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FURTHER-INDIANBRANCH
417 the changes of the single signs were due mainly to the writing materials used in Siam. Fig. 190 reproduces a specimen of the important Patimokkha manuscript; Fig. 154, col. 26 shows the character used in that manuscript.
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Fig. 190-Specimen from the Siamese Patimokkha manuscript
Until quite recent times, the monasteries were the only important seats of learning and the only Siamese institution which preserved written documents, Sacred works were written on corypha palm leaves, their edges being gilded or painted with vermilion, and the leaves threaded on strings and folded like a fan. More important copies of the religious books were engraved on ivory tablets. Generally speaking, the material used was an indication of the social standing of the person for whom the written document was intended; the king's letters were engraved on sheets of gold when they were sent to princes or on paper, either black or white, when written to lesser people. However, the peculiar shapes of the modern Siamese letters are due mainly to the employment of the corypha palm leaves as the chief material of writing.
Modern Siamese Alphabet
The modern Siamese alphabet (Fig. 154, col. 27) consists of 44 consonants, in each of which the vowel a is inherent, and of 30 vowels, each consisting not of an individual letter, but of a mark written above, below, before or after the consonant with which it is pronounced. The letters a and u are not considered as vowels but as consonants, and they are used as such in support of the vowel signs. The main reason for the great number of the vowel marks lies not in the vowels themselves, but in the tones, five or six in number (see p. 98 f.).
The difficulties in reading Siamese are increased by the existence of a host of accents and by the absence of punctuation. The words are not separated from each other and the stream of letters flows uninterruptedly until the idea changes. Juxtaposition is the only means of indicating syntactical relations between words. An important result of the use of the printing press, since the early nineteenth century, was the introduction into printing of spacing between words. The typewriter, introduced in 1891, has also had an influence on the development of the shapes of the single letters.
