rica
scarcely ever become sufficiently masters of the Arabic to speak it
fluently, which radical defect proceeds altogether from their not
learning, while studying it, the peculiar distinction of the
synonymous letters. _No European, perhaps, ever knew more of the
theory of this language than the late Sir William Jones, but still
he could not converse with an Arabian;_ a circumstance of which he
was not conscious until he went to India. This great man, however,
had he been told that his knowledge of this popular eastern
language was so far deficient, that he was ignorant of the separate
powers of its synonymous letters, and consequently inadequate to
converse intelligibly with a native Arab, he would certainly have
considered it an aspersion, and have disputed altogether that such
was the fact. Considering how much we are indebted to the Arabians
358 for the preservation of many of the works of the ancients, which
would otherwise have never, perhaps, been known to us, it is really
surprising, that their language should be so little known in
Europe. It is certainly very difficult and abstruse, (to learners
particularly,) but this difficulty is rendered insurmountable by
the European professors knowing it only as a dead language, and
_teaching it without due attention to the pronunciation of the
before mentioned synonymous letters, a defect which is not likely
to be remedied, and which will always subject the speaker to
incessant errors_.

To shew the Arabic student the difference between the Oriental and
Occidental order of the letters of the alphabet, I shall here give
them opposite each other.

Oriental. Occidental

1 Alif [A] -- 1 Alif [A]

2 ba. [A] -- 2 ba [A]

3 ta [A] -- 3 ta. [A]

4 thsa [A] -- 4 tha [A]

5 jim [A] -- 5 jim [A]

6 hha [A] -- 6 hha [A]

7 kha [A] -- 7 kha [A]

8 dal [A] -- 8 dal [A]

9 dsal [A] -- 9 dth'al [A]

10 ra [A] -- 10 ra [A]

11 za [A] -- 11 zain [A]
359
12 sin [A] -- 12 ta [A]

13 shin [A] -- 13 da [A]

14 sad [A] -- 14 kef [A]

15 dad [A] -- 15 lam [A]

16 ta [A] -- 16 mim [A]

17 da [A] -- 17 nune [A]

18 ain [A] -- 18 sad [A]

19 gain [A]