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least for the slavonian sounds, which find no representatives in the roman characters. The bohemians did not encumber themselves with so marry letters as the poles, but employed a far simpler system of orthography. The pole, for example, writes
| wierzy, | czysty, | pyszný, | szczçscie; |
the bohemian
| wěřj, | čistý, | pyšný, | štěstj, |
being the same words.
The bohemian orthography is invariable, and the pronunciation equally so, every letter being uttered precisely as it is written. The vowels are separated into short and long, which are thus distinguished:
| short, | a | e | y | o | u |
| long, | á | é | ý | ů (ó) | ú. |
The consonants are divided into hard and soft; the soft generally follow an e or y, in which case these letters are converted into ě and i, or when the accent is on the y, into j, as běda, djtě, pěti, měnjm.—lf the soft consonant be either at the end of the word, or follow the a, o, or u, it is marked
