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PEGUESE, PEGUAN, MON, TALAIN, OR TALING.
"THE Peguese language is
still spoken in Pegu, a country which formerly included all the sea-coast
and
the mouths of the rivers of the Burman empire, but the Burmese portion of
which, comprising by far
the greater part of its extent, has now (as mentioned in a preceding page)
become a province of the
British-Indian empire; it comprises an area of 22,640
square miles, with a population of 70,000.
Great numbers of the agriculturists in
Siam are Peguans. Pegu was
formerly a great and powerful
state, and governed by its own monarchs, but in a contest with
Burmah and Siam it fell, and the
Peguans were for a time the slaves of both empires. The Peguese
language is supposed to be more
ancient than the Burmese: it abounds in gutturals, and is simple in
construction. The alphabet is the
same as the Burmese, except two additional consonants. During their
possession of the country, the
Burmans did their utmost to extirpate the language, and to render their own
predominant, but without
success. A translation of the
Gospel of St.
Matthew, and of St. John’s
Epistles has been made into
Peguese from the Burmese by Ko-man-
poke, a learned native, but no copy of this version appears to
have reached Europe. A translation of the whole New Testament, by Mr.
Haswell, was printed at
Maulmein in 1847. The edition consisted of 3000
copies." --The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)
Samuel Bagster [Info only]
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