Page:A grammar of the Bohemian or Cech language.djvu/11



compiled this Grammar in the hope that a study of the Bohemian language and literature may induce Englishmen to feel sympathy with the struggles of a noble Slavonic people. Few countries of Europe have made greater efforts in the cause of religious and civil liberty; and the renaissance of Bohemia in the second decade of the present century must be reckoned as one of the most extraordinary phenomena which the world has ever witnessed. The enthusiasm of a few scholars gave rise to a great political movement. The national spirit was there: it only waited to be quickened.

The Bohemian or Čech language belongs to the western branch of the great Slavonic family. These languages are now generally grouped by scholars in two classes: (1) the South-Eastern branch, including Old Slavonic (called also Old Bulgarian or Old Slovenish), Russian, Malorussian, White Russian, Serbian, and Slovenish; and (2) the Western branch, including Polish, with the interesting Kashubish dialect, spoken near Danzig; Bohemian or Čech, spoken in Bohemia and Moravia,