1849.] valley of Asam and its mountain confines. 311 



The deficiency referred to, however, is made up for by the use of 

 small particles and appendages, though more frequently by the relative 

 position of words in the formation of sentences, which is found amply 

 sufficient to remove all ambiguity. Indeed, we find with respect to 

 many English verbs (the verb to cut for instance) that of the two 

 hundred and sixteen verbal variations which it undergoes, position 

 alone is found equal to the task of forming two hundred and eleven, 

 only five being formed by the addition of terminations to the original 

 monosyllable ; namely, cuttest, cuts, cutteth, cutledst, and cutting. 



What the English language then effects in so great a degree by posi- 

 tion, these languages do almost wholly thereby. 



The first of the group that demands our attention is 



The Khamti,* 



which in common with the Siamese, Burmese, Laos, Shyan and Ahom, 

 is only a dialect of the language usually known as the Tai ; a language 

 more or less prevalent through all that wide tract of country extending 

 from Siam to the valley of the Brahmaputra. 



In a language so extensive in its use, it might be conjectured that 

 local peculiarities would have given rise to a great diversity of dialects, 

 so that the Khamti and Siamese, spoken at the extremities, would have 

 presented but few links of connection. On the contrary, however, we 

 find that the discrepancies between the two are very trifling. 



Mr. Brown's investigations lead him to the conclusion, that upwards 

 of nine-tenths of the fundamental words are the same in these two 

 dialects, with the exception of a few slight variations in pronunciation. 

 These variations are mostly confined to a few letters, viz. ch, which the 

 northern tribes change to ts ; d, for which they use 1 or n ; r, which 

 becomes h ; and ua which is changed for long o. 



Different systems of writing have been introduced to express the 

 sounds of the different dialects of the Tai. The Khamti and Shyan 

 alphabets are evidently derived from the Burmese ; the Laos is nearly 

 related to the Burmese, but more complete and better adapted to the 

 wants of the language than the Shyan ; while the Siamese character 

 bears only a remote resemblance to the Burmese. 



* I am indebted to the kind assistance of the Rev, N. Brown for my notes on 

 this language. 



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