Author: Charles Jonas

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-06-17

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9781548178628

From the introductory: Why This Book Has Been Written. The answer to such a question is simple: because there is a demand for it. And whenever there is a demand, the supply is sure to come. Not a year passes, but numbers apply to divers, booksellers and publishers for some handy book to give them a practical knowledge of the Bohemian language or to serve as a proper introduction to a study thereof. Who are the applicants? They are business men, clerks, salesmen and travelers, druggists and physicians, ministers, teachers and lawyers. They live and follow their vocations in localities where a large fraction of the population speaks the Bohemian language; they perceive the advantage which a knowledge of Bohemian, or even a slight acquaintance with that tongue, would give them; and consequently they look for a guide. Such a guide this little work is designed to furnish I may say that within six or eight years past I have myself read hundreds of applications for such a guide from different parts of our country and I repeatedly promised to write a book of this kind as soon as my other occupations permitted. Now I have redeemed that pledge. It has been done to be sure, only in an imperfect manner; there are defects and shortcomings, which in a pioneer work of this kind cannot be avoided. But I applied myself to the task with the honest intention, materially to assist the beginner in his attempt to gain such a knowledge of the Bohemian language, as would be of help to him in his intercourse with people speaking that language, or in his desire to read Bohemian literature; and I cherish the hope, that this present result of my labor will prove really helpful to those who will make use of it for that purpose. Is Bohemian a hard language to learn? This inquiry I have heard more than once. I think no language is easy to learn, if a person wants to have a perfect command of it; and Bohemian presents about a fair average of the difficulties, which a student of languages encounters. But there is no great difficulty in acquiring a superficial knowledge of any living European tongue, a knowledge sufficient for ordinary intercourse in everyday life, if a person has the will and perseverance to learn it and a fair opportunity to use what he learns. Beginners who will take up this little book with an earnest purpose, will soon find out that Bohemian comes well under this general rule. Some years ago I made the acquaintance of a business man in a small city of Wisconsin, with whom I conversed both in English and Bohemian and whom I noticed to use both languages in his general conversation with others apparently with the same ease and fluency It was not until sometime after our first meeting, that I learned the gentleman in question was not a Bohemian by birth, but a native American of German descent. Had I been told that he was a born Pohemian, I certainly would have believed it, from the way he handled the language. On our next meeting I asked him how he succeeded in mastering the Bohemian language so perfectly; and he said: My instructor was the Bohemian newspaper. I commenced by reading communications written by farmers in an easy, colloquial style and asking explanations as to meaning and pronunciation. In this I persevered, my stock of words and phrases grew rapidly, and I was soon enabled to understand and to make a rapid progress in conversation. Later on I had recourse to the dictionary.