Hand.—Xong, ti; Mon, toi; Annam, tay, Khmer, te (from sang te, finger); Palaung, tae, tai, and Khasi, kti (with prefix k) closely correspond. The forms ta and toi of Amwi, and Lakadong, respectively, still more closely correspond with the Mon-Khmer languages than with Khasi. Here compare Nancowry tei and ti, or ti of the Kol languages.
Blood.—Palaung hnam, and Wa nam closely correspond with Khasi snám; here compare Khmêr iham.
Horn:—Mon, grang, the horn of an animal, may be compared with the Khasi reng.
Far.—Distant. Bahnar, hangai; Annam, ngai; Khmêr, chhngay; Lemet, sngay; Sue chngai may be compared with the Khasi jing-ngai. Amwi shnjngoi seems to be a closer form to the above than Khasi jing-ngai. But compare Mynnar (Jirang), chngi, which is clearly very close to Sue chngai, and Khmer chhngay.
To weep, to cry.—Mon, yam; Khmer, yam; Khmu Lemet and Palaung, yam, are clearly the same as Khasi iam, with which also may be compared Ho yam.
It is interesting to note that the Amwi and Lakadong dialects of Khasi, which are spoken by the people who dwell on the southern slopes of the Jaintia Hills, seem more closely to correspond with the Mon-Khmer forms than even with Khasi. The Mynnar or Jirang dialect of Khasi, spoken on the extreme north of the hills, also appears to possess some words which are very similar indeed to some of the Mon-Khmer forms given by Professor Kuhn. Unfortunately, I had time to collect but a few words of this interesting dialect, as I arrived in the portion of the country inhabited by these people only a short time before submitting this monograph to Government. The Mynnar dialect appears to be akin to the Synteng, Lakadong, and Amwi forms of speech. The Mynnars observe also the Synteng ceremony of "Beh-ding-khlam," or driving away the demon of cholera, so that although now inhabiting a part of the country a considerable distance away from that of the Synteng, it is not unlikely that they were originally connected with the latter more closely.
Professor Kuhn comes to the conclusion that there is a distinct connection between Khasi, Mon or Talaing, Khmêr, and the other languages of Indo-China that have been mentioned, which is to be seen not only from similarities in some of the numerals, but from the convincing conformities of many other words of these languages. He goes on to add that more important than these contacts of the mono-syllabic languages of Indo-China with mono-syllabic Khasi is their affinity with the Kol, and Nancowry poly-syllabic languages and with that of the aboriginal inhabitants of Malacca, i.e. the languages of the so-called Orang-Outang, or men of tile woods, Sakei, Semung, Orang-Benua, and others; and that although it is not, perhaps, permissible to derive at once from this connection the relation of the Khasi Mon-Khmêr mono-syllabic group with these poly-syllabic languages, it seems to be certain that a common substratum lies below a great portion of the Indo-Chinese languages as well as those of the Kol and Ho-Munda group. More important than connections between words is, as Dr. Grierson points out in his introduction to the Mon-Khmêr family, the order of the words in the sentence. In both Khasi and Mon that order is subject, verb, object. Taking this fact in conjunction with the similarities of the Khasi and Mon vocabularies, we may conclude that it is proof positive of the connection between Khasi and Mon, or Talaing. In Munda, however, this order is subject, object, verb. Tiffs is a very important difference, for, as Dr. Grierson points out, "the order of words in a sentence follows the order of thought of the speaker; it follows therefore that the Mundas think in an order of ideas different from those of the Khasis and the Mons." Dr. Grierson comes to the stone conclusion with respect to these languages as Professor Kuhn, which is as follows:—"Owing to the existence of these differences we should not be justified in assuming a common origin for the Mon-Khmêr languages on the one hand, and for the Munda, Nancowry, and Malacca languages on the other. We may, however, safely assume that there is at the bottom of all these tongues a common substratum, over which there have settled layers of the speeches of other peoples, differing in different localities. Nevertheless, this substratum was so firmly, established as to prevent its being entirely hidden by them, and frequent undeniable traces of it are still discernible in languages spoken in widely distant tracts of Nearer and Further India. Of what language this original substratum consisted we are not yet in a position to say. Whatever it was, it covered a wide area, larger than the area covered by many families of languages in India at the present day. Languages With this common substratum are now spoken, not only in the modern Province of Assam, in Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Anam, but also over the whole of Central India, as far west as the Berars." Grierson, having agreed regarding the existence of this common substratum, does not finally determine whether the ancient substratum was the parent of the present Munda language, or of the Mon-Khmêr language. He says, "It cannot have been the parent of both, but it is possible that it was the parent of neither." We are thus still in a state of uncertainty as to what was the origin of these languages.
The brief description which follows of some of the more prominent characteristics of the Khasi language is based chiefly on Sir Charles Lyall's skeleton Grammar contained in Vol. II. of Dr. Grierson's "Linguistic Survey of India." It does not pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on the language; for this students are referred to the excellent grammar compiled by the Rev. H. Roberts.
The Article.—There are four articles in Khasi; three in the singular, u, (masculine), ka (feminine), and i (diminutive of both genders); and one in the plural for both genders, ki.
All Khasi nouns take a pronominal prefix to denote the gender, i.e. the third personal pronoun, u (masculine), ka (feminine), i (diminutive). The great majority of inanimate nouns are feminine, and all abstract nouns. The sun (day), ka sngi, is feminine, the moon (month), u b'nai, is masculine. Sometimes the word varies in meaning according to the gender, e,g. u ngap, a bee; ka ngap, honey.