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A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire By Francis Buchanan, M. D.
Francis Buchanan published his “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire” in 1799, in the fifth volume of Asiatic Researches. This piece provides one of the first major Western surveys of the languages of Burma. But the article goes beyond this and provides important data on the ethno-cultural identities and identifications of the various population groups in the first half of Bò-daw-hpayà’s reign (1782-1819). For these reasons, the article is republished here.
The article is reproduced in its entirety, with slight modifications as follows. The letter usage (thus, “Chinese”). At several points in the article, the original publisher did not include all the necessary characters (and sometimes lopped off the ends of sentences). In such cases, the lost letter or likely word has been included within brackets. Split words, using a dash at the end of a sentence have been reunified (hence, “wo-man”, is now “woman”). Finally, the article has been re-paginated to fit within the overall scheme of this issue of the SBBR. Beyond these points, no changes have been made and all footnotes are derived from the original article. The original citation for the article is as follows: Francis Buchanan. “A Comparative Vocabulary of Some of the Languages Spoken in the Burma Empire.” Asiatic Researches 5 (1799): 219-240.M. W. C.
The proper natives of Arakan call themselves Yakain, which name is also commonly given to them by the Burmas. By the people of Pegu, they are named Takain. By theBengal Hindus, at least by such of them as have been settled in Arakan, the country is
called Rossaum, from whence, I suppose, Mr. Rennell has been induced to make a country named Roshaum occupy part of his map, not conceiving that it would be Arakan, or the kingdom of the Mugs, as we often call it. Whence this name of Mug, given by the Europeans to the natives of Arakan, has been derived, I know not ; but, as far as I could learn, it is totally unknown to the natives and their neighbours, except such of them as, by their intercourse with us, have learned its use. The Mahommedans settled at Arakan, call the country Rovingaw; the Persians call it Rekan.
