35S ON THE ARABIC LANGUAGE.

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 rnentioned synonymous letteis, a defect which is not likely to he 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 X Alif \ — 1 Alif \ 2 ba j — 2 ba J S ta o — ta o 4 thsa — 4 tha i 5 jim /r- — o jim ' 6 hha _ 6 hha 7-7 kha tl ~ ' C 8 dal 3—8 a 3 9 dsal 3 — 9 dth'al b 10 ra J — 10 ra j 11 za J — 11 zain j