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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

Hus, like all Bohemian patriots, entertained a warm One of his earliest affection for the national language. writings deals with the correct spelling of the Bohemian language, and the diacritical signs still used in Bohemian are mainly an invention of Hus. He was also strongly opposed to the introduction of foreign words into the language, and refers to this subject frequently in his " Exposition of the Ten Commandments." In that work he sharply attacks the citizens of Prague who interspersed their Bohemian speech with numerous German words, and compares them to the "Jews who had married wives of Ashdod, and whose children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod." Hus's merits as regards the development of his lanThat language had indeed guage are also very great. already, principally by Stitny, been raised to a level that rendered it available for the exposition of theological and philosophical matters. But the style of Hus contrasts favourably with that of his predecessors by its This may partly be attrigreater facility and simplicity. buted to the fact that Hus, particularly during the time of his exile from Prague, associated much with the humbler classes of the people, who, knowing no language but their own, naturally spoke it very purely and without This spoken laninterpolations from other languages. He indeed guage was adopted by Hus for his writings. " himself writes at the end of the Postilla, That he who will read (my writings) may understand my Bohemian, let him know that I have written as I usually speak." As already stated, the bibliography of Hus is as yet very uncertain, and it is not easy to fix the exact dates of It may, however, be generally stated that his works. his earliest Bohemian writings were composed in the