ABSTRACT
Logan, who had rare opportunities of studying the subject, which he illustrated by a series of learned papers in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago, which died with him in 1859, divides the Language of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula into two branches:—1. The Western Himaláyan or Tibetan, including the Burma Group of the Tibeto-Burman Family, and 2. the Eastern Himaláyan or Mon-Anam, including the Tai and Mon-Anam Eamilies. It is at this point that I leave the Western Himaláyan branch and enter the Eastern. I also leave the region of the direct or indirect influence of British India, and cross a great physical and linguistic Watershed into a country quite independent of British power, and speaking Monosyllabic Languages. Buddhism and Indian culture have reached thus far also, and at one period the vigour of the Tai Family enabled them to double back and penetrate into what is now British India. In a narrow wedge of inconsiderable width, yet extending no less than fifteen degrees of latitude in length, the Tai Family extends from the Paver Brahmaputra in the Assam Province to Bangkok on the Gulf of Siam. All the tribes call themselves “Tai,” and are Buddhists, and civilised in the Oriental type, but the Siamese alone call themselves “Thai,” or “free.” The linguistic structure of the whole Family is essentially the same, though in process of time, owing to laws of euphony and variations of Vocabulary, it has become separated into seven Languages. All are tonal, and accuracy of speech depends upon the knowledge of the tone. Nominally Buddhists, the Tai race clings to local Pagan worship of Nats or spirits. With Buddhism has come in a great many polysyllabic Anam words from the Pali, and the religious Language is a Mosaic of Tai, Pali, and Burmese words. The linguistic features, that mark the Tai Family, are, that there is no grammatical gender; that the article follows the noun; that vowels are not elided; that there are five tones. The tenses are sometimes differentiated by prefixes, and at other times by suffixes. The determining noun comes after the determined. The construction of the sentence is direct, and the verb has no person-endings.
