Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA. 77
described as " Burmese with a strong Arakanese accent," and I learn from the
Report on the Settlement Operations in the Toungoo district (season 1898-99)
that this strong Arakanese accent still survives as the last of the. relics of this
race of silkworm rearers, who are found in the Hanthawaddy, Pegu, Tharrawaddy
and Toungoo districts.
109. Round about Fort Stedman and elsewhere in the Southern Shan States
. and Karenni is a community known as the Inthas, who
speak a dialect of Burmese largely diluted with Shan.
The current theory is that the Inthas brought their tongue from Tavoy. It is
said to bear traces of the Arakanese twang referred to in an earlier paragraph of
this chapter. It was spoken by 5,851 people in the Southern Shan States in
March 1901.
1 10. In the borderland between the Shan States and Upper Burma Proper
are several races which have not yet been afforded
'" i:> "
a definite position in any ethnical group and have
hitherto been looked upon as hybrids. Two of these are the Taungthus and the
Taungyos. Sir George Scott treats of them under the same heading in the Upper
Burma Gazetteer, and to outward appearances they would seem to appertain to
the same stock. Their languages differ, however, considerably. The Taungthu
tongue seems almost as much a mixture as the Taungthu race. The Taungyo
speech on the other hand has an obvious Burman basis that is hardly overlaid by
any foreign element. There are but few Taungyo words in the vocabulary of two
hundred words or so given in the Upper Burma Gazetteer that do not bear marks
of Burman parentage. It is strange too that the Burmese that Taungyo reproduces
is often not the modern form but the older tongue which has been in a
measure crystallized in the Arakanese. Words like anak (red), amrang (high),
viyak-sai (eye), lang (light), show that the tongue cannot possibly be of recent
formation. It has been included in the Burmese group. There were in all 10,543
Taungyo- speaking persons in Burma in March 1901.
in. The Kadu language is spoken in the western portion of the Kathadis-
K
trict and in portions of the Upper Chindwin district
abutting on Katha. It, like the people by whom it
is spoken, has almost lost its identity. The problem of its origin has been referred
to elsewhere, namely, in the caste, tribe and race chapter and in connection with the
Sak dialect of the Arakan Yomas (see under the Kuki Chin language group infra).
Pending further information, Kadu, which will very shortly be an obsolete form of
speech, has been assigned a place in the Burmese group of languages. On the
1 st of March 1901 it was the language ordinarily spoken by 16,300 people.
112. The Mro tongue was the spoken vernacular of 13,414 inhabitants of
Akyab and the Arakan Hill Tracts at the recent
census. It has hitherto been looked upon as a variety
of the Chin language. Dr. Grierson, however, has decided on examination to
treat it as a member of the Burmese group. He describes it as being in many
points a deceptive language, for, though it adheres generally to the phonetic
system of Burmese, it at times shows marked variations from that system. There
are to be found in it not only forms which indicate a Kuki-Chin origin, but also
characteristics which would seem to hint at an affinity with the Bodo and Naga
vernaculars. It is to be regretted that the materials available for the study of
Mro are but meagre. Till further particulars are procurable, however, Dr.
Grierson considers it best to class the language provisionally as a very archaic
form of what has now developed into the Burmese language.
113. In the extreme north of the province are several communities, some
_ . T , . ,
,, numerically small, some of considerable size, who
Szi, Lashi and Maru.
, . li j n j
closely resemble - and are practically merged into • ! the
,
non-Burman hill tribes among whom they live, yet whose languages display an
unmistakeable Burman stamp. Of these, three typical instances are the Szi, the
Lashi and the Maru on the eastern borders of the Myitkyina and Bhamo districts.
Judged by externals, there would seem to be no question that these were
Kachin tribes. They inhabit the Kachin country, they have affinities with the
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