The diacritic mark occurs on the following letters: á, é, č, ď, í, ň, ř, š, ť, ú, ů, ý, ž. Ď and ó are used least of all. The mark tends alike to soften and shade the sound of the letter.
- á is pronounced long as in darling.
- é as a in care.
- ě as ye in yellow.
- č as ch in cherry.
- í and ý as ee in tree.
- ň as ñ in cañon.
- ř is thought to be unpronounceable by a non-Bohemian.
The Germans taunt the Bohemians with the ř. The rsh in Pershing approaches the sound though it does not quite express it.
- š as sh in shall.
- ú and ů long as in rule.
- ž as in j in the French word jour.
- ch as in the Scottish loch.
[INTRODUCTORY]
It sounds incredible, yet it is literally true, that every Slavic nation was, before the war, and probably still is, better known to the English speaking people than the Bohemians (Čechs). What is the reason? That the Bohemians, who are the most literate of all the Slavs, have remained undiscovered may be attributed to three main causes: They are not a free nation. They are a landlocked nation. They are rated a small nation.
The opportunities which a seacoast offers to a people, to mention the Dutch, Irish, Belgians, Norwegians, Swedes and Danes, all of whom are numerically smaller than the Bohemian-Slovaks are inestimable. In the forum of world’s commerce and politics, the sea is their powerful sponsor. To a landlocked people this great boon is denied. Inland nations may reach the outside world through an intermediary only, and if that intermediary happens to be a powerful and ungenerous state, the policy of which is to keep its little neighbor in the background, the consequences are obvious.
That there live in Central Europe Teutons and none others but Teutons was being daily demonstrated to the Americans by a most convincing proof. Almost every box of merchandise shipped here from that part of the world bore the tell-tale mark “Made in Germany.” Rarely one saw at the terminals goods labelled “Made in Austria,” and rarer still, “Made in Bohemia.” And yet many an article of merchandise thus marked was really made in Bohemia, for parts of Bohemia teem with all kinds of wonderful industries.