But there is also a stage subsequent to such an evolution, when inflexions have become obliterated and when case-endings, like the i in patr-i, are replaced by prepositions (in some cases by postpositions) like the to in to father; and when personal endings, like the o in voc-o, are replaced by pronouns, like the I in I call. Of the first of these stages, the Chinese is the language which affords the most typical specimen that can be found in the present late date of languages—late, considering that we are looking for a sample of its earliest forms. Of the last of these stages the English of the year 1851 affords the most typical specimen that can be found in the present early date of language—early, considering that we are looking for a sample of its latest forms.
Hence—
- a. How far the different monosyllabic tongues are all in the same stage—is one question.
- b. Whether this stage be the earlier or the later one—is another; and—
- c. Whether they are connected by relationship as well as in external form—is a third.
In answer to this, it is safe to say (a.) that they are all uninflected, because inflexions have yet to be evolved; not because they have been evolved and lost—as is the case with the English, a language which stands at one end of the scale, just as the Chinese does at the other.
(b.) They are, also, all connected by a bonâ fide ethnological relationship; as can be shown by numerous tables; the Chinese and Tibetans being, apparently, the two extremes, in the way of difference.
As for their geographical distribution, it is a blank-and-prize lottery, with large and small areas in juxtaposition and contrast, just as has been the case in America and in Africa; the Sub-Himalayan parts of British India, Sikkim and Nepâl, and the Indo-Burmese frontier (or the country about Assam and Munipúr) being the tracts where the multiplicity of mutually unintelligible tongues within a limited district is greatest.
Again—whenever the latter distribution occurs we have either a mountain-fastness, political independence, or the primitive pagan creed—generally all three.
The population speaking a monosyllabic language which is in the most immediate contact with the continental tribes of the Oceanic stock, is the Southern Siamese. This reaches as far as the northern frontier of Kedah (Quedah), about 8° N. L. Everything north of this is monosyllabic; with the exception of a Malay settlement (probably, though not certainly, of recent origin) on the coast of Kambogia.
Now the great stock to which the Siamese belong is called Tʻhay. Its direction is from north to south, coinciding with the course of the great river Menam; beyond the head-waters of which the Tʻhay tribes reach as far as Assam. Of these northern Tʻhay, the Khamti are the most numerous; and it is important to know that as many as 92 words out of 100 are common to this dialect and to the classical Siamese of Bankok.
Again, the intermediate tribes of the Upper and Middle Menam—the Lau—speak a language as unequivocally Siamese as the Khamti. If so, the Tʻhay tongue, widely extended as it is in the particular direction from north to south, is a tongue falling into but few dialects; the inference from which is, that it has spread within a comparatively recent period. Consequently, it has encroached upon certain other populations and effected certain displacements.