292 Rev. Mr. Gorstarr’s Remarks on the Siamese Language. 
of single words, similar constructions and expressions, may imply a 
common parent, but do not warrant it. An accurate observation of the 
Chinese and Siamese languages shews, that the common appellations for 
such of the necessaries of life as are needed in the first stages of society, 
are identically the same. It is so too with the names of objects presented 
to the first view of the child of nature. 
The civilization of ‘Tonquin and Cochin-China by Chinese conquest and 
colonization, is an historical fact, and so far certain; but a narration to the 
same effect with regard to Siam, is not so much to be relied on. It is said, 
that in ancient times Jim TszE (son of the sun), a royal prince, having 
rebelled against his father, was banished, and settled with a considerable 
colony at Cuy in Cambojia, and afterwards in Siam, where he founded the 
capital, Jué’hia. Though he was a mighty prince, he considered himself a 
vassal of China, and frequently sent embassies to the Imperial court. As 
lord spiritual and temporal, he enacted a code of laws, which is said to have 
been preserved in the temple of Sisaput, at Ju’hia, until the invasion by 
the Burmese in the middle of the last century. If this is a fact, the origin 
of the language may be easily traced. 
The Siamese era, which commences from the appearance of Samut 
T’naxupum (Bupp’na) in Siam and the adjacent countries, B.C. 340, 
makes it evident that the civilization of the country before this period must 
have been at a very low ebb. The introduction of every useful art is 
ascribed to Samur T’naxupum, the enumeration of which evinces the 
savage state in which the inhabitants of Siam were found. Almost at the 
same time that the Son of Gop descended upon earth, Caaou Mananat, a 
great legislator in Cambojia, established more firmly the rules of Samut 
T’HaKupum, and added some of his own. About A.D. 650, Paya Kret, 
a Siamese legislator, perfected the work of Cuaou Manarar, by which all 
the neighbouring nations had been benefited, and Siam among the rest. 
During this period, the Siamese language must have become more fixed 
by the introduction of an alphabet, which, being exactly suited to their 
organs of speech, greatly contributed to its perfection. While the Cochin- 
Chinese and Tonquinese languages have remained in close affinity to the 
Chinese by adopting the same characters, the Siamese has widely deviated, 
by the introduction of an alphabet. The Siamese have gradually changed 
from the monosyllabic system, by the introduction of words from the Pak 
language (which was introduced as the sacred language by Samur T’Ha- 
