On the non-Aryan languages of India

ox THE NON-ARYAN LANGUAGES OF INDIA. 25
particle following ; as leu— aphii ' in,' leu— ai^ho la ' below.*
Generic particles are very numerous.
There are some other languages which do not properlycome
within the subject of this paper, being neither Indian
nor border-languages, but which certainly belong to the
present group. This is the case as regards five of the trans-
Himalayan languages, specimens of which were collected by
Hodgson, namely Takpa, Gyarung, Manyak, Horpa, and
Thochu, which have many words in common with the
Tibetan. Another distant language is the Lisaw, spoken in
parts of Yuuan, which appeal's to be most like the Burmese
most of the numerals are almost identical with the Burmese.
The next group to be mentioned is the Khasi, which be-
longs to the hills between the valley of Asam and Sylhet.
The Khasis, according to the last census, number only 92,070,
Five dialects are given in Sir George Campbell's specimens,
one of them being distinguished as the ' Khasi ' proper. The
dialects of the Jynteah hills are almost unintelligible to the
residents of the Khasi ; still all the members of the group
are so much alike in construction that they must be spoken
of as dialects rather than as languages with reference to each
other. Tones similar to those of the last group play a very
important part in distinguishing between words. The group
has several important characteristics, which serve to distin-
guish it from all the languages hitherto mentioned. All gram-
matical relations are denoted by prefixes, which are often
significant, and can be used as separate words. Nong 'an
inhabitant,' ' a fellow,' forms most nouns of agency ; jing ' a
thing,' abstract nouns ; as, u-nongbdin ' an eater,' ka-jingbdm
' food' ; from bam 'to eat.' Again la, an adverb signifying
'since,' is the prefix for the past tense. The genitive relation of
a noun is frequently signified by position only, when the noun
in that relation comes after the noun on which it depends
as : ka-sem massi, the order being ' house cow,' but the mean-
ing * cow house ' ; but the sign of the genitive relation is
frequently omitted where it cannot be omitted in English
and other Aryan languages : as ka-reng u-hlang ' horn goat,'
but meaning ' goat's horn,' In this respect the Khasi group
;