Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. Ill DISTRIBUTION OF MON-ANNAM FAMILY 441
parts of the forest country of Southern and Central
Indo-China, especially along the borders of Annam,
Camboja, and Slam, the stretch of mountain country
running east of the Mekong, mainly between latitudes
17° and 12°, and elsewhere in scattered patches
amongst the now dominant populations of the alien,
mainly Tai and Tibeto - Burman, races of these
regions.
Taken together, these languages constitute a
fairly distinct, and (with the exception of Annamese,
which has been much modified by direct Chinese
influence) a relatively uniform group. In the early
centuries of our era, Mon and Khmer (with their
allied dialects) were the dominant languages of
Central and Southern Indo-China, long before the
Burmese and Siamese had come down from the
north ; while the Annamese were confined to the
Tongking delta and its immediate neighbourhood,
and the south - eastern coastland, which is now
Annam and Cochin China, was occupied, under the
name of Champa, by a race called Cham, whose
language, already mentioned, was a mixture of
Mon-Khmer with Malayan elements.^
Apart from the special interest attaching to them
as having been the earliest indigenous vehicles of
literary culture in Indo-China, the Mon-Annam
languages are of unique importance in connection
with the past history of South-eastern Asia. They
are related in various ways to Nicobarese, Khasi, and
the Munda (or Kolarian) dialects of India on the
one hand ; they present curious analogies with the
' This interesting language, together dictionary of it by Aymonier and Caba-
with a few allied dialects of ruder ton (which, by the courtesy of the latter,
neighbouring tribes, still lingers on in I have been permitted to use in proof)
S.E. Annam and part of Camboja. A is in the press, and will shortly appear.