1877.] Peninsula and the Indian Archipelago. 213 



The Siamese language is spoken by four millions, ridiculously proud, and a 

 conquering race, maintaining till within our time a conflict with the Bur- 

 mese to the north, the Malays to the south, and the Annamites and Cam- 

 bojans to the west. Bastian remarks, in the pages of the J. R. A. S., that 

 the Siamese gradually diverged from pure monosyllabism, by the introduc- 

 tion of words from the Pali, and thus it differed very considerably from the 

 Chinese ; on the other hand, it is much more monosyllabic, and more 

 powerfully accented, than the Burmese. Next to the Chinese, according to 

 Bastian, it is richest in tones of the so-called monosyllabic languages. 

 This language has been known to Europeans for two centuries. An inscrip- 

 tion exists in the ruins of the old capital of Ayuthia, dated 1284 A. D. 

 There are three idioms, that of the sacred Buddhistic books, that of the 

 higher orders, and that of the people. In proportion to the elevation of 

 the ideas is the introduction of Sanskrit and Pali words, accommodated to 

 Siamese vocalization. There is an enormous religious and secular literature, 

 in which there is a study of euphony and neglect of sense, and it is deemed 

 an elegance to have many words in the same sentence commencing with the 

 same letter. European printing presses are established at Bangkok, and 

 Government Gazettes are published, but no indigenous native printing 

 press. The King himself talks and writes good English, as did his prede- 

 cessor. The best grammar and dictionary are by Bishop Pallegoix. The 

 vocabulary of Loubere is dated 1687 A. D., ^nd it is unnecessary to notice 

 later vocabularies and fugitive notices of so great a language, for they are 

 numerous, some scientific, like those by W. Schott, De Bosny, and Giitz- 

 laff ; others of mere conversational utility. The New Testament has been 

 translated into Siamese. 



" Adjacent to the prosperous realm, and the well-known language of 

 the Siamese, is the fallen and sadly-reduced kingdom, and the scarcely 

 recognized idiom of the Cambojan, on the great river of Cambodia, the 

 river Mekong. All the surrounding nations admit, that the Cambojans 

 were their teachers in religion and science ; but for the interference of the 

 Erench, who have now taken the remnant of the kingdom under their 

 protection, in all probability it would have been totally absorbed in its two 

 powerful neighbours, Annam and Siam. It is calculated that about one 

 million and a half still speak the modern type of the ancient language of 

 the Khmer or Khomer, though the kingdom of Cambodia comprises only 

 one million ; the remainder are subjects either of Siam or of French 

 Cochin- China. The magnificent ruins of Angcour, or Nakhon Wat, have 

 drawn attention to the subject, and among these ruins are inscriptions, in 

 an archaic form of the special character of the Cambojan, the most easterly 

 derivative of the great Indian prototype alphabet, and in an archaic form 

 of language imperfectly understood, if at all, by the modern Buddhist 



