NOTES.
POLISH ALPHABET.
Since the Polish alphabet has many peculiar phonetic combinations whichare difficult to one who does not know the language, it was decided totransliterate the names of persons and places in which suchcombinations occur in this book. The following are the letters andcombinations which are met with most frequently;--
Polish Letters. English Sounds.
_c_ _ts_ _cz_ _ch_ in "chief" _sz_ _sh_ in "ship" _szcz_ _shch_ _rz_ _r_ followed by the French _j_ _w_ _v_ _[.z]_ _j_ in French
In this transliteration _ch_ retains its ordinary English sound. _Kh_is used as the German _ch_, or the Gaelic _ch_ in "loch;" so is _h_, asin Hmelnitski, and a few names in which it is used at the beginning andpreceding a consonant, where it has the power of the German _ch_. _J_is the French _j_; the vowels _e_, _i_, _u_, are, respectively, _ai_ in"bait," _ee_ in "beet," _oo_ in "pool," when long; when short, "bet,""bit," "put" swould represent their values.
The following names will illustrate the method of thistransliteration:--
Polish Form of Name. Form in Transliteration. Potocki Pototski Kulczinski Kulchinski Gdeszinski Gdeshinski Leszczinski Leshchinski Rzendzian Jendzian Woronczenko Voronchenko [.Z]abkowski Jabkovski
In Jendzian the initial R has been omitted, on account of the extremedifficulty of its sound to any one not a Pole. In Skrzetuski, a verydifficult name also, _sh_ has been used instead of the French _j_,because in this word the two sounds are almost identical, and the soundof _sh_ is known to all, while _j_ is not.
ACCENT.
All Polish words, with few exceptions, are accented on the syllablenext the last, the penult. The exceptions are foreign names, somecompounds, some words with enclitics. Polish names of men and placesare generally accented on the penult. In Russian--both of the Ukraineand the North, or of Little and Great Russia--there is much freedom inplacing the accent. In this book there are many Russian names of menand places; but the majority of names are accented on the penult. Ithas been thought best, therefore, to state this fact, and place accentsonly on words accented on syllables other than the penult. Some ofthese were accented in the body of the book; the rest are accentedhere. The following names of men are accented on the last syllable:--
Balaban Burdabut Barabash Chernota Bogun
The following names of places are accented as indicated:--
Bakche Serai Korovai Bazaluk Mirgorod Belgorod Perekop Boguslav Sekirnaya Galata Sleporod Hassan Pasha Volochisk Kamenyets Yagorlik
Polish names in _ski_ and _vich_ are adjectives, regularly declined,with masculine and feminine endings. The titles of address _Pan_,_Pani_, _Panna_, refer respectively to a gentleman, a married lady, anunmarried lady. The following are examples:--
Pan Kurtsevich, Pani Kurtsevichova, Panna Kurtsevichovna.
These three forms when applied to one family refer to the father,mother, and an unmarried daughter.
The ending in _ski_ is not so complicated; for instance,--
Pan Pototski, Pani Pototska, Panna Pototska.
The names in _vich_ denote descent; those in _ski_, origin in, orlordship over, a place.
Nikolai Pototski, Grand Hetman, captured at Korsun, was Pan Pototski,which means lord of Potok (Potok being the name of the place which heinherited); he was also Pan Krakovski, lord of Krakov (Cracow), becausehe was castellan of Krakov (Cracow), an office to which he wasappointed by the king.
The names of villages which Zagloba mentions as belonging toPodbipienta are curious enough, whether real or invented by thewhimsical narrator; as is also the name Povsinoga, which he gives thetall Lithuanian, and which means "tramp." The villages--taken in theorder in which he gives them on page 540--Myshikishki, Psikishki,Pigvishki, Sirutsiani, Tsiaputsiani, Kapustsiana glowa, Baltupye,are--excluding the first two, the meanings of which are given on page20--Crabapple town, Homespunville, Simpletown, Cabbagehead, andSlabtown.
The soup botvinia, mentioned in connection with Podbipienta and PanKharlamp, which is made of vegetables and fish in eastern Russia, maybe made, it seems, without fish in Lithuania. The word is usedfiguratively to designate a rustic or stay-at-home villager.
OFFICES AND THINGS.
_Balalaika_, a stringed instrument used in southern Russia, resemblingthe guitar.
_Castellan_, the chief of a town or city under Polish rule, as well asthe district connected with it. The castellan was always a senator, andwas appointed by the king.
_Chambul_, a party of mounted Tartars.
_Koshevoi_, chief of a Cossack camp.
_Kuren_, a company or group of Cossacks as well as the barracks inwhich they lived.
_Sotnik_, a captain of Cossacks. This word is exactly equivalent to"centurion," and is derived from _sto_, "one hundred," with thenominative ending _nik_.
_Stanitsa_, a Cossack village.
_Starosta_, chief of a town under Polish control.
_Starshini_, elders. This word meant for the Cossacks the whole body oftheir officers.
_Telega_, the ordinary springless wagon of Russia, smaller than thecountry wagon in the United States.
_Teorban_, or _Torban_, a large musical instrument of twenty strings ormore.
_Voevoda_, governor and commander of troops in a province,corresponding to the military governor of modern times. This office wascommon to the Poles and the Russians of the East or Moscow.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: The author uses Skshetuski, the family name of his hero,oftener than Yan, his Christian name, prefixing Pan = Mr. in bothcases. I have taken the liberty of using Yan oftener than Skshetuskibecause more easily pronounced in English.]
[Footnote 2: Tear-trousers.]
[Footnote 3: Tear-cowl.]
[Footnote 4: Dog entrails.]
[Footnote 5: Mouse entrails.]
[Footnote 6: This is the popular form in Little Russian; therefore itis quoted.]
[Footnote 7: The right bank of the Dnieper was called Russian; theleft, Tartar.]
[Footnote 8: Hmelnitski is made to apply the title Tsar to the Khan,either to give him more importance in the eyes of the Cossacks orbecause Tugai Bey was present.]
[Footnote 9: The author uses sometimes the word _vudka_ and sometimes_gorailka_. The first is Polish; the second Little Russian. Both mean aliquor distilled generally from rye. When _vudka_ is used it might meanthat the liquor was from Poland, and when _gorailka_ that it was ofUkraine origin; but here the words are used indifferently.]
[Footnote 10: _Krivonos_ signifies "crooked nose;" _Prostonos_,"straight nose."]
[Footnote 11: "Holota" (Nakedness) was used as a nickname in those daysto designate a poor nobleman. Abstract nouns were used by the Cossacksalso as names; e. g., Colonel Chernota, which means "blackness."]
[Footnote 12: City of the Tsar = Constantinople.]
[Footnote 13: A pun on "Pulyan," which in Polish means "half Yan," orJohn.]
[Footnote 14: "Hmel," a nickname for Hmelnitski among the Poles, ="hops."]
[Footnote 15: Holota (Nakedness) was often given as a nickname to apoor noble.]
[Footnote 16: Nicknames given by Hmelnitski to the three Polishcommanders.]
[Footnote 17: _Kapustsiani_, "of cabbage," the masculine form of theadjective. _Kapustsiana glowa_ means "a cabbage head; a stupid fellow."_Glowa_ is the ordinary word for _head_ in Polish, and takes thefeminine adjective ending in _a_: hence _Kapustsiana_. For explanationof the other names see list of names and places.]
[Footnote 18: This means, "Everything or nothing;" "Carry the day or goto a monastery."]
[Footnote 19: Circassians from the Caucasus.]
[Footnote 20: _Div_ is a Persian word for "demon" or "evil spirit."This word meant "a divinity" in times anterior to Zoroaster, and isidentical with the root _div_ in our word "divine." In India and Europeit retained its original signification, and became of evil import onlyin Persia, in consequence of the triumph of Zoroastrianism.]
[Footnote 21: "Panowie" is the plural of Pan.]
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