I think that even in the minuter details that now suggest themselves we can see our way; so far, at least, as to determine in which direction the movement took place—whether it were from north to south or from south to north.
Few classes of tongues can be better studied for ethnological purposes than the monosyllabic. A paper of Buchanan’s, and another of Leyden’s, are amongst the most valuable articles of the Asiatic Researches. One of Mr. Brown’s in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal gives us numerous tabulated vocabularies for the Burmese, Assamese and Indian frontiers. Mr. Hodgson and Dr. Robertson have done still more for the same parts. Lastly, the chief southern dialects, which have been less studied, are tabulated in the second volume of ‘Crawfurd’s Embassy to Siam.’
Upon looking over these, we find specimens of the two tongues which lie east and west of the southern Siamese; the first being the Khô language of Kambogia, and the second the Môn of Pegu. Each of these is spoken over a small area; indeed the Môn, which is, at present, nearly limited to the Delta of the Irawaddi, is fast giving way before the encroaching dialects of the Burmese class, whilst the Khô of Kambogia is similarly limited to the lower part of the Mekhong, and is hemmed in by the Siamese, the Lau, and the Anamitic of Cochin China.
Now, separated as they are, the Môn and Khô are liker to each other than either is to the interjacent Siamese; the inference from this being that at one time they were connected by transitional and intermediate dialects, aboriginal to the lower Menam, but now displaced by the Siamese of Bankok introduced from the parts to the northwards.
If this be the case, the monosyllabic tongue most closely allied to those of the Malayan Peninsula (which are not monosyllabic) is not the present Siamese, but the language which the present Siamese displaced.
How far this view is confirmed by any special affinities between the Malay dialects with the Môn and Khô is more than I can say. The examination, however, should be made.
The southern Tʻhay dialects are not only less like the Môn and Khô than is expected from their locality, but the northern ones are less like those of the Indo-Burmese frontier and Assam than the geographical contiguity prepares us to surmise; since the per-centage of words common to the Khamti and the other dialects of Munipur and Assam is only as follows[29].
| Siamese. | Khamti. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | per cent. | with the | Aka. |
| 0 | 1 | „ | „ | Abor. |
| 3 | 5 | „ | „ | Mishimi. |
| 6 | 8 | „ | „ | Burmese. |
| 8 | 8 | „ | „ | Karien. |
| 3 | 3 | „ | „ | Singpho. |
| 10 | 10 | „ | „ | Jili. |
| 1 | 3 | „ | „ | Garo. |
| 3 | 3 | „ | „ | Munipúri. |
| 1 | 1 | „ | „ | Songphu. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Kapwi. |
| 1 | 1 | „ | „ | Koreng. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Maram. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Kamphung. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Luhuppa. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | North Tankhul. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Central Tankhul. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | South Tankhul. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Khoibu. |
| 0 | 0 | „ | „ | Maring. |