Page:On the Non-Aryan Languages of India.djvu/27

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ON THE NON-ARYAN LANGUAGES OF INDIA.
21

pa and ma are frequently affixed to nouns as determinatives. All three languages have modified forms, namely ma, m, and man respectively, of the same plural termination for the pronouns.

Class XII., the Khari, Nougong, Tengsa, and Lhota Nagas. Nougong and Tengsa are related as dialects, Khari further away, and Lhota still further. The verb in these languages is apparently of the simple type. The Nagas of this and the preceding class are all to the east of the Doyang River. Class XIII., the Angámi, etc. There is a wide difference between the Angámi and the before-mentioned Nagas. Very few words correspond. To the same class also may perhaps be referred the Arung and the Rengma. These languages are more like the Angámi than they are to the other Nagas, though the likeness is not strong, nor are they very like each other. The Angámi and the Arung have the simple structure of the verb. Of the Rengma verb I have not found any specimen. The Kutcha Naga is nearly the same as the Arung. The Nagas of this class are west of the Doyang. Most of the Naga languages have as many names given them as there are lists of words; thus the Banpará is called also Seebsaugor, Abhay Purya, and Joboka, in different lists. The Namsang is called also Jaipuria and Luckimpore, and so on with others. To this same class must also be referred at least two of what are called the hill tribes of Manipur, namely, Líyang and Marám, which are more nearly allied to the Arung Naga than to the Manipuri language. Class XIV., the Míkir, is a neighbour of the Nagas, and has many words in common with some of them, especially with the Namsang, and, like the Namsang, it has no sign for the genitive relation, which is signified solely by position, the noun in that relation coming first. The Míkir verb, however, differs entirely from the Namsang; it has no person ending, but the simple structure, as ne cho 'I eat,' ali cho 'we eat.'

To the east of the Nagas we have Class XV., the Singpho, who are comparatively recent settlers in Asam. Other settlements of them are on the hills to the east of Bhamo, and in