f58 ON THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 



after the Portugueze writers, Lao, and in the pkiral, 

 Laos, from their consisting of different races. Their 

 language, De Barros observes, is pecuhar, and the 

 Siamese assert that it is different from the Tliay. It 

 has never been cultivated by Europeans, very few of 

 whom, besides Alexander De Rhodes, have ever 

 visited the country. According to Kcempfer, 

 (History of Japan, p. 26,) the Law nation do not 

 differ much from the Siamese, eitber in language or 

 writing, except that they are unable to pronounce 

 the letters / and ?'.* and this opinion I am mucli 

 inclined to adopt, though I have had no favourable 

 opportunity of investigating the subject. 1{\ how- 

 ever, I may be allowed to judge from the specimens 

 of the Law language, which I have been able to pro- 

 cure from Siamese and Barmas, it appears to bear 

 the same relation to the T''hay or Siamese, that the 

 Ruk'heng does to the Barma. With the T'hay-jhay 

 it accords more fully than with the J"Aay proper; 

 and, in adopting Ball terms, it adheres more accu- 

 rately to the Bali orthography than either of them. 

 The following short list of words and phrases will- 

 eon vey some idea of the diflerence which subsists 

 between the Tliay and the Law. As the T" hay -j hay 

 ipproaches the Ldzv more nearly than the T^hay, 

 when that dialect uses pecuhar terms, I have pre- 

 ferred adducing them, for the sake of comparison. 

 Where the L&w and the T'hay agree in the radical, 

 an apparent diversity is often produced by the cgn- 

 version of the / and r into h or d. 



L&vf. T'hay. 



