WRITING:
The invention of the oldest Slavonic writing, the glagolitsa, is generally attributed to the two apostles, Cyrill and Methodius, but it seems that this writing had already been in use prior to their advent. It is derived from the old Greek alphabet, to which new letters, representing sounds unknown to Greek, such as št, šč, š, č, jer, jery, jať, were added. From the rather unwieldy letters of the glagolitsa the more mobile kyrillitsa has been evolved, which is now used in the Russian-Orthodox church books. The modern Russian alphabet, the graždanka, is a simplified form of kyrillitsa, and was first introduced by Peter the Great of Russia. It is used by all Orthodox Slavs: the Russians and Little Russians, the Bulgarians and Serbs. Those of the Slavonic tribes who came under the influence of the Roman-Catholic church, i. e. Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Serbs, Slovenes, Croatians and Poles, have adopted the Latin alphabet.
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE SLAVONIC LANGUAGES.
OLD SLAVONIC, also called Church Slavonic, was originally spoken in the vicinity of Saloniki, and was the first literary language of the Slavs. The old Bulgarian language is the one most closely related to it. Its structure and vocabulary are used as a basis for comparative philology.
BOHEMIAN (Czech) and SLOVAK have been treated in detail in the foregoing pages.
BULGARIAN is spoken by a race of Ugro-Finnish origin, which emigrated from Northern Russia to the Balkans and adopted the language of the Slav tribes whom it conquered. Its main characteristic is the use of definite article at the end of nouns, cf. car-at, zemja-ta, nebe-to. Its older literature contains many fine examples of Slav poesy. (There are three principal dialects spoken in Bulgaria: the Danubian, the Thracian and the Macedonian, which form the bridge between the Russian on the one side and the Serbo-Croatian on the other.)
SERBO-CROATIAN is spoken in Serbia, Croatia-Slavonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Adriatic islands and Southern Hungary (Bacska, Sirmia and Banat). (There are four principal dialects: čakavština, štokavština, kajkavština and cvrližština.) The only difference between the Serbs and the Croats is that the former are chiefly Orthodox and partly Mohammedan and use the Russian alphabet, while the latter are mostly Roman-Catholics and use the Latin alphabet. The greatest literary treasure of this language constitute the national epics (narodne pjesme), in which the national heroes, who fell in the fateful battle of Kosovo Polje. The chief characteristic of this language is that it is spelt entirely phonetically.
SLOVENE is spoken in Southern Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, Gorizia, Trieste and in several districts near Udine in Italy. It is very much akin to the Serbo-Croatian and shows but slight differences in syntax and composition.
WEND or LUSATIAN SERBIAN is spoken in some districts of the Upper and Lower Lusatia and forms a bridge between the Bohemian and Polish. The center of this tribe, now entirely surrounded by the Germans, is the town of Bautzen (Budyšín).
POLISH is next to Slovak the most akin to Bohemian. Various sounds, which in Bohemian are rendered by diacritical marks, such as š, ř, č, are represented by sz, rz, cz in Polish. A difference is also made between the soft and hard l, as in Russian. The language has also preserved the old Slavonic nasal sounds ą (on) and ę (en). A glorious national history and splendid literature are the heritage of the Polish nation, and the language is well worth the study.