Page:Assamese-Its formation and development.djvu/37

 INTRODUCTION. I. A RAPID SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE. (A) " Assam " and " Assamese ". 1. Assamese is the easternmost New Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Assam valley districts with Lakhimpur in the extreme east and Goalpara m the extreme west. It meets Bengali in the west and is surrounded on all sides by speeches belonging to altogether different families of which the principal are the Tibeto-Burman and the Khasi (of the Mon- Khmer'family). In the area in which it is spoken it is not the only vernacular. It is a language- of the plains Everywhere its home as a vernacular is bouncbd by the hills lying on the north and on the south between winch the river Brahmaputra takes its westerly course. 2. The word Assamese is an English one. built on the same principle as Cingalese. Canarese. etc. It is based on the English word A$sam by which the tract consisting of the Brahmaputra valley is known. But the people themselves call their country Asam and their language Asamlya. (L.S.I. Vol. I. p. 393). The word Assam was connected with the Shan invaders of the Brahmaputra Valley. Since 1228 the easternmost part of the valley came under the domination of a section of the great Thai (Tai) or Shan race which spreads eastwards from the border of Assam over nearly the whole of further India and far into the interior of China. It seems curious that while the Shan invaders called themselves Tai (Gait : p. 245) they came to be referred to as Asam, Asam, Asam and Acam, by the natives of the province. In Darrang Raj Vamsabali, a chro- nicle of the Koch kings by Suryya Khari Daibajna, com- posed in the sixteenth century, the word Asam has all through been employed as a term of reference to the conquer- A.-1