[ iv ]
sary to add the significations of the different words, in English, to obviate, as far as possible, the danger of mistake, a precaution which was not thought necessary in the former vocabularies. For the sake of reference, the series of vocables is numbered from the beginning to the end; and as a spare column still remained in the page, it was thought, that the object of the work might be in some degree facilitated, by occupying that column with the Siamese or T'hái language. As no types of the Siamese character have hither to been cut, it was necessary to insert the vocables of this language in the Roman character. In this part of the work, the orthography which has been generally followed is that of Sir W. Jones; but it has been followed with some minute deviations, chiefly occasioned by the excessive difficulty of printing so various a page. Of these, the most important is the omission of some of the accents, as in representing the greater part of the nasals by ng, in the end of a word. The letter k, is likewise very generally used for c, as it appears in the alphabetical arrangement of Sir W. Jones. The Italian u, is also used to denote the French u, which is very frequent in the Siamese language. The most material defect, however is the omission of the Signs of the Siamese tones, which in general correspond to those of the Chinese language; and this omission was occasioned by the same cause as that of the accents already mentioned. In using the Siamese vocabulary, this defect is chiefly to be guarded against. In the Barma and Maláyu Series, the most usual native orthography has been generally adopted. In several instances, however, in which it appeared to be very likely to lead to mistakes, a less common orthography, has been used, which in general is more auricular than the other,
