246 ON THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 



The T'hay or Siamese alphabet, differs consider" 

 ably in the power of its characters from the Ball ; 

 though it not only has a general resemblace to it, in 

 point of form, but also in the arrangement of the 

 character. The vowels, which are twenty in num- 

 ber, are not represented by separate characters, but 

 by the character corresponding to the short dkai\ va- 

 riously accented ; excepting the vocalic ru and lu., 

 which are only variations of the r and / consonants. 

 The consonants are thirty-seven in number, and are 

 not arranged by the series of five, like the Deva-na- 

 gati and Bali, but the first series ka, consists of seven 

 letters; the second series, cha, of six ; the third se- 

 ries, ta or da, of six ; the fourth series, Oa or pa, of 

 eight; the fifth series, jV?, of four; and the last se^r 

 lies, sa, of six, including the vocalic aka7% though two 

 of them are not in common use. Each of these let- 

 ters is varied by sixteen simple accentuations, and 

 by thirty six complex ones. The letters ka, nga, ta 

 or da, na, ma, ha or ya, are also final consonants, 

 licnce it is easy to perceive the near approximation 

 ol the Siavtest to the delicacy of the Chinese accen- 

 tuation ; while in other respects, the alphabet is con- 

 siderably more perfect, than in the Mandarin or 

 Court language of the Chinese, which has neither the 

 same variety of consonants, nor admits so many, in 

 the close of a syllable. The Siamese pronunciation, 

 <5ven of consonants, corresponds very imperfectly to 



