their library, till the Hon. Mr. Fullerton, Governor of the British settlements in the Straits of Malacca, recommended that it should be printed. The Society very obligingly restored it, and it has since been revised and corrected.' Hereafter, we may be able to collate his work with the cognate labours of the Missionaries at present, we shall avail ourselves of it chiefly for the purpose of laying before our readers the information it supplies, with regard to the Siamese language and the people by whom it is spoken.

The Siamese or Thai language is radically the same that is spoken over the whole extent of the Indo-Chinese peninsula from the Burrampooter to the Straits of Malacca. From the present striking affinity observable betwixt the languages of the Lau, the Siamese, and the Cambojans, we may reasonably infer', says Capt. Low, that all these people had a common origin. There is also every reason to believe that the Assamese (not 'the aborigines) arose from the same stock as the Siamese, since 'there is a close analogy, much stronger than mere accident can 'warrant (account for), betwixt their respective tongues.' (p. 8.) That the ancient Assamese (the Ahameeya) is generically the same language, is the opinion also of an accomplished linguist who was for some time resident in Assam, and who, in a private letter, follows up the expression of this opinion with the following remarks: I have no doubt that Lord Cornwallis was not so wide ' of the mark as has been supposed, when he continually, by mis' apprehension, used to confound the term Siam with Assam, in 'his despatches to the officer commanding an expedition into the 'latter country, (Capt. Walsh,) in the year 1792. The term Siam is Burmese. They write it, and pronounce it as Sham. 'The proper name of the language, I think of Chinese origin, is Ty. The country is called Mung-ty.' Capt. Low states, that the Siamese do not acknowledge the title of Siam as applicable to themselves or their country. They call themselves Thai, and their language is Phasa Thai (the same word, evidently, as Bhassa, language). A very evident affinity may be traced', he adds, between the T'hai and the Chinese Mandarin or collo'quial language.'

6

6

Many synonyma might be here produced, together with a number of the radical monosyllables which are formed on the same principles. But the strongest analogical proof of the alliance which seems to have existed at some remote period betwixt the two, or rather, perhaps, of their having been offsets from a common root, must rest on the system of intonation which they equally employ, and on their mutual (common) rejection of all inflection in their parts of speech. Dr. Marshman has indeed considered all those languages which adopt the system of tones, as closely linked to the Chinese colloquial medium, if not purely derived from it. At the same time, the consonantal system of

the Siamese is, in some instances, dissimilar from that of the Chinese.' p. 12.

*

Both the Chinese and the Siamese reject the g, j, g'h, j'h, d'h and b'h of the Sanscrit alphabet; but the Siamese system of sounds has either retained or adopted, b, d, and r, which are not found in the Mandarin colloquial medium, while it rejects the ts, sh, tch, tch'h, fh, and hh of the Chinese. The Siamese alphabetical system is modelled from the Pali, and the higher style of Siamese writing borrows largely from that language But the Pali letter is said to have been first brought into Camboja from Ceylon, within a period comparatively modern; and in passing into the T'hai idiom, the Pali words are sometimes a little dis'jointed, or subjected to elision, in order to render them more consistent with the monosyllabic structure of the former.' Were the words derived from the Pali and other foreign sources to be excluded, we should still find in the Siamese, a colloquial medium possessed of a much more copious list of monosyllables, than the Chinese Mandarin language is supplied with, owing to its being furnished with more final consonants and vowel combinations. Dr. Leyden represents it as being, nevertheless, more purely monosyllabic than either the Burmese, the Rak-heng, or the Peguan.

From these and other circumstances, we may safely infer, that the Siamese or T'hai race are of the same stock as the Chinese tribes ; that they are, in fact, a Chinese nation, who have gradually spread themselves from the province of Yun-Shan over Laos, Cambodia, and the great valley of the Meinam. It must be remembered, that of the greater part of China we know little; and that the physiological differences between the Siamese and the Chinese, which, extending to their articulation, have modified their respective systems of colloquial speech, are, in all probability, not greater than would be found to exist between the inhabitants of different provinces of China. The Siamese Calendar differs little from that of the Chinese. Mr. Finlayson, indeed, thinks it very doubtful, whether they could construct one without the assistance of a Chinese calendar, which they regularly procure from Peking. Their era, answering to A.D. 638, also appears to be derived from China, and corresponds very nearly to the accession of the first emperor of the Tang dynasty t.

But the link between Siamese barbarism and Western civilization is the sacred language, the Pali, which is, to the IndoChinese nations, what the Arabic is to the sable tribes of Western

* Every Siamese pretender to learning is at liberty to make as free a use as he pleases of the Pali, their classic language.' Low, p. 11. + See Eclectic Review, vol. xxv. p. 487.

and Central Africa, and what Latin once was to barbarous Europe. To a Missionary in Siam, therefore, a thorough knowledge of Pali is indispensable; as it presents the medium by which he will be best enabled to introduce and naturalize Christian ideas, and to raise the national standard of thought and intelligence by enlarging and invigorating the colloquial vehicle. Notwithstanding the disadvantage which the T'hai, in common ' with other monosyllabic languages, labours under, in respect to 'want of great variety in the combination of its component parts, 'still,' remarks Captain Low, it is capable of adapting itself, 'with some elegance, and with much precision, to most of the purposes for which speech is required; while it is fitted, by drawing on the Bali (Pali), to enter on the regions of science.' The Siamese language has, like all barbarous and unsettled idioms, its provincial dialects, or, as Dr. Leyden calls them, ' auricular variations.' The natives themselves acknowledge only two dialects; the p'hasa Thai yai, and the p'hasa Thai muung nak; besides which, they distinguish the nangsu Thai or written language; and the p'hasa k'ham t'han, (or phasa k'ham phraya,) i. e. court style. Captain Low asserts, however, that there is little reason to consider these as distinct dialects. The two colloquial varieties (the yai and mu-ung nak) differ chiefly in the broader pronunciation of the former; and the orthography of both the written dialects is nearly alike. The pronunciation is chiefly varied by the application of the tones. 'It is in the intensity and modulation of intonations and accents, that ' a difference is chiefly to be perceived.' Captain Towers describes the language of Laos as a second dialect of the Siamese; and Kompfer seems to have been persuaded that such is the case. Yet, from my own experience,' says Captain Low, I can assert that they are so nearly alike, as to make it easy for a person 'who understands the Siamese tongue, to travel safely (in so far ' as language is concerned) through North Laos.' This strong similarity is the more remarkable, since the Lau or Laos tongue has a peculiar alphabet, resembling less the T'hai (which is derived from the Pali) than the Mon or Peguan. It is by no means improbable, however, that the Siamese had an imperfect alphabetical system, similar to that of Laos, before they adopted that which is now in exclusive use. As we approach the distant frontier countries, our Author remarks, 'the Thai language will 'necessarily merge and melt into the languages spoken by their ' various inhabitants.' Such appears to be the case with the dialect called the Kham-ty, which is said to be spoken in its purity at Mogown, situated to the N. E. of Munnipoor, on the Khyendwen (or Kiayn-duem), in about lat. 25°. This dialect, we learn from the competent authority already alluded to, abounds in 'Burmese words, the language of the conquerors, but is essen

6

6

tially, practically, and idiomatically different. In the collocation of words, the two idioms are quite the reverse of each other *; the Siamese approximating more closely to the English idiom,except in placing the adjective after the substantive it qualifies, as in Persian and in French. The character used for the Khamty dialect is quite different from that of Bangkok. The Assamese alphabet is evidently modelled from the Sanscrit, while the language itself, as has already been mentioned, appears to be closely related to the Thai. It is obvious, how much this variety of alphabetic character must tend to multiply the apparent number of languages, and to embarrass philological investigations.

6

No fewer than about sixty different dialects are said to be spread over the immense tract between Assam, Tibet, and the Khyendwen; but these, when they come to be analyzed, will probably be reduced to some four or five essentially distinct idioms. The whole of the languages spoken by the nations lying between Bengal and China, are arranged by Dr. Leyden under two classes, the Polysyllabic and the Monosyllabic. At the head of the former class is the Malay, to which all the others of the same class are probably related, but which have been severally modified either by early intercourse with the Hindoo nations, or, in later times, with the Mohammedan Arabs. The primitive tongue, of which they are dialects, has been styled by philologists the Polynesian, as being diffused over the whole of the Indian archipelago and Polynesia. The dialects of Dr. Leyden's second class are seven in number; viz. the Rak-heng, the Burman, the Mon, the T'hai, the Khomen, the Lau, and the Anam.' These seven may, perhaps, be reduced to three languages. The Burmese and the Arracanese nations are closely related, and so, we apprehend, are their dialects. The Lau or Laos, we have seen, differs only as a dialect from the Siamese; and such will prove to be the case, there can be little doubt, with both the Khomen and the Anamese. The latter dialect is said to be called by the Siamese and Malays, the Juan or Shwan: it is possibly that of YunShan. The Anamese are said to employ several sounds which the Chinese are incapable of pronouncing; in particular, the b, d, and r; and these are the very consonants which distinguish the Siamese vocal alphabet from the Chinese. With regard to the Khomen or Khāmen, the language of those whom we call Cambojans, Captain Low has the following remarks.

6

* For instance, a Burmese intending to convey the import of the words, I will now go and eat my rice,' would, according to the idiom of his language, say, I now boiled rice eat go will. (Gnā ya-k’hoo t'ha-mén chã thwá mé.) The Kham-ty idiom would be: I now will go eat rice.

The Siamese draw no discriminating line betwixt the K'hāmen and the Cambojans. They assert that the language of these K'hamen is quite different from the Thai. I incline to think, from an examination of a few specimens of the first procured by me, that the assertion may not be admitted without considerable limitations. The K'hāmen are a distinct people from the Lau, but belong to the same great family as the latter. But Dr. Leyden seems to have thought the K'hom (pronounced K'hām) a perfectly original language, when compared with the T'hai and Lau, although his reasons have not been distinctly specified. Their radical monosyllables seem to me to be nearly alike, however transposed in their signification they may be when used in speech.'-p. 18.

Of the Mon or Man, the ancient language of Pegu, which has by no means been superseded as yet by that of the Burmese conquerors, Captain Low expresses his opinion, that it will prove to have the fairest claim to originality of any contained in Dr. Leyden's second class.'

It approaches the T'hai or Siamese language, however, in many instances; and its tones are much deeper and more guttural than those of either that or the Burman language. The Burmans and Siamese, as far as experiments have been made by me, are alike incapable of pronouncing or articulating Man words with correctness; and some they cannot pronounce P. 4.

The Missionaries were visited, at Bangkok, by numbers of 'Moans or Peguans, a people mainly subject to the Burmese, 'but speaking a different language from the Burman.' Pegu, properly Bagoo, (pronounced by the Moans, with a strong guttural emphasis on the last syllable, Pagau,) is the name of a stream which forms one of the arms of the Irrawaddy; and the Pegu country includes the Henzawuddy, the delta of that river. The proper name by which the Peguans are known to the Burmese, is Taliens or Ta-lain. This is, perhaps, the same word as T'hă-loong, the name of a district in the Malayan peninsula, which may have received its name from settlers of this nation. The Martaban river, the Pegu of Buchanan, and the Caypumo of older travellers, is called the Tha-luayn or Ta-lain, which appears to be the same word. Man or Moan, however, would seem to be the native name of the race, who are apparently a more ancient nation than the Burmese, or than, perhaps, the Siamese. Leyden supposes them to have founded the Kalimin

* The Māns use nearly the same alphabet as the Burmans. There exists, however, some little difference betwixt four of the consonantal letters, and also in the powers attached to the whole; and the Mans have two consonants beyond what the Burmans have.'-p. 5.