Page:On the Non-Aryan Languages of India.djvu/28

22 the western part of Yunan, where they are called Kakhyens, the Kakhyen and Singpho languages being nearly the same thing. The Singpho verb is of the simple type. The negative verb is formed by prefixing n to the initial consonant; n is also prefixed to some words as a determinative; for instance, nlung 'a stone,' lung and long in other languages; ntsin 'water,' Manipuri ishing. Singpho has many words in common with both Burmese and Manipuri. The principal language of our eastern frontier is Class XVI., Burmese, as Tibetan is of our northern. It can hardly be doubted that they both belong to the same group. Many of the combinations of initial consonants are the same in both languages; but the pronunciation has not altered so much in Burmese as in Tibetan. An initial s in Tibetan followed by another consonant often corresponds to the aspirated form of the consonant in Burmese, as Tibetan stong 'a thousand,' Burmese htaung; Tibetan sna 'nose,' Burmese hna. Tones are much used in Burmese, whereas they are but little heard in Tibetan, and only, I believe, in part of Tibet; but then Burmese has not the determinative syllables or letters of the Tibetan, for which the tones are the substitutes. The Burmese verb has no person endings, but it has a plural suffix kra, thus gna thwa-thi 'I go,' gnado thwa-kra-thi 'we go.' With the numerals in Burmese a great many generic particles are used.

The principal languages of Class XVII. are the Manipuri, Kuki, and Khyeng. Manipuri has many words in common, both with Burmese and Singpho, and with some of the Nagas; but, both in grammar and vocabulary, it seems to belong more decidedly to the present class. No language of this class has the sound of the Burmese th. Manipuri with some words, and Kuki always, show the genitive relation by the use of the abridged form of the pronoun. In Manipuri this makes a sort of double genitive, as a genitive suffix is also used. Thus Manipuri ai-gi i-pá 'of me my father,' mi-gi ma-kok 'of the man his head'; Lushai Kuki koyma ka pá 'I my father,' mi a lu 'the man his head.' In Kuki and Khyeng the verb has the signs of number and person