to come ke-vàng ka-va (to go) to eat ke-cho ka-shai to remain ke-bòm ka-pam (to sit) to beat ke-chòk ka-sho to die ke-thi ka-thi
The particles used in Mikir as suffixes to indicate tenses of the verb, with the exception of that for the completed past, tàng, which appears to be identical with the Thado and Lushei ta, do not seem to have any close analogues in the Kuki-Chin or Naga-Kuki groups; they are also quite different from those used in the Boro group. Causative verbs, however, are in many Kuki-Chin languages constructed with the verb pe or pèk, "to give," as in Mikir; and the suffix of the conjunctive participle in Mikir, -si, is perhaps the same as -chu in Khoirao. In Boro the prefix fi-, answering to the Mikir pi-, was formerly used to form causatives, as appears from verbal roots in current use; the construction now most common uses -nu, which has the same meaning ("to give") as a suffix.
The negative verb in Mikir is formed by suffixing the particle -e to the positive root, when the latter begins with a vowel. Similarly, in Boro a negative verb is formed by adding the particle -a. In the Kuki-Chin languages different suffixes are employed (lo, lai, loi, mak, ri), and in a few dialects prefixes. Here Mikir resembles Boro rather than the Kuki group. But the remarkable feature of Mikir in reduplicating initial consonants before the suffixed negative (see ante, p. 85) has no analogy in either family, unless the isolated example in Kolren (an Old Kuki dialect) quoted in the Linguistic Survey, vol. III., part iii., p. 19, supplies one. It is to be observed, however, that in the construction there cited (na-pe-pèk-mao-yai, "did not give"), the verb pèk has suffixed to it the negative particle mao, and that the reduplication alone appears to have no negative force. Other examples seem necessary before the rule of reduplication can be considered to be established. Possibly loi and lai in Kuki correspond to the separate Mikir negative ka-li (see ante, p. 86).
It remains to give some examples of correspondence in general vocabulary between Mikir and other Tibeto-Burman languages. It has been shown above from the analysis of the numerals that prefixes play a large part in all these languages. These prefixes, which to some extent are interchangeable, and also differ in the different members of the family, have to be eliminated in order to find the roots which are to be compared. Again, certain changes in vowels and consonants between different languages regularly occur. Our knowledge is not yet sufficient to enable a law of interchange to be formulated; but the following conclusions seem to be justified. In vowels, Mikir has a preference for long o where other languages have -a, especially in auslaut; [50] on the other hand long a in Mikir is sometimes thinned down to e; the word recho, answering to the Aryan raja, is an example of both processes. Long i in Mikir often corresponds to oi and ai, as well as to e and ei, in the cognates. As regards consonants, nasals at the end of syllables are often rejected; thus within Mikir itself we have o and òng, da and dàm, ne and nèng, la and làng. Some languages (as for instance Angami [51] Naga) tolerate no consonantal endings, not even a nasal. In Mikir itself final l has been vocalised into i or dropped; and in many Naga and Kuki-Chin dialects (as also in Burmese) final consonants have disappeared or have suffered great changes. As already noticed, the surd mutes k, p, t (sometimes aspirated) have taken the place of the original sonants g, b, d to a large extent in Mikir, though b and d (not g) still survive in a fair proportion of words. Boro generally retains the old sonants of Tibetan, and Meithei uses both classes according to the adjacent sounds. The palatals ch, j of Mikir tend to become sibilants, s, ts, z, in the cognate languages; j is also often softened to y in Kuki-Chin. L and r in anlaut frequently interchange in Meithei, the interchange depending on the adjacent vowels. These letters also interchange freely in other languages of the family. In Burmese r has everywhere been changed to y, except in Arakan. L and n also often interchange. Initial d in Mikir seems sometimes to correspond to l in other cognates; and it is possible that Mikir initial s may occasionally be represented by h in the latter, though this is not quite certain. Th and s often interchange in anlaut, some dialects of Kuki-Chin showing the intermediate stage of [theta], which in Burmese now everywhere replaces original s.