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JULY, 1882.]
imitative of the creaking and cracking sound, produced by the tense friction of two hard bodies, is expressed by the repeated and alternate occurrence of sharp creaking (i-1) and duller cracking (a-a) sounds. In the consonantal element is contained the inherent quality of the action or motion, in the vowels the accessories of time and place--the here and there, the now and then; the functions of roots verbal and roots pronominal are here exercised by forms purely predicative. As the language developed and new means of distinction became necessary, pronominal roots came into use to more clearly define temporal and local relations; this appears to have been effected by tă, kă and på and couplets like to sgí | tă sgá, having the same, or nearly the same, meaning as sgi sgisga sga, were formed. The separation of the roots sgi, and sga, conveying the abstract idea of suffering by the ill-will of others, is of a later date. A few more examples are:
tu tu (Karen) imitative of a dull, heavy sound, produced by vehement striking; subsequently the single root tu came to mean, to submit to hardship, to endure; if the sound is separated at regular intervals, the pronominal particle ka enters the synthesis: ku tu kā tū.
om ōmim im (Shan) adv. in a low murmuring manner; whence ōm, to speak in an indistinct tone, and im, to speak with a weak voice, as an old man.
INDO-CHINESE LANGUAGES.
ming ming mang mang (Shan) with flashes, as a distant light, and mung mung mang mang, shining with brilliancy-whence mang. and rang, to shine.
phe phi phe phi (Shan), to spread out in a disorderly manner; phe (antithetic root phi) to divide into parts.
phoük phoük | phak phak (Shan), abundantly, as sweat or tears.
thân, thân—thỏ thô (Burmese), applied to hearing distant sounds; whence than for the abstract conception of sound.
I am persuaded that these couplets preceded the isolation of single roots as exponents of an abstract idea; to assume that sgi to endure, to suffer from the molestation of others, existed before sgi sgi | sga sga, or to suppose the idea of suffering to have been degraded to the symbolic representation of a creaking sound, caused by friction with another hard substance, is to allow either an uncommonly
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high degree of abstraction or idealization to uncultured nations, or a perverted proceeding in the process of the formation of language, for which there is no analogy in the experiences of linguistic history.
It appears to me also erroneous to view sija, im, mang, phi, phak in the second member of the synthesis as etymological derivatives, as separate and distinct roots from sgi, ōm, ming, mung, phe, phoük in the first member; the former are genetically identical with the latter; a in sga is not a phonetic change brought about in the course of the linguistic life of the root sgi-but an original vowel-antithesis in the symbolic synthesis sgi sgi | sga sga.
10. This peculiar feature deserves careful attention in comparative studies of the IndoChinese languages. Asan instance of how genetic connection of roots in these idioms may be traced and established, let us collate the words for pony, horse:
Burmese myi"; Phaloung (Ka) pri"; Arakanese mra"; Kachyen J (Ku) pra"; Shan ma (antithetic root: mi); Hokkien bá, má;
Shanghai ma;
Anam. ma.
Guided by similarity of sound, we might infer relationship between these terms; but the laws of phonetic changes, which are considered as valid in other language-families, have but little bearing upon the nature of changes, and their causes, in Burmese and Chinese words. We must first direct attention to the final element of the several roots. The number of initial consonants and of vowels stand in a definite relation to the number of accidents in the vowel-element and of the final consonants:
1. If the root possesses one of the six final consonants k, ng, t, n, p, m, and at the same time a fully developed tonal system as in the southern Chinese languages and Shan, the number of initial consonants is comparatively small, from seventeen to twenty, made up chiefly of tenues and tenues aspirate; double initial consonants very rarely occur, and generally only in borrowed words.
2. If the roots exhibit the six final consonants, above alluded to, but a crippled tone-scale, the number of vowels and initial consonants increases in exact proportion as the means, to
