William Richard Morfill

Name: A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language
Author: William Richard Morfill

A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

Summary

“A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language”, published in 1899, is a work by William Richard Morfill. It explores elements such as Bohemian, Bohemian language and Slavonic.

Quotes from A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (William Richard Morfill)

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ I have 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ Both Kollár and Schafarik were Slovaks, and the writings of Holly, Sladkovič, and Chalupka are perfectly familiar to their Bohemian brethren, although they used the Slovakish dialect.
It is much to be regretted that attempts should have been made to develop it as a literary language; the Slovaks are thereby only playing into the hands of their enemies.
It would be impossible in this Introduction to enumerate more than the most prominent of the Bohemian authors. In the early period we get the so-called Chronicle of Dalimil, which dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ It is a great pity that this work has not been translated into English. As yet we have been too content to learn about the Bohemians from people who are interested only in depreciating them, but the valuable work of Count Lützow previously alluded to will no doubt do much to dissipate the prejudices of ignorance. As I have not space on the present occasion to give a complete sketch of Bohemian literature, I am obliged to pass over many other valuable works. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ The accent in Bohemian is always on the first syllable of a word. Prepositions of one syllable take the accent with a substantive, being considered compounded with the word, but the accent has nothing to do with the length of a vowel. Even in words of four and five syllables the accent is on the first, so that in the accentuation of a word of four syllables there is another accent on the penult, as velebený, praised ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ It was printed at Pilsen in 1468, and was one of the first books which issued from the Bohemian Press. We now come to the great name of Hus, a man whose life is too well known to need a detailed account. I shall confine myself to his influence upon Bohemian literature. During the latter part of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth the University of Prague was at the height of its splendour. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ Here may be mentioned a Bohemian version of the History of the Trojan War, composed by Guido of Colonna, from Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius, which, to judge from the number of MSS. in existence, must have been very popular. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ In the third declension of feminine nouns in the dative and locative cases of the singular, the mutations of h, ch, k, and r into z, š, c, ř, also take place; thus učiti se uloze, to learn a lesson from uloha ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ The consonant h, as Holomuc, used by the common people for Olomuc.
(3) The consonant j, as jíti, to go, originally iti (see Gebauer, i. 570) .
The liquids l and r, between two consonants, have a vocalic sound, as vlk, a wolf, pronounce vŭlk (the u as in but) ; prst, a finger, pronounce pŭrst; krk, the neck, pronounce kŭrk.
Both in English and German this brief e occurs in syllables, and is not pronounced ; cf. silber, silver, with Bohemian brzo, soon ; fackel, a torch, with řekl, he spake ; fächert, with chrt, a greyhound. Cf. ”

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Source: Wikisource

William Richard Morfill, A grammar of the Bohemian or Čech language (1899)

“ Mourek, of Prague, from the MS. preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Kronika Dalimilova podle Rukopisu Cambridgeského. Prague, 1892) . To the fourteenth century also belongs the Alexandreis, which is a free adaptation from the Latin. Jireček assigns it to a period as early as the thirteenth century. ”

William Richard Morfill

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