Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

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REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA. 85
the" Northern Shan States. The Khamti of Assam closely rCsembles the* Norths
1
em Burmese-Shah spoken in the valley of the Uyu and On the upper reaches of the
Chindwin. Khamti and Shaft are really one language. Their alphabets differ to
a certain extent, but, beyond this, except for a few dialectic divergencies, they
are practically identical in structure.
1 2pi Southern Burmese-Shan has for its domicile the British Shan States west
.... „ c,„ of the Salween, from Laihkaand Mong Nai south-
Soutnern Burmese-Shan.
, r , . . I , , , r .{ i i
wards. It is in iact the vernacular of the people who,
as Sir George Scott says, are " most directly known to us as the Shan race." It
is, like the forms referred to above, isolating and Unmistakeably polytonic. It
possesses five tones, a mastery of which is a sine qua non if the language is to
be properly learnt. On this side of the Salween Shan varies but slightly from
locality to locality. Thanks to Dr. Cushing's works, the tongue can now be exhaustively
studied by any student who wishes to master it. In contradistinction
to the dialects spoken east of the Salween, Southern Burmese-Shan is soriie^
times known as Western Shan. The expression is not unexceptionable, for,
properly speaking, Western Shan should be the form which is spoken west of
the Irrawaddy. It must be clearly understood that the divergencies between the
different forms of Shan spoken in the Province are on the whole very slight, and
that even Khamti cannot be looked upon as a separate language, in fact, in one
of his notes ort the Tai group Dr. Grierson speaks of it as consisting of two
languages only, Siamese and Shan. Dr. Cushing says of Northern Tai—
"The divisions of the Northern group are separated by what are really -dialectic differences.
They are often not so marked as to prevent persons belonging to one division
from holding much intercourse with persons belonging to another division. Though their
alphabets differ, their variations are So small that a person really familiar with the books
of one division can slowly read those of another division."
Elswhere he writes :
"The scientific classification of the Tai family of languages depends on the study
of their internal structure. In such study I have found no use for such terms as Northern
Shan' and Southern Shan' languages."
'
'
On the whole it seems to me best to sink the difference between the Northern
and Southern Burmese Shans forms and to speak of all the Tai forms of
'
speech occurring in Burma and the Shan Sates West of the Salween (except
Chinese-Shan and Khamtias) Burmese Shan. The aggregate of the Shan-speaking
people at the Census was 751,759. This total includes a small number who spoke
Chinese-Shan.
130. Data regarding Chinese-Shan are comparatively meagre. No illustrations
of the dialect have been given us in the Upper
Burma Gazetteer, though from that work we learn
that the written character of the Shan Tayoks possess few of the embarrassing
features of Chinese. It is hot ideographic, but is probably a distorted version of
the Burmese-Shan script. The vernacular is the tongue understanded of the people,
not, so to speak, the language of the aristocracy. The Shan-Chinese Chiefs, it
would appear, speak Chinese, not Shan. Chinese-Shan is spoken in that portion
of the country round about Bhamo and the Northern Shan States that abuts on the
westernmost edge of Yunnan. Sir George Scott appears to consider that the
speech of the Northern Shan States is more closely allied to Chinese Shan than to
the Shan of the Southern Shan States, and would classify the Northern Shan $tafes
dialect with that of the Shan Tayoks. I gather, however, that neither Dr. Griefson
nor Dr. Cushing holds with this view, which is, I think, a new one.
13I. Shan itself is of course closely allied to
,r.j .i_/-i,- Chinese. In this regard Sir George Seot-t has the
Connection of Shan with Chinese. , ,, . .
^
° °
. following to say —
:
" The relationship of the Tai to the Chinese races seems unmistakeable and appears no
less clearly from their personal appearance and characteristics than from' their Janguage.
* * * Mere similarities of words do not prove race descent, but they help towards
it. It is not enough to say that ma both in Chinese and Shan means " horse, " that tfing arid
ping mean level * * *, but when we find that, in addition to this, the grammatical
Structure of sentences in Chinese arid in the Tai languages iff the same and quite different from
it
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