<div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Colleagues,</span></font><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></font></div><div>


















<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">I wanted to ask whether anyone familiar with the languages in and around
Burma can see anything in the list of numbers 1-10 below.<span></span></span></font></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The background story is that I’ve found references to a Burmese dialect
called variously <i>Yabaing, Yabein, Labein, </i>or <i>Zabein. </i>Administrative
records of the Burmese courts (<i>sittàn) </i>made in 1782 make repeated
references to these people, always in conjunction with the name “Karen.”Around 100 years later, the 1872
and then 1901 British Censuses of Lower Burma refer to variants of this name,
reporting it to be an extinct variety of Burmese spoken around Pegu. (Georg
Noack has told me that <i>Zayein</i> is the name of a small Karen language spoken today
in Phekon Township in Southern Shan State). <span></span></span></font></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">In 1878, British
colonial officer and amateur Indologist Charles James Forbes-Smith recorded the
numbers 1-10 as he was told them in Shwegyin District, now in Bago Region. <span></span></span></font></p>

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<p style="margin:0in 0.3in 6pt 0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>1 tsoomeik <span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0in 0.3in 6pt 0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>2 tsoo-toung <span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0in 0.3in 6pt 0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>3 baloungtha <span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0in 0.3in 6pt 0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>4 lah-bee<span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0in 0.3in 6pt 0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>5 hgay houk <span> </span>[sic]<span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>6 louk-kay</span><span><span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>7 thai khan<span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>8 loung moo<span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p style="margin:0in 0.3in 6pt 0in"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>9 ngain koung<span></span></span></span></font></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>10 loungteik</span><span></span></span></font></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">These are not Burmese-like, nor as I understand, are they Karen like.<span></span></span></font></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Any
thoughts? <span></span></span></font></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The fact
that the name varies so much makes me suspect that it had been in circulation
for some time without a connection to actual speakers. <span></span></span></font></p>

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Thanks,<br>
Patrick McCormick<span></span></span></font></p>

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