________________
JUNE, 1898.)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
145
(7) British Burma Gazetteer, 59 Spearman, Vol. I. 1880. (8) Census Report, Burma, Eales, 1891. (9) A Sgan Karen, born at Gyobingaak, Tharrawaddy District, able to read and
write his own language freely and having a good knowledge of Burmese. To use the ordinary transcriptions of the names, there are two clearly defined dialects of Karen, Sgau and Pwo, to which may be added Bghai. Another way of stating this fact is to say that the Karen Languages may be defined as those of the Burmese Karens, the Talaing Karens, and the Red Karens. The marked difference seems to be, however, between Sgau and Pwo, and even that appears to be giving way before the predominant Sgau.59
My direct teacher has come to such signal grief in life that I will not mention his personality beyond saying that his dialect must be Sgau, because, though he does not recognise the terms Sgau and Pwo, while he knows all about Bghai, he calls himself a Burmese Karen, as distinguished from a Talaing Karen, whose language he says he cannot speak. When asked to which of the Bghai Karen Tribes enumerated at p. 1, 111, of Wade's Dictionary of Sgau Karen he belonged, he remarked that he was a Pgbâkanyò which means, bowever, in Sgan, a Karen generally: see Sgau Dict. pp. 8, 1015.
Dr. Bennett explains (Notes, p. 13 f.) how, about 1834 and later, the Karen “Alphabet" came into existence as the result of the efforts of missionaries to write in a practical manner the hitherto unwritten and much differing dialects of Sgau and Pwo, and how they finally adopted the Burmese Alphabet with variations and additions to suit each. What was done as regards Pwo I do not know, and all the information in the authorities available to me is clearly Sgau.
Now the reason I have had to go so carefnlly into the question of the Karen Langnage for my present parpose is, that so far as I know, the sounds attached to the missionary. invented characters are nowhere laid down in such a way as to enable the enquirer to arrive at authoritative transcriptions or transliterations of the Karen words for money, weight, etc. The nearest apprbach to such information I have found is in Dr. Bennett's statements (p. 19 of the Notes): -"The great fact is the Burman characters are used in writing Karen, but not Burmese sounds .... There is hardly ever the sonnd in Karen the same as in Burmese.61 It is essentially a Burmese character but with Karen sounds, ... The real sounds cannot be written with English letters."
Among those consulted by the Government for the Notes was Mr. P. H. Martyr, whose general authority on such subjects all who know will acknowledge, and he wrote (p. 17) in 1882: - "The Karen Alphabet is, therefore, the Burmese Alphabet with variations and additione. Marks and strokes to denote sounds not found in the Burmese language have been added. The Burmese letters have not been changed in any way, but some of the sounds of the letters have been changed .... The two principal dialects Pwo and Sgaw have been reduced to writing, and strange to say that, although they are both formed with Burmese characters. distinct additional marks and strokes have been introduced to denote the same sounds."
Thus far my authorities, which are not very er.couraging; and so I have in the end been
68 Information in this volume procured chiefly from Dr. Mason.
0 Cennia Report, p. 165. Dr. Bennett, in 1882, said (Notes on Dialects, p. 14): "A Sgan Karen has been known to rend Pwo after a few hours' study, and the Pwo cau casily read tho Sgau, notwithstauding there is a great difference in the definition of many words."
60 Manon, Nat. Prod. Burma, 1850, gives a great number of Pwo Karen words, but there is nowhere any transcription described, and the character is a very strange one.
61 See also p. 13.
