02-01-167

167

TAIRONG.

　The Tairongs (or great Tais) who are also called Turung or Shm (i. e. Shn) Turung, mhabit the west centre of the Sibsagar District of Assam. The circumstances under which they became enslaved to the Kachins, and learned to speak the language of their masters, have been described in the General Introduction to the group. About 150 of them are said to speak their own language, which, according to the specimen, is nearly the same as Khmt. The following account of the principal points of difference between Tairong and Khmt is based on the specimens and List of Words. As explained below, the specimens were obtained with difficulty, and are not very trustworthy.

　Alphabet.-This is the same as Khmt, though a few curious forms appear. We may note # for ra (in Aitoni, this is almost the sign for ha), and as usual a special form for the vocative particle #, transliterated i. The letter # is pronounced ya, as in Khmt, not ja, as in hom and Nor. When compounded with another consonant ya is pronounced e. Thus # kyang in 1.5, is transliterated keng, and # kyap, in line 20, is transliterated kep.

　As in Khmt and Nor hit, to do, is always written ## hich, or even ## hach. The word for 'with' is written ## ny, cor esponding to the ## ly of Nor.

　The letter # wa is over and over again added to another consonant without any apparent reason. Thus we have the word for 'servant' written both # kh (e. g. 1.11), and # khw (1.19). Again in line 19, kh is written # khw. For other examples see the pronouns below. This is probably an idiosyncracy of the writer.

　The letter # is always transliterated fa, and never pha. Similarly # is always sa, and never sha. Whether these transliterations represent actual pronunciations, I cannot say.

　The use of the vowels in the specimen is very capricious. Thus the word for 'pro- perty' is spelt khng in 1.31, and khng in 1.32. Similarly the word for 'he' is spelt man, mwn, mn, and mwun as mentioned below. The word for 'do' is both hich (hit) and hach (hat).

　Tones.-I regret that I can give no information on this subject.

　Nouns,-Number.-The plural is formed by suffixing khau, or nouns of multitude may be prefixed. Thus fung m-m, bitches, literally a collection of bitches; muk khau, they, literally a collection of them.

　Case.-Hng and t are both used as prefixes for the Dative. Hng is also used for the Accusative, as in hng man... fuk-l, bind... him. K-t is used for the Ablative, as in Shn. Thus au k-t man, take from him. Luk is also common, and in No. 118 of the List of Words we have lai for this case. O is sometimes prefixed to luk (cf. Nos. 104, 113, 122), as is prefixed in Aitoni.

　The suffix ko appears to be used with the nominative, as in Nos. 212, 214, and 215 of the List. This suffix is regular in Ahom and Aitoni. When it appears in the speci- men it seems to have the meaning of 'also,' as in Khmt.