1837.] Comparison of Indo-Chinese Languages. 1029 



are individuals who require an interpreter in conversing with persons not 

 of their own very limited community. Dialects so nearly similar as are 

 those of the Northern and Central Tdngkhuls, are generally intelligible to 

 the adult male population on both sides. But the women (the two tribes 

 in question seldom intermarry) and children, who rarely leave their homes, 

 find much difficulty in making themselves understood. Neither of the 

 tribes just named understand the language spoken by the Southern Tang- 

 khuls, and that again differs as widely from the languages of the Khoibus and 

 Marings. The southern Tangkhuls tell me that their language is spoken 

 by the inhabitants of a large village named KambLmaring, situated some- 

 where to the westward of the northern extremity of the Kaho valley. I 

 mention this to show why I as yet do not feel myself competent to give 

 satisfactory replies to the queries concerning particular tribes. I how- 

 ever think I can discover a connection (I do not include the Tai) between 

 all of the languages in this quarter that I have yet examined, sufficient* 

 ly intimate to warrant me in assigning a common origin to the tribes by 

 whom they are spoken. From these tribes, which I imagine to be the 

 aborigines of the country, extending east and south-east from the Brahma- 

 putra to China, 1 derive both the Barmese and the Manipuris. To the 

 Shyans, I assign a different origin." 



X. — Anamese or Cochin-chinese. The vocabulary of this language has 

 been furnished by Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, from whose letter are extracted the 

 following additional particulars. 



" The Anamese spoken in Cochin-china and Tunkin with very little 

 difference, might be considered as a coarse dialect of the Chinese, if the 

 sounds wherewith the characters are read were also current in the spoken 

 language. But the oral dialect totally differs from that used in perusing 

 the books in the Chinese character, and the construction likewise deviates 

 materially. It is however monosyllabic ; has intonations and all the cha- 

 racteristics of the Chinese, though the Anamese have fuller sounds, and use 

 various letters and diphthongs which no Chinaman can pronounce correctly. 

 The learning of the natives is entirely confined to Chinese literature, in 

 the acquiring of which they are by no means celebrated. There exist a 

 number of short-hand Chinese characters, which are used as syllabaries to 

 express sounds without reference to their meaning ; but they have not yet 

 been reduced to a system, and are used in various ways. The language 

 itself is spoken with a very shrill voice, and appears to a foreigner very 

 uncouth. It bears only a slight resemblance to the Cambodian, but other- 

 wise with no other dialect of the Eastern Peninsula*." 



XI. — Japanese. Mr. Gutzlaff says, " This language is spoken with 



very little variation, by about 20 millions of people, who inhabit the 



Japanese islands. It is polysyllabic, and only resembles the Chinese so 



far as it has adopted some words from that language, which are however 



* We shall soon know more of this from the Bishop's dictionary, now nearly 

 through the press. — Ed. 



6 p 



