1846.] on the Kuladyne River : — Arracan. 73 



therefore I cannot but suspect, that a better acquaintance with these 

 dialects would reveal them ; and that I was unable to make myself un- 

 derstood in that part of my enquiries. 



None of the tribes to which we have referred in the above pages are 

 in possession of any alphabetical system. Unless indeed we except the 

 Khyoungthas, who being in reality pure Arracanese, have consequently 

 the Arracanese or Burmese characters. With reference to the remain- 

 der, it is as yet a matter of doubt, among those who have turned their 

 attention to the subject, whether, for the purposes of education, their 

 dialects should be adapted to the Roman, or the Burman alphabet. 

 With reference to the first, the only thing that can be said in its favour is, 

 that it will save their European instructors the trouble of learning the 

 Burmese alphabet. With reference to the second, a crowd of arguments 

 appeal in its favour. In the first place all these dialects are evidently 

 cognate to the Burmese language, not only so in sound, but also in 

 structural peculiarities ; all their finals are exactly similar to those of the 

 Burmese language, being required to be formed in the mouth but not 

 uttered ; this single peculiarity, which in Burmese is represented by a 

 mark called that, would require some outlandish configuration to be 

 conveyed in an European alphabet. Secondly, the instruction which 

 these people could possibly receive directly from European instructors 

 must be comparatively small ; as with the exception of a few short 

 months, their mountain- fastnesses are inaccessible to an European con- 

 stitution ; and therefore native teachers formed in the plains, where Bur- 

 mese is vernacular, would necessarily become the principal instruments. 

 Thirdly, the Burmese language is used as the medium of communication 

 with the English Government, and therefore there are always a number of 

 persons in every village familiar with it. Fourthly, there are fewer sounds 

 foreign to the Burmese than to the English language. I remarked but 

 two, viz. the v in " van," and the u in the French "plume," " a feather ;" 

 these could easily be supplied by characters conformable to the general 

 type of those of the Burmese alphabet ; as has been done by the Ame- 

 rican Missionaries at Tavoy in the case of the Karen language. 



In the following list the coronna as in the word ylaung, represents 

 the a considered by the Burmese as inherent in every consonant, similar 

 in sound to the first a in " papa :" the u with a dot under it represents 

 the u in the French word plume, "a pen." The other accentuated 

 letters will explain themselves. 



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