17
effectively naturalized. To distinguish between them is moreover absolutely impossible in the absence of any early records of Thăi speech[1]. But the groups in the scheme above are not mutually exclusive. Eleven words of group 1 and six words of group 2 seem thoroughly naturalized. After making the necessary changes the result appears as follows:—
| Apparently native or fully naturalized | 334 |
| Foreign or uncertain | 70 |
The Thăi element, that is, amounts to 83 per cent of the whole. Surprising as the figure is, it would have been higher yet, had the count been made as is usual in such cases; namely, a count, regardless of repetition, of all words as they actually occur in the text, instead of counting each word but once, as has been done here.
Almost equally surprising is the very small number of Obsolete words. words in the Thăi group that have dropped out of current Siamese during the six centuries that have elapsed. As I count them, I find but twenty-one that seem really obsolete, that is, a trifle over 6 per cent.
Of the dialectal color of the Sŭkhothăi speech it is impossible Dialectal color. to speak in percentages. Of the twenty-one Thăi words accounted as not current now in Siamese speech, I have marked but six as known to me to exist in Lao. No doubt there are others as well, of whose use I am ignorant. To answer the question quantitatively, one would have to know also how many words out of this whole vocabulary are not—or rather were not—current in Lao. And even so, mere vocabulary does not by any means cover the whole ground of dialectal divergence, which consists quite
- ↑ Since the matter is of some moment, it may be well to state the grounds on which words have been admitted to group 4. They are 1) Long domiciliation of the word and familiar use of it within the Thai area, especially if supported by evidence of the appearance of the word in the related dialects. 2) Use of the word in the metrical and linked phrases, or in the assonant or alliterative "jingles" peculiar to Thai speech, since these are almost invariably old or constructed out of native materials. 3) Appearance in the word of the peculiar Thai vowels or diphthongs. This last, of course, is conclusive only as against certain foreign origins. These same criteria have determined also the selection of certain words noted as native or naturalized from groups 1 and 2. The obvious criticism upon this method is that the question of purity is thereby judged by the nineteenth century instead of by the thirteenth. But the thirteenth century can no longer by any possibility be brought to sit in judgment on the case; and if it could, it is not likely that the result would be very different as concerns the overwhelming preponderance of the native element. Those who may care to review the case will find the complete lists at the end of the paper.
