Page:A grammar of the Bohemian or Cech language.djvu/27

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II. ACCIDENCE

Parts of speech may be thus subdivided:—

(1) Inflected—viz. noun, adjective, numeral, pronoun, verb.

(2) Uninflected—viz. adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection.

(1) INFLECTED.

There is no article in the Bohemian language. If we wish to emphasize the word the pronoun ten may be placed before it, or for the indefinite article, jeden. The termination of the definite adjective in -y or -i is also a sign of the article, although its meaning is now somewhat obscured.

THE NOUN.

I. The following are masculine:—

(a) Those denoting members of the male sex—učitel, the teacher; sluha, the servant; vevoda, the duke; vůdce, the leader.

(b) Those which end in the consonants h, ch, k, r, d, t, n; b, p, v, l, m, z, s, as dub, the oak; čas, the time.

(c) Some which end in c, č, oj, ř, šť, and ž, as čepec, a cap; nůž, a knife.

2. The following are feminine:—

(a) Those which express persons of the female sex, as matka, the mother; paní, the lady.

(b) All substantives ending in a, as noha, the fort; řeka, the river, except some denoting offices of men.