Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/14

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
x
INTRODUCTION

examples). Jan Kollár, one of the poets of the Czech revival, refers to some of these lost races in his famous Prologue to "The Daughter of Sláva," written in 1824:—

"Where have ye wandered, dear nation of Slava, that formerly dwelt here,

Drinking now of the Saale, now Pomeranian springs?
Peaceful stock of the Sorbs, and Obotritian offspring,

Where are the Wilzen, and where, grandsons of Uker, are ye?"

The difficulties of classification are almost as great when we come to consider the Slav languages. In 1822, Dobrovský, the practical founder of Slav philology, divided them into 9 different tongues; Šafařík in 1842 proposed 6 languages with 13 dialects; Schleicher in 1865 proposed 8; Miklosich, a prominent Slovene scholar, decided on 9; Jagić, a Croat authority of European reputation, is in favour of 8. The reason for this diversity is that some philologists designate as a language what others will admit only as a dialect. Thus, many Russian authorities are unwilling to treat Ukrainian as a separate language (not altogether justly); Slovaks such as Czambel, with the fatal Slav tendency towards cleavage, insist on a distinct Slovak race (of Southern Slav origin) with a distinct Slovak language (again not altogether justly). Even the