 

 The intonations of their original tongue they have entirely lost ; one 

 reason of this undoubtedly is, that these intonations were never express- 

 ed by the Ahoms in writing. The same is at present the case with the 

 Khamtis and Shyans, who have no characters expressive of their in- 

 tonations, having, like the Ahoms, adopted the Burman alphabet, 

 which is inadequate to meet the wants of the Tai language in this re- 

 spect. The Siamese characters, on the contrary, represent the tones 

 with the greatest precision. 



It is, however, remarkable that the language of the Ahoms as 

 pronounced by the priests, corresponds to the Siamese with much 

 greater exactness in some respects, than any of the Shyan dialects 

 spoken between Assam and Siam. 



1 . The sound of b, frequent in the Siamese and Laos, is converted 

 into m by all the Shyans, while the Ahoms have preserved the 

 regular b. 



2. The Siamese d is changed by the Shyans to I, and by the Kham- 

 tis to n, but the Ahoms give it its correct pronunciation. 



3. The same is true of the letter r, which the Shyans change to h. 



