BOHEMIAN LANGUAGE AND LIT ERATURE. The language of Bohemia, other wise called Czech, is one of the Slavonic group of the Aryan or Indo-European family of tongues, and accordingly allied to Polish, Rus sian, Serbian, Bulgarian, etc. (See SLAVS or SLAVONIANS). The Czech (Bohemian) lan guage or dialect was the first of the Slavonic idioms which was cultivated scientifically. It is spoken in Bohemia Moravia, with slight variations in Austrian Silesia, in Hungary and in Slavonia. Three chief dialects of this Ian guage are recognized, namely, the Bohemian or Czech proper, the Moravian of Moravia and Silesia and the Slovak of Hungary. The Bohemian alphabet consists of 42 letters, ex pressing a great variety of sounds. The English sound of Is the Bohemian expresses with c, the English y with g, the sh with ss or s, the Italian ce or ci with c modified, the French ge and gi with z, the Italian u with y, the gn with n, the English w with w, particularly at the end of words. The sound of entire words, not that of the single letters which compose them, determines the roughness or smoothness of their pronunciation. The terminations of the various declensions and conjugations are mostly vowelsr the smoother consonants. In B general, the Bohemian has a natural melody like that of the Greek.
The Bohemian language, moreover, has much expressiveness and energy, as it is not weakened by a number of articles, auxiliary words, conjunctions and words of transition, but is able to represent the objects of imagina tion, of passion and all the higher emotions of the poet and orator, in a lively manner; by its brevity, heaping together the most signifi cant words, and arranging the connection of the parts of speech according to the degree of feeling to be expressed, so as to give the style, spirit and energy, or gentleness and equability. Like various other tongues, it designates many objects by imitation of natural sounds. Thus the name of many animals are taken from their voices, as kruta, the turkey; kachna, the duck. Many plants are named from their effects, as bolehlaw, hemlock (from headache). The con ciseness of the language is increased by the absence of auxiliaries in the greater part of the verbs. The preterites, in the third person singular and plural, express a meaning still further condensed, as the variation in the last syllable is made to designate the sex; for ex ample, psal, psala, psalo, he, she, it, has written; psali, psaly, psala, they have written. In like manner the Bohemian saves many prepositions and much circumlocution of other kinds, by the use of the instrumental, agreeing with the Latin ablative; for instance, secenjm niece hlawu mu st' al (t read like te), with a blow of the sword he has cut off his head.° This
language is, therefore, very well fitted for the translation of the Latin classics. By the use of the past participle active the Bohemian can designate, as well as the Greek, who has really performed the action contained in the predicate of the accessory clause, which the Latin, with its ablative absolute or participle passive, must leave always undefined and dubious. The same kinds of actions performed with different im plements are often expressed by peculiar words; for example, the verbs ziti, strjhati, krcigeti, rezati, denote to cut with the scissors, with the sickle, with the knife and with the scythe. In the subtlety of grammatical struc ture the Bohemian is like the Greek, and has the advantage over the Latin and other Ian guages. In speaking of two hands, two eyes, etc., the dual number is used; for example, race, oci, etc. The language is also capable of expressing the idea of duration, referring to an indefinite past time, like the Greek aorist; for instance, kupowal dum, ale ttekaupil ho, he was engaged in buying the house, and did not buy it. The language affords several preterite tenses, distinguished with great subtlety, as kaupil, he has bought once ,• kupowal, he had purchased for a long time; kupowdwal, he had purchased formerly several times; kupowdwd wal, he seldom had purchased in former times; moreover, by adding the auxiliary verb byl, a time still longer passed may be expressed, though this is very seldom used; for instance, byl kupowdwal, he had purchased in times long past. Another advantage of the language con sists in the various future tenses by which the Bohemian denotes not only the time but also the duration, and the more or less frequent repetition of the action; for instance, kaupjm, I shall purchase once; budu kupowati, I shall be purchasing for a long time; budu kupowowati, I shall purchase several times; and budu kupowdwati, I shall be purchasing very often. Not less manifold in signification, and equally subtle in the determination of time, are the participles and the participial constructions. The determination of sex and number by the final syllable of the participle gives the Czech language no small advantage over others. Small connective particles of speech the Bohe mian has in common with the Greek. The Greek alla, men, gar, de, te, etc., agree with the Bohemian ele, pak, wsak, t'; only the three latter are always affixed to a word. Finally, the free, unrestrained arrangement of the words contributes much to perspicuity, as the Bohemian is less fettered than almost any other modern language to a particular order.