WEND LANGUAGE. The language of the Wends is similar to the other branches of the northwestern stem of the Slavic languages, the Polish and the Bohemian. It is divided in to the dialect of Lower Lusatia, which is but little developed, and that of Upper Lusatia. The latter is subdivided into the Evangelical dialect, near Bautzen; the Catholic dialect, near Kamenz, and in the northwest; and the north eastern dialect. The differences are mostly confined to shades of pronunciation. The stock of words in the present language of the Wends is largely mixed with German elements. Orthog raphy has always been in a very unsettled con dition. In their publications, the Wends have mostly made use of the German letters. There are eight vowels, a, o, u, e, all of which are pronounced as in German and Italian, 6 (be tween o in note and u in full), é (like long English e), and y (approaching the German ii). There are 32 consonants. There is no article. Nouns ending in a consonant are mostly masculine, those in a and i feminine, and those in o and e neuter. There
are seven declensions. The language has a dual number. There are seven cases. The ad jectises end in y, i (masculine), a (feminine), o and e (neuter). The comparative is formed by the termination isi, and in order to form the superlative the syllable naj is placed before the comparative. The personal pronouns are irreg ular; the others are declined like adjectives. The verb has six tenses and five moods, besides a gerund; and three participles. Till about the middle of the 19th century Wendish literature consisted almost wholly of ecclesiastical and religious works, and works relating to the needs of peasant life, but there has since been a revival of national feeling, accompanied by a more extended literature. There are gram mars of the Wendish language by Ticinus (Prague 1679) ; Matthai (1721) ; Seiler (Bautzen 1830), and Jordan (Prague 1841).