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If the root begins with the vowel a and ends with a labial or h or a nasal, or if the initial consonant is the soft sonant n, and the final a labial or nasal, the antiphonous vowel is u. The preference of u to i is here due to the influence of the adjacent labials or h; however, i is frequently retained.
180
a+p (or h) Hokkien áh Shangai ah Amoy ap, ah Burmese u'p Shan
ap* c ap10
b (m) + a Hokkien bán
Amoy bán Anam. măn
น
a + m Hokkien ám Amoy àm Shangai an Sgō Karen o Anam. ám
Shan
am1c am c
In Sgō Karen we have d' instead of u; this is owing to the loss of the final nasal, which left the evidence of its former existence upon the surviving portion of the root by strengthening u to the full deep-toned do.
bán, to plaster.
b (m, bh) + u b (m) + i Shan mum c Shan mim'c Ngô Karen bhi (in) bà Bhi
ú
Shan mam
Burmese mam Burmese mum
ê
ai
3
au
ap (a kind of box) u (ü) + p Sgō Karen ü Shan up*c
am, ang, dark, secret.
u + m Shan
The following is a scheme of the principal antithetic vowel sounds in parallel roots :a require i or u
á
i or ú
33
39
29
a
d
a, i, o, i
i+m um10 Shan im1 c um4c
ui
ué
ü
ö
öu
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
iu require au io", áu
i+p (or t) Shan po Burm. i't
33
29
35
33
ai ai
a or i, rarely o
a, i, 8
i
39
á, í, or e iu This peculiar feature, which will be further illustrated in the chapter on "phonetic couplets," assumes strong traits in the individual members of the Indo-Chinese group, especially in the uncultured tongues. The law above set forth is in full force in Shan, Khyen, and Karen. In Rev. Mr. Cushing's Shan Dictionary, a
[JULY, 1882.
very careful and laborious compilation, the parallel roots, as they exist in the spoken and written language, are added to each radical form. The reverend author is the first writer on the Burmese languages who has exhibited in detail and to some extent perceived the importance of vowel antithesis in otherwise homonymous roots; he says (Shan Dictionary, pp. 12, 15): "Phonetic couplets (in Shan) are syllables having no meaning in themselves, which are joined to a word for the sake of the additional sound which they produce. . . . . When they are employed, it is generally through the influence of anger, a desire for fun, or some feeling which seeks to express itself in a many-worded form..... It may be that these phonetic couplets are the empty signs of dead words, but I incline to think that they have grown out of the tonal character of the language to supply a demand for a slightly more emphatic form of expression than any afforded by simple words."
We have seen that the antithetic parallel root to Shan ka is ki, but also that both ka and ki, or their etymological derivatives, are historical roots; ki, the secondary form in Shan, has survived as primary form in Chinese chi, Sgo Karen ghi Burmese kyi; Shan kham, gold, has for its antithetic form khim; but the Chinese words for gold (chim, kin, gyin) are all related to khim; and kham occurs as the parallel form. Shan has preserved the majority of forms, which the law of vowel-antithesis is capable of producing; the consequent surfeit pressed many into services of secondary importance. Shan may truly be said to contain the index to the related roots in kindred languages, in which the law of divarication of the vowel elements operated less energetically, or in which it has been crippled through the influence of foreign idioms.
The three parallel Shan forms, ap, up, ip, direct the etymologist to search for the related vocables in the Burmese and Chinese languages under the vowel a, or u, or i; Sgo Karen and Burmese have no representative of the ap form, but they are found as ü or up; Burmese has also preserved the i-root (i't) which is lost in Karen; the Chinese relatives survive as áh, ah, and ap, the collateral u- and i- branches having died out.
The theory of these parallel roots in Shan
