lvi 
MISCEU-ANEOUS NOTICES &C. 
More than twenty years have elapsed, since I paid some attention 
to the Siamese language; not on its own account, since it is rather 
unattractive to an European or an American,—but because it ap¬ 
peared at the time the only mode by which any real knowledge 
could be gained of the country and its people,—and a dozen years at 
least have passed away since I left off reading Siamese works, so 
that I am now somewhat rusty in the language. I wish, however, 
to make this preliminary and general remark, that Mr. Jones may 
rest assured that had I perceived the least prospect of the subjects 
regarding Siam, which I have at various periods ventured on, being 
handled by others who had better opportunities than I had of eluci¬ 
dating them, I should certainly not have adventured, under a good 
many, and what Mr Jones is pleased to call 46 complicated ”, disad¬ 
vantages . That is to say, that in so far as oral information went 
respecting Central Siam 1 had to depend on such Priests and 
other Siamese as visited Penang. I am doubtful at the same time 
whether a residence in the capital would authorize any writer con¬ 
fidently to pronounce on all of the customs, extant in the Central and 
Northern or Upper Provinces. In large cities, country or provin¬ 
cial manners and customs can scarcely survive a limited period. The 
natural abrasion of a crowded.people, with refinements, and foreign 
intercourse, will soon render the features of the society of a Capital 
no guage of those of the Provinces,, Unless therefore Mr. Jones 
personally visited these Provinces he must excuse me for observing 
that he has been labouring under disadvantages similar in kind, al¬ 
though doubtless far less in degree, than those I have had to en¬ 
counter. 
Mr. Gutzlaff observed 44 that the acquirement of the colloquial di¬ 
alect of the Siamese language is difficult for an European ear” to 
which I must respond, and to which I must add that unless one is 
gifted with both a good ear and glottologieal flexibility the true 
enunciation of many of its sounds will be equally difficult or per¬ 
haps, unattainable. 
Mr. Jones finds fault witli my short u. It is indeed true that the 
T,hai Alphabet has no separate and precise letter to express this 
sound. Neither has the English. My instructor in the language was 
a native of Bankok, and to my ear this u as in run, cut, utter, lump, 
but &c,, is the same as the Siamese vowel in the words, man (hi)- 
ung, ro-um, (mu-)ung, un-(nung), &c. But Mr. Jones does ad¬ 
mit that there is a sound which resembles it when followed by n final. 
