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JOLY, 1882.]
INDO-CHINESE LANGUAGES.
185
pat
Shan; hang, rang, yong, ram are all etymologi- probably an original ma-ra", ma-yi* and pa-ra* cally represented by the one Shan-root, hangi before us, in which ma and pa are either klang, króm, kám, kän, kán, ran, gan by the pronominal roots, and ra", yin the terms for Shan kang and kan; shéang, khin, khan, khän, " pony," or ma, pa are identical with the khăng khăng kang, chàng by the Shan khang Chinese ma and ba and ran, yin obsolete classi(antithetic parallel root khang). In the latter, fiers or numeral auxiliaries." differentiation is affected by differences in the 11. The relation which subsists in Chinese. vowel of the root (tone, emphasis, etc.); in the between the "old sounds" and "new sounds," former, by differences in the consonants- and between the words used in the colloquial the vowel element being a-tonal. It is not, and the literary language may also be connecttherefore, a violation of sound etymology to ed with the law of vowel-antithesis : accept the Shan-Chinese initials m and b as legi
Old sound. New sound. timate representatives of mr, my, and pr; the latter must, however, be viewed as the older
bang ping dok
tre forms, which became simplified in Shan-Chinese.
an, am The vowel element in the roots under
in, yาท consideration offers some difficulty. We
pit and pf mo
ma observe, that in all cases where it is not a, it
bak is i; a sudden transition, so uniformly appear.
pik, and pe, where the
final k has been thrown ing in widely different families, from a to i,
off. or i to a, is impossible, if it were attempted to explain this peculiarity by a purely phonetio
hiang hung, kung. change, gradually brought about during the
A few more illustrations will not be out of place : linguistic history of the root. No forms with
Hokkien àng, a jar intermediate, transitional vowels are discover.
Amoy ang able. We find, however, a ready solution of
Burmese ing this phenomenon, by admitting this polarization
Shan ang o (parallel root ing ") of vowels being due to vowel-antithesis, the Hokkien ba, pa, a scar nominal root ma and mi, mran and myin, having Shangai pa risen to individual life and independence from Amoy pha, pa a symbolizing synthesis consisting of predicative Shan pa' (parallel root pie") roots. We need not, however, base this Talaing pá (in på net a scar) conclusion upon theories only—the synthesis in Burm. må (in à mã yút) question still exists in Shan, which, together
Hokkien bd (in bd hong) leprosy, small-pox. with the forms in the kindred tongues, must Shanghai ma have been derived from a synthesis in a prim- Anamma itive Indo-Chinese language. In the process Amoy bá of forming abstract ideas from concrete ideas, Karen má (the measles) nominal roots from verbal ones, and in accord- Shan má (parallel root mi) ance with a predisposition for certain vowels, Burm. myi. (in myin phu) either the root containing the a vowel, or the
Hokk. bd (in bd bé), a fox root with i, or both, as in Shan, were sepa- Amoy bd, a wild cat (ldi bá, a sort of fox) rated and invested with individual life. Thus
mi a dog (må lin, a fox) we can establish not only the relationship between mra", pra"; myi", prin and ma, mi, but Karen mi a cat (htwui mi, a fox) also between (sce $ 5) ka and ki; pan and
Hokkien bai, to bury, to hide away, to cover up. pin; bát and bit; mát and mit; ap, up and Shangai mai ip; am, um and im, and all other roots which Anam. mai divaricate the vowel element according to the Amoy bai scheme laid down in & 5. mra", myin and pran Shan mai' (parallel root mi mail) may, however, be composite roots; we have | Karen bhi and bhi
. Por ka in Phaloung and Kakhion (ki) pri" (ka) praso0 footnoto pago 186.
