De Bray R.G.A. Guide to the South Slavonic Languages

3rd ed. — Michigan: Slavica publishers, 1980. — 399 p.
This book is an attempt to simplify the task of learning the Slav languages as a group for those who know one of them already. It was originally conceived during the 1939-1945 war with a more limited programme.1 It has a scientific, philological basis.
But as it is not intended exclusively for philologists and university students it is written on as nearly "popular" lines as such a subject permits, with a minimum of specialized terminology. It is intentionally an effort at popularization, as the writer believes that all those knowing any one Slavonic language can with profit widen their linguistic horizon by the relatively easy method of learning other Slavonic languages. Those knowing Russian should interest themselves in the Balkans and/or Central Europe, and vice versa, A consciousness would thus grow up of the unity of Europe and the continuity, both geographical and cultural, of Russia with Western Europe by way of the intervening central region of Eastern Europe.
It has been the writer's experience that many officials and workers in various fields and even teachers and examiners are given the task of dealing with material in the Slav languages as a group on the strength of their knowledge of only one of them. It is to help this class of language worker, among others, that this work aims. It should be equally useful to the student (whether academic or not) of any of the Slav languages (even if he is a beginner), when his curiosity drives him to "look over the fence" and find out something about the other Slavonic languages beyond.