Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/573

This page needs to be proofread.

WENDS portions of Brandenburg, Silesia, and the king- dom of Saxony, and principally on the hanks of the Spree. Their number has been recently estimated at 136,000, of which Brandenburg and Saxony contain 50,000 each. Most of the Wends are Protestants, though a large propor- tion of those living in Saxony are Catholics. The name Southern Wends is often applied to the Winds in the Illyrian provinces of Aus- tria. (See WINDS.) The language of the Wends is similar to the other branches of the northwestern stem of the Slavic languages, the Polish and the Bohemian. It is divided into the dialect of Lower Lusatia, which is but lit- tle developed, and that of Upper Lusatia. The latter is subdivided into the evangelical dia- lect, near Bautzen; the Catholic dialect, near Kamenz and in the northwest ; and the north- eastern dialect. The differences are mostly confined to shades of pronunciation. The Wends have mostly made use of the German letters. There are eight vowels, a, 0, u, e, i, all of which are pronounced as in German and Italian, 6 (between o in note and u in full), e (like long English e), and y (approaching the German u). Of consonants there are 32 : j (y consonant), w (v), 16 (v soft), &, 6' (soft), p, p (soft), m, m (soft), n, ti (soft, Fr. gri), I, t(as in Polish), r, r (soft), z, i (Fr. 7), *, $ (ah d, dz, d& (dsh soft), ds, t, c (to), d (tc'h soft), 6 (tcTi), ts, h, ch (M), g (hard), Tc. There is no article. The substantives are of three genders, mascu- line, feminine, and neuter. Substantives end- ing in a consonant are mostly masculine, those in a and i feminine, and those in o and e neu- ter. There are seven declensions, two for the masculine, three for the neuter, and two for the feminine. The language has a dual num- ber. There are seven cases, viz. : nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative (to express the relation of in), instrumental (to express the relations of ly and with), and vocative. The adjectives end in y, i (masculine), a (feminine), o and e (neuter). The comparative is formed by the termination iJii, and in order to form the superlative the syllable naj is placed before the comparative. The personal pronouns are ir- regular ; the others are declined like adjectives. The verb has six tenses, present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future, and future perfect ; five moods, indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative, and infinitive, besides a gerund ; and three participles, present and perfect ac- tive, and perfect passive. The extent of the entire Wendish literature has been estimated at 300 volumes. The oldest monument of the language is a translation of the Epistle of St. James, dating from 1548 (edited by Lotze, Leipsic, 1867). There are grammars of the Wendish language by Ticinus (Prague, 1679), Matthai (1721), Seiler (Bautzen, 1830), and Jordan (Prague, 1841). See Giesebrecht, WendiscTie Geschichten (Berlin, 1843) and Das Ttannoverische Wendland (Luchow, 1863), and Obermtiller, Die VrgescMcJite der Wenden (Leipsic, 1874). WENTWORTII 553 Wentletrap (Scalaria pre- tiosa). WENTLETRAP, the popular name of the gas- teropod shells of the genus scalaria (Lam.), from scala, a stair. The shell is long and tur- reted, with many whorls, close or separated, ornamented with numerous transverse promi- nent ribs; the mouth is circular and the lip continuous, closed with a horny operculum ; the tube of the shell is perfect ; the teeth are in numerous longitudinal series. More than 100 species are described, in nearly all the seas of the world, though most beautiful in the tropics, ranging from low-water mark to 80 fathoms; most of them are pure shining white, and they emit a purplish fluid when disturbed. The com- monest species on the coast of New England is the S. Grcenlandica (Gould), about an inch long and a third of an inch in its greatest width ; it is livid brown or bluish white, with ten close, moderately convex whorls, and white flattened ribs ; it is abun- dant on the Grand Banks. There are several species on the coast of Europe, and many in the Indian ocean ; one of the handsomest is the S. pretiosa (Lam.), of the China seas, 1^ to 2 in. long, snow-white or pale flesh-colored, with eight separated whorls. WENTWORTH, a S. county of Ontario, Can- ada, bounded H. E. by Lake Ontario; area, 454 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 57,599, of whom 19,- 154 were of English, 16,737 of Irish, 12,415 of Scotch, and 7,036 of German origin or descent. It is watered by several streams, and traversed by the Great Western and the Hamilton and Lake Erie railways. Capital, Hamilton. WENTWORTH, Charles Watson. See PIOCKING- HAM. WENTWORTII, Thomas. See STEAFFOKD. WENTWORTH. I. William, an early colonist of New Hampshire, born at Alford, Lincolnshire, England, in 1615, died in Dover, N. H., March 16, 1697. He was a follower of the Rev. John Wheelwright, with whom and 33 others he signed, Aug. 4, 1639, "A Combination for a Government at Exeter, N. H." He removed to Wells, Me., with Wheelwright; and when the latter went to England on the accession of Oliver Cromwell to power, Wentworth re- moved to Dover, where he wfcs a ruling elder and often preached. He left a widow, nine sons, and one daughter, and was the progeni- tor of all the Wentworths of the United States whose origin is known. II. John, lieutenant governor of New Hampshire, grandson of the preceding, born in Portsmouth, N. H., Jan. 16, 1671, died there, Dec. 12, 1730. He was bred a sea captain. In 1711 he was appointed by Queen Anne a councillor for New Hampshire ;