20 Alphabets of the Tai language. [Jan, 



in the column ; those on the right hand have the falling tone. Seve- 

 ral of the falling-toned letters have no corresponding character for 

 the opposite intonation ; when it is required to express this, an h is 



written above the letter, which raises its tone; thus, (f\ w « QO n, 

 CO m, 00 I, &c. A similar plan is adopted in the Siamese, where 



the high-toned h, is prefixed to other consonants for the purpose of 

 raising their tone. 



The pronunciation of the fourth letter in the table is not uniform ; 

 the Siamese give it the sound of ch, the Laos nearly the same, while 

 all the Shyans pronounce it as st. The next letter, chh, is confound- 

 ed by the Shyans with s. The character for ph is used, by the 

 Ahoms and Shyans, to express both the aspirated p and the sound of 

 f ; the Khamtis for the most part confound these two sounds. The 

 Ahoms use the same character for both d and n ; and also for b and 

 w ; but the latter sound is changed to that of b, whenever it occurs 

 at the beginning of a word. 



In the table of vowels we also find the sounds represented more 

 fully by the Laos than by the northern tribes ; though the Laos are 

 still behind the Siamese in expressing the niceties of the language. 

 The sounds resembling the French u and eu, or the German u and 6, are 

 written alike by the Shyans, though they are perfectly distinguished 

 in pronunciation ; as also the sounds of ai and di; au and du ; eu and 

 hi. The sound au, which is very common among the Shyans and 

 Khamtis, does not occur in the Laos. Its place is supplied by ai. 

 The long 6 final of the Shyans is generally pronounced 6a or ua by 

 the Laos and Siamese. The Shyan character given in the table is 

 that used in the neighborhood of Ava ; it is the same, with very slight 

 variations, as that used by the Shyans of Mdgaung. 



Noti?. At the foot of the alphabetical scheme, lithographed from 

 Mr. Brown's manuscript, we have inserted the Ahom legend of an 

 Assamese rupee, said to be of Chakradwaja Sinha, who repulsed 

 Agrangzeb's general, and whose reign commenced in 1621*. The 

 sculptured letters differ considerably in form from the written ones, 

 and there is too much uncertainty for us to attempt applying the 

 Roman character to it, without a native at hand to correct the reading. 



We have also given in the two following plates, facsimiles on a 

 reduced scale of the commencement of the manuscript volumes in the 

 grounds ; but the pronunciation must of course, under the author's explana- 

 tion, be restricted to the sounds of the first column k kh ; ch chh ; t th ; p pft f 

 &c. ; with the rising or falling intonations respectively. — Eu. 



* See page 118 of Chronological Appendix. 



