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OCTOBER, 1898.)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AXONG THE BURMESE
253
Y
(3)
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
BY R. C. TEMPLE.
(Continued from p. 215.)
1. - Ohin-Lushai Group sources of information for the Chin Language are : (1) Practical Handbook of the Language of the Lais (Baungshè Dialect), Newland,
1897. (2) Handbook of the Hàká or Baungshè Dialect of the Chin Language, Mar
Nabb, 1891.
Essay on the Language of the Southern Chins, Houghton, 1892. (4) The Khyeng People of the Sandoway District, Fryer, 1875.58 (5) Maung Tet Pyo's Custoinary Laro of the Chin Tribe, Jardine, 1884.
Statistical and Historical Account of the Thayet iyo District, Browne, 1873, (7) Burma Census Report, 59 Eales, 1891.
(8) An intelligent Siyin Chin. Chin" is the generio appellation used by the Burmese for the Tribes inhabiting the hill-oountry between Burma and the Provinces of Assam and Bengal, and the general language of the tribes so named is closely connected with that of the Lushais on the Western slopes of the same hills, and therefore more or less 80 with the general Naga Language, already described. Chin-Lushai being now the usual definition of the group, I have adopted the term in these pages.
As is the case with the Kachin and Naga Languages generally, instability of form is characteristic of the Chin Language also. "The language varies somewhat from place to place, particularly in the matter of the vowels, which are seldom clearly pronounced. Indeed, distinct articulation is not by any means affected by the Chins." This fact should always be present in the mind when perusing the following pages. It should also be remembered that y and . are interchangeable in the mouths of Chins from different villages.
By far the fallest and most laborious, and in many respects the most valuable, work on the Chin Language is that of Surgeon-Major Newland on the Language of the Lais, Lai being the native term for the large and important tribe better known by its Burmese appellation of Baungshè, or by its alternative territorial title of Håka. Unfortunately Dr. Newland is not a practised grammarian or philologist, and his presentation of the language is, therefore, a considerable trouble to the student, who has indeed to work out his own idea thereof from the various statements given him in the book. Captain MacNabb treats of the same dialect in his Handboole, and unluckily with the same defect. Bat with a little patience and study of peculiarities one can make out the tables given below for the namerals. To these I have added the numerals given me by the Siyin Chin above noted, as, so far as I can ascertain, the dialect of the Siyin Tribe is quite nearly related to that of their neighbours, the Hàkas.
* Reprint from J. 4. 8. B., Pt. I., 1875. " Page 162 1. contains long and interesting noto by Mr. Bernard Houghton on the Chin Language.
Khyong in most books of the poneration now passing away.
Mr. Houghton in the Burma Corinne Raport, 1891, p. 162. See also Newland, p. 1, and MacNabb, introduction. From Newland'a various remarks sandhi or nigori clearly exista extensively in Chin, a fact which will no doubt puzzle the ordinary learners of that language until it is explained to them. The explosivo, hesitatiug nature of inany Chins' speech can also be gathered from Capt. MacNabb's book.
I do not wish in the above remarks to underrate the labours of these two oficials. Men are not sent to the Frontier because they are philologista, but to perform far different, and for the time at any rate, far more valu. able work than that of the philologiat. The student cannot, in fact, be too grateful for the jottings of hard-worked and sorely tried frontier oficials, who must always make them under all sorts of difficulties and in the midst of engrossing and pressing duties. Even if the official happens to be "scientifie" enthusiast, the drudgery and worry of taking notes on top of the anxieties and in the midst of the difficulties inseparable from the position sro sufficiently deterrent to many men, and it is really "very good" of any man no placed to take the rouble at all. Experto crede.
