TSAR, CZAR AND SAR.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 21, 2 January 1907, Page 2

TSAR, CZAR AND SAR.

Though we occasionally read in the newspapers of the Czar, referring to Nicholas 11., he is almost universally designated as the Tsar. Though njany learned etymologists have said that the national title of the Russian Sovereign is a corruption of the word Caesar, like the German Kaiser this is a mistake. The cause of the error is that at the beginning of the eighteenth century/ve know the Russians only through'. \he Poles, with whom we had long* international intercourse before we became acquainted with tho Muscovites. The word “Czar” is the Polish form of the word “Tsar" with the slight difference in the pronunciation which distinguishes the two words derived from the Slavonic language. The Russians, like all the Slavs, belong to the Greek Church, using the Cyrillic alphabet, containing 38 signs still employed in the sacred language, but reduced to 31 in the common language. The Catholic Slavs, like the Poles, having kept the Latin alphabet of 21 signs, were compelled to reapiMt to the combination of to take the place of the -sibillant consonants which are found in the Cyrillic alphabet. The “cz" forms one of these combinations ; hence the Polish orthography, which was adopted at first by some illustrious writers like Voltaire and Saint-Simon.

The same rule applies to the derivatives of the word “Tsar"— I Tsarine, Tsarevna, Tsarevitch. These words are even spelled Cesarin, Cesarevna, and Csarevitch, as a tribute to their imaginary, origin. But the word “Tsar" has no Latin etymology, and is not a translation of the word Caesar.