Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/501

 9* S.V.JUNE 23, 1900. j NOTES AND QUERIES.

489

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 23. 1900.

CONTENTS. -No. 130.

NOTES : The Bohemian Language, 489 Book Sale Cata- logues, 490 Loss of w in Scandinavian Danish Church, Wellclose Square, 492" Dorp " ' H.B.D.' : " Curse of Scotland " Dr. T. Wilson Hanover Square Concert Rooms, 493 ' Diary of Lady P. Pennoyer ' " Hoti " in Browning and;Howell Sir O. Cromwell and his Family Riding in Prussia, 494.

QUERIES : Derivation of Waddington Scrope the Regi- cide Stapleton's Mrs. Cadwallader J. Dilly Glover 4 John Bull,' a Paper Monastery at Biarritz Eighteenth- Century Sporting Record House Inverted, 495 Michael Marks Garth's ' Dispensary 'Soldier Ancestors Samuel Clarke, M.P. Counting Another's Buttons Lollard Towers Philology and Ethnology Charleton : Carey Latin Quotation Archidiaconal Visitations, 496 Ancient Towers in Sardinia St. Thomas's Day Custom Moyse Hall Gordon of Grenada Authors Wanted, 497.

REPLIES : " Inundate," 497 " Chink " English Mile, 498 Cockayne Clifford : Braose "Kidcoat" Politician, 499 Fonblanque ' ' Nesquaw "Cutting Babies' Nails, 500 Borough-English " Petigrewe " Game of Tables French Society in the Last Century Stamp Collecting, 501 " February Fill-Dyke " Beezeley Royal Arms- Tennyson Query, 502 Weather Folk-lore C. Merrett Proverb "Lazy Laurence," 503 The Strappado Mazes cut in Turf " Intentions " Old Songs " Several " "Viridical," 504 Rogers's ' Ginevra ' " Wound " for "Winded "Johnson's Birthplace" Spotted negro boy," 505 Bernard and Bayard, 506.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Coleridge's 'Works of Byron' White's ' Sweet Hampstead ' Hoste's ' Johnson and his Circle 'Jackson's ' Glossary of Botanic Terms ' Richard- son's ' Coutts & Co.' Kidson's ' British Music Publishers.'

Notices to Correspondents.

THE BOHEMIAN LANGUAGE. A RECENT lecture by Count Liitzow has drawn attention to a language and literature of which there are probably few students in this country. The fact that the lecturer re- futed ideas that Bohemian was connected with gipsies is a proof of this, and the mysterious Bohemia of which Thackeray and others give us glimpses somewhat resembles the old Alsatia, though the latter was, of course, far more lawless. The late Mr. A. H. Wratislaw, a deep scholar of the Slavonic languages, especially of the Bohemian language and literature, was descended from a family of that nationality. The indefatigable Keader in the Slavonic Languages at Oxford* has followed up his series of Slavonic grammars with one of Chekh, which has certain advan- tages over the preceding ones. As in the case of his Bulgarian grammar, Mr. Morfill provides extracts in prose and poetry from Kollar, Sladek, and others for reading-lessons.

stituted Mr. W. R. Morfill professor of these languages at Oxford University.
 * Since this was written Convocation has con-

The name Bohemia (Bohmen), home of the Boii, is paralleled by the French name for Germany, Allemagne, from the forgotten Alemanni. The derivation of the native Cechy, adjective Cesky (usually represented in English and German by the Polish Czech, but sometimes transliterated Chekh, French Tcheque), is apparently obscure. The name of the country is plural, as in the sentence " Cechy isou casti Rakouska," Bohemia are a part of Austria.* Like Polish, the Bohemian language is written with compounds of Latin letters, while the other Slav tongues Russian, Servian, and Bulgarian employ the Cyrillic alphabet, with certain modifications and varia- tions peculiar to each. The nasals have been practically lost in all the Slav tongues except Polish, of which Mr. Morfill observes, "As regards phonological subtleties, Polish is one of the most remarkable languages of Europe." Declensions of substantives and adjectives in Chekh follow broadly the lines of the cognate tongues, perhaps approaching to Polish more than to the others, especially in the case of some dative forms. Irregular substantives, such as nebe, the sky; oko, eye ; ucho, ear ; mati, mother, &c., are common to all. The infini- tive suffix ti of Slavonic verbs, as in vesti, to lead ; brati, to take ; jiti, to go, is retained in Bohemian and Servian, but lost in the other tongues, except in a few Russian verbs. The Polish tu, here, becomes " there " in Chekh, in which " here " is expressed by zde (Russian zdies), a word which nas lately got soldiers into trouble. In the Slav tongues the word kral (korol) is used for king, from the name of Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse). There is a curious Chekh word, mistr (from L. magister), resembling our Mr., applied to one who has obtained the degree of M.A. The words for prince, knize (Russian kniaz), and priest, knez t are derived from the same Gothic root. The word kostel (Polish kosciele), from L. castellum, is employed as well as cirkev (Russian tserkov) for a church.

There are numerous words of foreign origin, e.g., farar (G. Pfarrer), pantofel, parlament, personalia, rytir (G. Bitter), sice (G. sicker), Vanocni (adjective from G. Weihnacht). It is not easy to recognize such names as Vaclav and Vladislav under the forms of Wenceslaus (hero of a popular Christmas carol) and Ladislaus. It is worthy of note that the motto of the Prince of Wales, Ich dien, from the arms of the blind King John of Bohemia, slain at Cregy, is German, and not Slavonic. The king, however, was a member

cussed lately by MB. JAMES PLATT in these columns.
 * This recalls the plural word Bucharest, dis-