03-03-107

107

CENTRAL CHIN SUB-GROUP.

　This sub-group comprises the following languages:-

Shunkla or Tashn, spoken by...	39,215
Zahao, " " ...	2,000
Lai... " " ...	23,450
Lakher " " ...	1,100
Lushi (including Ngent) spoken by...	40,539
Banjg...	500
Pnkh...	800
TOTAL	107,604

　These languages are closely connected with the northern group, but have still greater affinity to the so-called Old Kuki dialects. The chief point of difference, when compared with Old Kuki, is the negative particle, which is lo in the Central languages as in Thdo, but usually mk in Old Kuki. Pnkh is the dialect which is most closely connected with Old Kuki.

SHUNKLA OR TASHN.

　The tribes generally called Tashns live in the Chin Hills to the south of the country inhabited by the Siyins and the Sokts. To the west they are bounded by the Lushai Hills and to the south by the Lai. Messrs. Carey and Tuck estimated their number in 1895 at 39,215. Their country is the most thickly populated in the Chin Hills. They include the two powerful communities of Zahao or Yahow and Wheno, which were formerly known as Pois, Poi-t and Pai-t. Poi is the Lushi name for the Chins in general, and t is the plural suffix. The Tashns call themselves Shunkla, and under this name they are also known to the southern tribes. Shunkla is the name of a village in the southern part of their territory, and they think that their forefathers came out of a rock at Shunkla. Later on their capital was transferred to Klashun, and the name Tashn is the Burmese corruption of this word. Their chief village is now Falam, and the northern tribes call them Palam-t, inhabitants of Falam. They were constantly at war with the Hakas, and the raids of this latter tribe are supposed to have been the reason for their transferring their capital from Klashun to Falam. After that time they gradually extended their influence over their neighbours. Messrs. Carey and Tuck remark that the Tashn tribesmen do not claim one common progenitor. 'They are a community composed of aliens, who have been collected under one family by conquest, or more correctly by strategy.'

　The following five divisions of the tribe are distinguished:-

　Of these the Zahaos will be dealt with below. The notes on the other clans are taken from Messrs. Carey and Tuck.

　The Shunklas proper are now all dependent on the Falam chiefs and probably all of the same family. Their ancestors lived at Shunkla till about four generations ago when

p2