LANGUAGE OF AWA AND RAC'HAIN. I47 



cond asaitne t from the root sZii> to ftrike, (owing to 

 the mark asaii or tahc'hwaih that is ftruck in writing 

 from the top of the final letter) and ne y fmall; and 

 the third asaiicri, from the fame, and cri, large, great, 

 in confequence of the proportion of the firft feries 

 that is ingrafted into it being more than in the fecond. 



The alphabet, in its feveral aflbciations with apart, 

 araiiy hhach'hwe, and wach'hwe, is, with only one 

 exception, uniformly inflected throughout with the 

 three feries of vowels and nafal marks in regular rota- 

 tion as they occur in the Plate. The inftance to the 

 contrary is wach'hwe, which is altogether excluded in 

 the alphabetical inflection of asaihru 



Except as a compound, the firft vocal found, as 

 defcribed in the fyftem, has no place in the language 

 before us. And there is yet a more ftriking Angula- 

 rity; which is, that every fyllable is liquid, as it were, 

 in its termination, each letter having its peculiar vowel 

 or nafal mark fubjoined, and in no inftance coalefcing 

 with a following letter. But, to elucidate it by in- 

 ftances from our own language: were a native of Ava 

 or Aracan merely acquainted with the Roman letters, 

 and that fuch and fuch fymbols reprefented fuch and 

 fuch founds, without knowing their rules of aflbcia- 

 tion, to read the words book> booty bully he would, 

 agreeably to the powers he is taught to affix to the 

 characters of his own language, pronounce them uni- 

 formly bit, or buca> buta y bula> reflectively. And he 

 could not poflibly do otherwife; the organs of articu- 

 lation being inadequate to give utterance to the final 

 letters according to the abrupt mode by which we are 

 inftructed to terminate thofe words. It need fcarcely 

 be obferved, that hence each letter of the alphabet 

 properly fo called is ufed as z.Jyllabic initial, and never 

 as a medial or final, if we except the nafals. But 

 here we only fpeak as far as pronunciation is concern- 

 ed. There is reafon to fuppofe that this Angularity is 



K 2 not 



