Thado Grammar (Classic Reprint) Hardback -

The language belongs to the tibeto-burman group, and has been assigned by Dr. Grierson (from whom I have received very valua ble help and advice) to the new Kuki division of that group. It has, therefore, affinities with languages so far apart as Garo and Kachin It is connected, though not directly, with Methe, the language of the Manipuris. I do not know whether the development of these languages has proceeded on divergent lines, but it is certain that, while a large and an increasing number of Kukis understand Manipuri, a very fair proportion, especially those who by reason of their seclusion in the more distant hills of the State have not been brought into close contact with Manipuris, do not understand it. I mention this because Lieutenant Stewart declares that most of them understand Manipuri.

The language possesses no written character, and, bwing to the fact that the advance into the hills of the authority of the British Government has removed the dread of external enemies which has in the past produced homogeneous communities of a fair size, a centrifugal tendency is now manifest which is sure to react on the stability of the language. Lieutenant Stewart in his Notes on Northern Cachar, published in has preserved a fragment of an old song which at that time was intelligible to the people.

These songs have now ceased to possess a definite meaning, though tradition preserves a general. Idea of their contents. The extract is, unfortunately, not long enough to enable us to draw any very satisfactory conclusions as to the nature of the changes to which the language has in that interval of time been subjected. Nevertheless, from the extract as well as from his grammatical notes, it is abundantly clear that the language is becoming less nasal.

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