Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/156

140 the most noticeable are Talaing (179,443) and Palaung (144,139). Of the Malaya-Polynesian family the only dialect of interest is that spoken by Salôn or Mawken ; and even of this the classification is doubtful. Malay is spoken by a few thousand immigrants frequenting the coast of Mergui.

The Burmese language is monosyllabic and has three accents, light, medium, and heavy. It has no inflections and the grammar is generally simple. Of Karen and Shan there are many dialects. The Shan language also is monosyllabic and has five or six tones by which the same word acquires as many totally different meanings.

The principal alphabets of Burma, that is Pyu, Talaing, Burmese, and Shan are, directly or indirectly, derived from the old Telugu-Canarese alphabets of South India. The first two, Pyu and Talaing, were derived directly, the former from the Kadamba alphabet of Vanavāsī in North Canara, to the west of South India; the latter from the alphabet of the Pallavas of Kāñicipura in the east of South India....The Burmese and Shan alphabets, though ultimately going back to old Telugu-Canarese have not been derived directly, but indirectly, and both from the Môn or Talaing alphabet.

Of the many dialects spoken by hill tribes it would be unprofitable to give a detailed list.