"Serb" Not "Servian"

Horowhenua Chronicle, 23 July 1915, Page 3

"Serb" Not "Servian"

The request of the nation heretofore known in Western Europe as "Servia" vthat its name be hereafter spelled "Serbia" Hβ only reasonable, "Serbia," or "Serbya," being the correct form. The letter "v" is a comparatively late comer into alphabets. The Greek has none; "b" u> u£ed instead. "Victoria" thus Hecomee "Biktoria," but is pronounced the same. .Old Slavonic, whence Russian and the Serbian dialocte are derived, had no "v," but two forms oi "b," one denoting ilie "v," (sound. Early La-'.i also used "b," for f 'v," as docs modern Spanish, and 'unlettered persons long continued to confuse the letters Thus a Christain father would caive on a rude tombstone in the Cataeo ."1.0 lor his baby daughter "Birgo'"' instead of "Virgo"—virgin. in modern Lilian dialects "v," aud "b, ~ aro to some extent interchangeable, as it; Venice. English -writers >have\ ofto.i usoJ "Seru," to distinguish the *?iitl.*o nec from ".Servian," n subject of thc> lit ilp kingdom. In the native tongue Uk-p is only the one ward, it is ofto-i hard to preserve in English letters £h<3 exfnt Serbian form of a 'word. The adjective "Serbian" itself looks miic'i like "Orp.sk," And the word isfsonie'.ii'vs spelled with an "o,"—in English Sorb., The word "Slav," including .Serbians, Russians, and allied races, had nothing originally to do with slaves or slavery. Its proper form is "Sklav," or "Sclave" with the "k :i sound; in Latin tongues "Schiavi" or "Schiavoni." German folk-speech nwd the word "Wend" to designate a Slav; the Prussians themselves being originally Wends.— New York World.