20 ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY 



3T 



This is no vowel, but an abbreviation, at the end of 

 a fyllable, of the nafal confonants: thus the Portuguefe 

 write Siao for Siam with a nafal termination: and the 

 accurate M. D'Anville expreffes great unwillingnefs 

 to write Siam for the country, and Siamois for the people 

 of it, yet acknowledges his fear of innovating, ' not- 

 6 withstanding his attachment to the original and proper 

 ' denominations of countries and places.' It appears to 

 me, that the addition of a diftinct letter, ga, would be 

 an improper and inconvenient mode of exprefling the 

 nafal found, and that we cannot do better than adopt 

 the Indian method of diftinguifhing it, in Sanfcrit, 

 Chinefe, and Perjian words, by a point above the let- 

 ter; as in Sinha, a lion; Cdhhi, the name of an illuf- 

 trious Emperor; and Sdmdh, a houfehold. 



3* 



This too is an abbreviation or fubftitute, at the clofe 

 of a fyllable, for the jlrong afpirate, and may be diftin- 

 guifhed in the middle of a word by a hyphen, as in 

 duh-cha, pain ; though it feems often to refemble the 

 Arabian hd, which gives only a more forcible found to 

 the vowel which precedes it, as in hhicmah, fcience* 

 It is well known, that, when fuch Arabick words are 

 ufed in conftruclion, the final afpirate of the firft noun 

 has the found of td ; but, as the letter remains unal- 

 tered, it mould, I think, be preferved in our charac- 

 ters, and exprelled either by two points above it, as in 

 Arabick, or by an accentual mark ; fince, if we write 

 Zubdahu'lmulc, or, the Flower of the Realm, with a 

 comma to denote the fuppreflion of the a I if, every 

 learner will know, that the firft word mould be pro- 

 nounced 



