146
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. A. 23, 1002.
Countess of Seaforth, my wife "though the
evidence is probably in favour of that desig-
nation being the proper one.
W. H. W. P.
EUSSIAN AND ITS RELATION TO OTHER
SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. The Slavonic lan- guages possessing a remote common basis, it follows that there is a certain degree of affinity between them, and that a student of one often recognizes a familiar word or phrase in another. Thus a Russian scholar strolling through Prague or Warsaw will understand shop signs and street directions, if he knows the compounds of Latin letters in which Czech* and Polish are written, and he may occasionally catch the drift of a con- versation. The Czechs told me that they could understand Russians, but that Russians did not understand them ; and during a Russian conversation which I carried on with some Russian-speaking Czechs a Czech friend who stood by declared, to my surprise, that he could understand me, though not his fellow-countrymen. Proficiency in one Slavonic language does not of itself lead to a mastery of the others, as they differ as much as German from Dutch and Danish, and Italian from Portuguese and Roumanian. (Passim, a Swedish gentleman who married a Dane and lived in Norway told me that at home he and his wife spoke their respective languages and the children spoke Norwegian, all being mutually intelligible. To what extent this is possible I am not prepared to say.)
When in Vienna I spent a pleasant evening with Prof. E. V. Jagic, of the University, editor of the Archiv fiiT slavische. Philologte, whose knowledge of these languages rivals that of the celebrated Prof. Miklosic. His experience is that Russian students often assume that they know all about other Slavonic languages without the necessity of study. Such assumption is, of course, a patent fallacy, and the best practical proof is the learned work in Russian, edited by Prof. Jagic, on 'A. S. Pushkin in South Slavonic Literatures ' (St. Petersburg, Im- perial Academy of Sciences Printing Office, 1901). It appears, however, that education in these South Slavonic countries owes some- thing to Russian influence. Aprilov, one of the founders of modern Bulgarian schools, had a Russian training, and the school in- struction-books were translated from Russian.
- Why do we in England use the unintelligible
Polish form of the word Cech (pronounced Chekh), French Tcheque ?
(I know of two Russian journalists whose
names suggest a Balkanic origin.) Some
teachers wished to direct the youthful Bul-
garian mind to Greek for inspiration, but
others found a community of religious ideas
between themselves and theRussians. Russian
poetry has also had its influence on the Bul-
garian national poet Vasov. During the
Napoleonic wars the Slovenes, the most
western of the Southern Slavs, became ac-
quainted with the Russians, and recognized
a Slav language, and their writers acquired
a knowledge of general European literature
by means of Russian translations, these being
multiplied with the spread of newspapers.
On p. 370 of Prof. Jagic's work the Slovene
poet Vodnik is quoted :
" Whoever desires to understand the meaning of various Krainski names must know the Moxko- i'itar*ki language. The Krainski more nearly ap- proaches Moskovitarski than the other Slavonic languages. The Moskovitari have preserved many words which have been forgotten by us and have gone out of use."*
For critical analyses of these South Slavonic translations of Pushkin's master- pieces, 'Ruslan and Ludmila," 'Boris Godu- nov,' 'Eugene Oniegin, 1 <fec., and the ex- posure of verbal misunderstandings into which translators have fallen, reference must be made to Prof. Jagic's book.
FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.
Brixton Hill.
JEWS AND THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE ' ENCY- CLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.' Nothing can be more gratifying to a Jew saturated in English ideals than the marvellous growth and expansion of the scientific pursuits which characterize the brilliant band of Hebrew litterateurs on the ' Supplement.' So far as I know there were only four Jewish writers in the ninth edition, one of whom alone, Sir Philip Magnus, will dis- cuss the subject ' Technical Education ' anew, of which he was in all probability the pioneer in this country. Prof. Raphael Mel- dola, F.R.S., also signalized his connexion with that edition in a contribution foreign to Jewish questions. To-day there are at least thirteen distinguished contributors of Jewish extraction, one of whom, Mr. Lucien Wolf, has put together an able summary of 'Anti-Semitism.' Special distinction has been conferred upon Mr. M. H. Spielmann, who has charge of the department of art, to which Dr. Charles Waldstein will add some nota-
- The names Krainski and Moskovitarski for
Slovene and Russian are unfamiliar. The extract is given in Russian.
