(2) The Russian language, divided into three slightly different dialects:—
(a) Great Russian, spoken by thirty-five million people;
(b) Little Russian, spoken by thirteen million people, and
(c) White Russian, spoken by three million people.
II. South Slavonic is divided into
(1) Serbian, spoken by five million people;
(2) Croatian, spoken by one million people;
(3) Carinthian-Slovenian,.spoken by one million people;
(4) Bulgarian, spoken by seven million people.
III. Western Slavonic is divided into
(1) Polish, employed by about ten million people;
(2) Czech, divided into
(a) Czesko-Moravian, spoken by over four million people, and
(b) Hungarian-Slovenian, spoken by two million people;
(3) Lusatian-Serbian, divided into Upper and Lower, and spoken by 150,000 people in Saxony.
I will not weary the reader by going over in detail the relationship of these languages to one another; suffice it to say that the Czech or Bohemian is most closely related to the Upper Lusatian, the Croatian, and the Little Russian dialects. The Bohemians, like most of the Catholic and Western Slavonians, use the Latin characters, and thus their language forms a good introduction to the study of the rest.
York, 1886Author
