Page 31 - A History of Siam

INTRODUCTION 29

names and titles used in this book, I trust that it will
not be found There are two
entirely unsatisfactory.
main in use in the
systems Siam, namely phonetic,
which the sound of each word as heard or
gives imagined
by the transliterator, and the scientific, which gives the
in Roman characters of the Pali
equivalent original
or Sanscrit of the word. The former
pronunciation
as a the of all
system, rule, utterly disguises origin
Pali and Sanscrit words, and the latter completely
distorts their modern
pronunciation.
As this book will, I hope, be read by many persons
who know no Siamese, and by more who know no
Sanscrit or Pali, I have thought it best to follow a
For the sake of those readers who
phonetic system.
may be interested in tracing the Pali origin of the names
and titles used, I have, however, with the kind assistance
of Professor G. Coedfes, added a list, in which the Pali
forms are set forth.
There are two main classes of Siamese
guttural,
and dental the
labial, consonants, namely unaspirated
and the The latter are often
aspirated. represented by
"
adding an h," e.g. Phya, Thien ; but this misleads
into those combinations as
many people pronouncing
in I indicated the
English. have, therefore, aspirated
consonants by adding an apostrophe, e.g. P'y a T'ien.
>
There are two Siamese classes of letters which are
"
transliterated ch." One is more or less
usually by
"
as in the other is rather like the
soft, church," hard,
" " "
tch at the end of the word To
pitch." distinguish
between these two classes of letters I have represented
" "
the soft sound by "j and the hard sound by ch,"
An has been made in the names of such well-
exception
known as and and
places Chiengmai Chiengsen, perhaps
a few more inconsistencies be found.
slight may