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188
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JULY, 1882.
18. Roots of predication or assertion-so far Khyen poetry : (hãng I å yo), (mă neil from being entities, sent astray in naked help- tha tei) kä lessness and loneliness, with no influence beyond (eik dün ou'k dün), (a* gang at gang) nga the boundaries of their own restricted self, to (aan sit Iyé hnit, san sit I ya hü) ka clothe as best they could their long-continued wai sit bu hei, gang nga nudity with the tatters of pronominalroots, which lu toi (dung në sun në) no ä gradually effected agglutination and finally Khul nö, an aim (wei hmö sik hmö) bhui im. synthesis-had in Indo-Chinese languages their Karen prose: mē (pă il på ká) má ta tă first being within the folds of synthesis, the truest (mi mi me ge); på kă le ta tă (pu pu me ge); reflex of nature and its first embodiment in (må ö, ti, ma ) da o tā (kā rā ka re kă ră utterance. The automatic recollection of this kă re) (yi yi) ta ka to le. its original phase, continued in the numerous Poetry, the modes of expressing thought and offspring of the primitive language, and every feeling, which are suitable to the imagination monosyllable still bears in its phonetic charac- when excited or elevated, cannot in the lanter the stamp of its former association. In guages of Further India lay claim to a particular some of the so-called monosyllabic languages, constructive or creative effort of the mind; the features alluded to in the preceding para imaginative composition lies, as far as the graphs have in part disappeared, either in the language is concerned, in this instance comidiom of polite, high-flown conversation, or in pletely within the sphere of automatic rethe prose style of commentaries and translations. collection of the original phase of the idiom But it is a curious circumstance that the employed. phonetic laws of symbolic syntheses or pho- 19. There remains to be mentioned another netic couplets revive in full force in poetical peculiarity of Indo-Chinese languages: initial effusions. We have already in $ 6 alluded to consonants undergo changes directly and organithe external character of couplets, and seen cally indicative of a variation in meaning. This that their most salient feature consisted in the process is therefore also symbolic, and is in full prosodial equipoise, maintained between the two force in Burmese and Khyen, but has more or members of a couplet; "the constituents of the less lost its vitality in the other members of first member condition those of the second in the family, though traces of its former operathe number of syllables, quantity and quality of tion are found in all. vowels, accent and even tone." The laws of 1 Intransitive verbs are changed to transitive; prosody of popular poetry in Burmese, Talaing passive or neuter, to active or causative verbs Khyen, Karen, Shan and Phaloung are identi- by strengthening the initial consonant. cal with those obtaining in the primitive
Intransitive, passive. descriptive synthesis. In the following exam- Burmese.
Khyen. ples, couplets are put in brackets : Burmese : kye klei to be bruised. see Mahägitamedani kgam, vult to theingyee kys mun, to be broken. p. 18:
kyan
kyuan, to remain. (thi hma ho hma) nge la
náuk, to burn. (gyán sé gyān se) yue htú
pü to be full. (hmo hno) (zai't hta pyi | zai't htá pyt)
pyak, to be destroyed. (hmö hno) zai't htä pyi
myop mlut, to be buried. p. 59 (län lan) se (khaing pan | thein than) we lan
mlot, to be tarned back. nguo huing tă (phyán phyan | šan šan) myng mlüng, to be high. le huing tă (myan myan)
kwa kák, to be detached. (lum lum) lo hmaing
Transitive, or cansative. (phyê lê | phyé pă) huaing
Burmese.
Khyen. (bwe saing | khwe yaing) twe
khye khlei, to pulverize. or in prose (Mahosadha vatthus, p. 6):
khyó hmun, to break, to snap. (mi pus gui | lk pus to) thi, bà lát ; (đã khyan khyuan, to leave, to set aside. hlyap hlyap I to htein htein), (a shein | a vä) hhi
trauk, to ignite. hning tout pa kuni,
pho
phí, to fill up.
ро pyek
