POLIORCETES. 178 POLISH LITERATURE. POLIORCETES. pori-or-sf-'tez. A surname of tin- .M:uiMloiii:iii Kiiifi Uemetrius I. (q.v.). POLISH CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. Sn- Imiki'K.ndkxt C.vtho- Lie (IK it( 11 I.N riiK L.NiTKi) 81.VTKS (Polish). POLISH FOWL. A variety of poultry tracea- ble as far back as the sixteenth century, under many names. These fowls are raised in the I'nit'ed States, mainly on account of their hand- some pluma;ie. the most striking feature of which is a {jreat globular crest, or top-knot, which en- velops the entire head. See Colored Plate of Fowls, accompanying article Poultry. POLISH LANGUAGE. A language belong- ing to the western group of Slavic languages (q.v.) and occupying the second place in impor- tance in that family. It is spoken by about 15.000,- 000 persons in those parts of Russia, Austro- Hungary, and Prussia which con.stituted the former Kingdom of Poland, and by more than 1,000.000 persons in AnuMica. Of the many Polish dialects, the following are the most im- portant: flreat Polish in Posen and portions of the governments of Kalisz and Plock; Little Polish — the 7nost euphonious — in Galicia (Cra-' cow and Lemberg being the centres) ; Masurian, or Masorian — in East Prussia and in the north- eastern part of the Polish Kingdom (Warsaw, the centre) : Lithuanian Polish, used by Mickie- wicz and other writers; Prussiati and ISilcfjan Polish — full of Germanisms. The earliest literary monuments in Polish do not go further back than the twelfth century. In its his- torical development the Polish langiiage under- went many outside inllucnccs. The introduction of Christianity (c.9fi.5) brought Latin to the front at the expense of the native tongue, while the numerous German settlers introduced Ger- man words for articles of eveiyday life. The Reformation brought the language of the country into Church use. For about two centuries the macaronic literature (a mixture of Latin and Poli-ih) prevailed. The pseudo-classical period brought the mania for everything French and with it the adoption of numerous Gallicisms. It was reserved for the Romanticists to purify the Polish language, and their traditions are still kept up by many purists in a struggle against the inroads of Ru.ssian technical terms and of Germanisms. Although the combinations of sibilants in Pol- ish look formidable on paper, they are soft in pronunciation, sz=sh, cz=:ch, r:=zh, or sh after consonants. Besides the phonologic char- acteristics mentioned in the article Sl.wic Lax- GUACES the following features of the Polish language may be mentioned: (1) Seven eases in nouns — nominative, genitive, dative, accusa- tive, vocative, instrumental (ablative), and locative (prepositional). (2) Loss of tlie dual (in nouns and verbs), of which traces arc still to be found, however, in various dialects. (.3) All futures are compmmd : the simple preterites have all been lost, and periphrastic forms now take their place. (4) Invariable accentuation on the penult, which is a later substitution for the orig- inal .Slavic free accent. In power and variety of expression, the Polish language fairly rivals Russian. Bibliography. Dictionaries: In Polish: Linde. Dictionary/ of the Polish hnnquaqe (6 vols.. •2d ed., Lemberg. 18.54-60) ; Dietionary of the Polish Language (ed. by seven Polish scholars, 2 vols., Vilna, 1850-01), fuller than the preceding but not so scientific. In other languages: Chodzko, Complete Emilish-Pulish and Polinh-Enijlish Dic- tionary; Booch-Arkossy, Vollstandiyes pulnisch- deutsches und dcutsch-polnischcs Wijrlcrbuch ((ith ed., Leipzig, 1893) ; id., Polnischdeutschcs und deutsch-polnisches Worterbuch (8th ed., Leipzig, 1899), Grammars: In Polish: Malecki, Grammar of the Polish Language (Lemberg, 1863), excellent; id.. Grammar of the Polish Language, Ilriifir Course (ib., Cth ed. 1882) ; id.. Comparatiic His- torical Grammar of the Polish Language (ib., 1879) ; Malinowski, Comparatire Critical Gram- mar of the Polish Language (Posen, 1870: and supplement, 1873) ; Kalina, Grammatical Forms of the Polish Language to the End of the Eigh- teenth Century (Lemburg, 1883), most valuable. In other languages: Morlill, A Simplified Grammar of the Polish Language (London, 1884) ; Smith, Polnische Grummatik (2d ed., Berlin, 1863) ; Vymazal, Grammatik dcr pol- nischen ffpraehe zuniichst zum Selbstunlrrriebt (Briinn, 1884) ; Poplinski, Grammatik der pol- nischcn Sprache (7th ed.. Thorn, 1881) : id., Ele- mentarbuch der polnischen ffprache (14th ed., Leipzig, 1893). POLISH LITERATURE. The 'popular' lit- erature of the Poles falls into two main di- visions: (1) lyric and (2) epic. The first, al- though expressing the sadness of the race, oftener treats of themes of boundless merriment and joy of life. The second group consists of tale-^. ani- mal epics. ajKilogues. religious legends, and finally historical tales, few in number. The moods are definite and calm, strong realism intermingled with humor being the rule. These are embodied in the numerous adages, proverbs, and sayings — the wholephilosopliyof the nation. The best collections of material on this pojmlar literature are: Adtil- berg's Book of Polish Proverbs (Warsaw. 1894) ; and the moiuimental work of Oskar Kolberg. The People, Its Customs, Manners, Language. Tradi- tions. Proverbs, Vsagrs. etc. (Warsaw. I8()5-98), of which 23 volumes have so far appeared. Written" Literatire. Earlie.st Times. With Christianity (c.0G5) came also the rejection of everything national as reminiscent of heathen- ism. The indigenous letters were replaced by the Latin alphal)et and all studies in the schools had for their sole object the mastery of the Latin language. In the thirteenth century edu- cation was extended, and more than 120 difl'erent schools are known to have existed in the period of 121.5-1364. But the Polish scholars, writing in Latin, are in no way respresentative of the Polish nation. The literary remains of this period to the end of the fifteenth century fall into three groups: (a) Scientific. Annals and Chronicles of Martin Gallus (1110-35* — quite fantastic in subject- matter, but unaffected in style and humorous; Wikenty Kadlubek ( 1 ll!0-12'23 ) . in most arti- ficial and labored media'val Latin: the journeys of the Franciscan Carpini (Giovanni di Piano) and Benedict Polacus to the Tatar Khan Hayuk in the thirteenth century. The Historia Poloniw of .Ian Dlugosz (1415-80). Bishop of Lemberg, in 12 volumes, is a remarkable result of more than two decades of independent research, and is animated by strong patriotism and written in
