KYOUK-HPYU, a district in British Burmah, lying between 18° 55' and 19° 22' N. lat., and 93° 25' and 94° E. long. It consists of, first, a strip of mainland along the Bay of Bengal, extending from the An Pass, across the main range, to the Ma-i river, and, secondly, the large islands of Ramri and Man-oung, with many others to the south, lying off the coast of Sandoway. The mainland in the north and east is highly mountainous and forest-clad, and the lower portion is cut up into numerous islands by a network of tidal creeks. Between the mainland and Ramri lies a group of islands separated by deep, narrow, salt-water inlets, forming the north-eastern shore of Kyouk-hpya harbour, which extends for nearly 30 miles along Ramri in a south-easterly direction, and has an average breadth of 3 miles. The principal mountains aro the Arakan Yomas, which send out spurs and sub-spurs almost to the sea-coast. The An Pass, an important trade route, rises to a height of 4664 feet above sea-level. The Dha-let and the An are navigable by large boats 25 and 45 miles respectively. Above these distances they are mere mountain torrents. Large forests of valuable timber cover an area of about 650 square miles. Kyouk-hpys'i contains numerous "mud volcanoes," from which marsh gas is frequently discharged, with occasional issues of flame. The largest of these is situated in the centre of Cheduba Island. Earth-oil wells exist in several places in the district. The oil when brought to the surface has the appearance of a whitish-blue water, which gives out brilliant straw-coloured rays, and emits a strong pungent colour. Limestone, iron, and coal are also found.

In 1872 the population was 144,177 (males 73,056 and females 71,121) : - Buddhists, 129,702 ; Mohammedans, 3920; Hindus, 185 ; Christians, 47 ; " others," 10,323. The largest town is Ramri, with a population in 1877 of 4028. Kjouk-hpyu, the headquarters, situated on Ramri Island, has 2620. Out of a total area of 4309 square miles, no less than 3740 are returned as absolutely uncultivable, and in 1876-77 only 165 square miles were under tillage. The principal crops are rice, sugar-cane, dhani,, and tobacco. The manufactures consist of silk and cotton cloth, indigo, salt, pottery, coarse sugar, and sesamum The total imperial and provincial revenue in 1876-77 was X43,454, besides a local revenue derived from port and municipal funds, Lim Tirepresents probably the same sound in all alphabets. That sound used to be called a "liquid," in which class m, a, and r were included. This arrangement was unsatisfactory so far as nt and ?f, are concerned, for they have nothing common in their formation with the others. Bat r and 1 are very closely akin. They are both dentals - or more accurately front palatals - produced by raising the point of the tongue to the front part of the palate, immediately behind the gums. They differ in this : for r a small aperture is left over the tip of the tongue by which the air escapes ; but for 1 the tongue reaches the top of the palate, but does not rest (as for r) against the sides of the mouth, and the voice escapes laterally by these side-apertures. The slightness of the difference in the positions of the mouth for these two sounds explains their ex-changeableness. Perhaps the most remarkable variation of the 1 sound is that which is heard in Welsh and denoted by //, in such words as Llanberis, Llangollen, Sze. An Englishman commonly sounds this as thl, which is certainly not right. But the best authorities on phonetics are not agreed as to the precise nature of the sound. Mr Ellis thinks that it is produced by laying the left side of the tongue against the whole of the palate, and then forcibly ejecting the breath along the right side. But he admits that the sound thus produced differs very little from a voiceless or surd 1 (the common 1 is sonant), which stands therefore to 1 in the same relation as f does to v, or ?eh (really kw) to ge, A simpler modification of the 1 sound is that heard in the Italian " gli " or in the Spanish " Ilano " ; it is formed by raising the middle part of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, not the point against the front part of the palate, as for the ordinary 1.

The peculiar nature of the 1 sound renders it apt to fall out before consonants with which it is inconsistent ; this is specially seen in French plurals, such as " chevaux " from " cheval." It is also common, but sporadic, in English ; e.g., in "walk," ''talk," "palm," " alms," "half," "would," &c. As is frequently the case with such vanishing sounds, it has sometimes intruded through false analogy in words with which it has nothing to do, e.g., in " could " (Old English " coade "), and rather strangely in some words of Latin origin, e.q., participle, principle. The form of the letter L has varied slightly, but has always consisted of two straight lines at an angle. In Greek the form was generally A; and this has been preserved in the Cyrillic and Russian alphabets. But in the western Greek alphabet the form was generally L ; and this appears in old Roman inscriptions, passing by degrees into the right angle with which we are familiar.