In Siamese the subject of the sentence precedes the verb and the object follows it. The possessive pronoun follows the object. The adverb usually follows the verb. In compound sentences the verbs are placed together as in English, not separated by the ob ject as in German. When an action is expressed in the past the word which forms, with the verb, the past tense is divided from the verb itself by the object.
In addition to the ordinary language of the people there is a completely different set of words ordained for the use of royalty, to avoid the employment of downright expressions of vulgarity or of words which might be capable of conveying an unpleasant or indelicate idea other than the meaning intended. Words of San skrit origin have been freely adopted and many Cambodian words are also used. The language is so complete that the dog, pig, crow, and other common or unclean animals are all expressed by special words, while the actions of royalty, such as eating, sleeping, walk ing, speaking, bathing, dying, are spoken of in words quite distinct from those used to describe similar actions of ordinary people.
See 0. Frankfurter, Elements of Siamese Grammar (590o) ; Linguis tic Survey of India, vol. ii. (19o4)• The genius of the Siamese finds its best literary expression in verse which contains a great variety of metre, but the three commonest metres are called Klon, Kap and Klong. The tones of the language play a very important part in Siamese poetry—indeed they may be said to take the place of rhymes; the Kap, however, has rhymes in addition. Every subject is mate rial for the Siamese poet and the verses are comparable with those of almost any land. Klong and Kap forms are combined in the style known as Nirat poetry, or extended narrative love-verse, and the Klon'pet ton or thumb-nail love-songs are numbered by hundreds. They are unrivalled for elegance of diction and sweet sound, perfectly balanced little pieces of eight lines divided into two stanzas; each line having eight syllables. This form of verse is confined to the treatment of love and passion. The other metres are of interest only to the academician.
Siamese is rich in quasi-historical and mythological literature. The purely native material is informed by an imagination far less vivid than that of the Indian Rarnayana, (Ramakien), but is decidedly interesting as an index of the Siamese mind. It is sometimes very difficult to decide whether a story is purely na tive, as Siam drew upon the mighty sources of India, Cambodia and China; where the material was not too definitely alien, the Siamese pressed it very closely into their own mould, producing a very different piece of literary effort from the original. Wet ya Sun yin and Wo ra loongs are examples of stories originally bor rowed from India. Semi-magical stories are numerous and nature stories abound. A study of the mythological literature sheds a
flood of light on the origin and development of Indo-Chinese su perstition. Pium lion, a very popular tale, tells of a young woman loved by an elephant, and Prang tong is a story of a princess who was prenatally betrothed to a giant. Siamese cosmogony is en shrined in the Nok khum, and these mythological works may be considered the earliest examples of native literature.
There exists much religious material in Siamese—almost the whole of the Buddhist Canon having appeared, some parts of it existing in many different versions : Pattama Sompothiyan is the standard Siamese life of Buddha. There is often great difficulty in distinguishing between Buddhist literature proper and Niti or traditional literature. Much of this is from the Bali language and from Javanese, which in their turn were inspired from India. The outstanding work in this division is called the Maxims of Phra Ruang. Phra Ruang was the national hero-king and he is held up to Siamese youth as the mighty ideal of manhood.
It is in law that Siamese literature shows its best early prose. Five ancient canons, some of them founded on the Law of Manu, exist and present the earliest form of Siamese law and a very early style of Siamese literary composition. A large collection of early royal edicts has come down to our day although a modern code of laws has long since superseded the old statutes. A penal code based on foreign procedures was issued in 1908 and additions are made periodically. Never has Siam published so lavishly; every month new legal codes, translations of religious texts, new versions of foreign classics or translations of alien literature roll from un wearied presses. More especially versions from the Pali scriptures of Buddhism abound and there is nowadays a movement on foot to supply the lacunae in historical literature.
The wars of the middle ages and early modem times in Siam have robbed us of much literary material which must have existed centuries ago. There is as yet no reliable, connected history of Siam in the native tongue, although we have a fairly complete his tory of the Aguthia dynasty and of the modern line of kings. The cause for dissatisfaction with these histories is almost entirely con cerned with the earlier parts which have drawn largely upon the quasi-historical and legendary literature. Modern works on general history are of almost daily publication now, however, and histories of Siam, based on material drawn from foreign contemporary sources are in course of preparation. The educational department of the Siamese Government is indeed the modern fairy god mother of the people in matters of dissemination of general knowledge. (See Catalogue of the India Office Library, London.)