PRZIKRIL (PŘIKRYL), Karel. Prague 7.12.1718 — Hradec (?) 1785. S.J. Czech Jesuit Scholar in India. He joined the S.J. in 1734 and was sent to India in 1748. After a while as teacher at archiepiscopal seminary in Goa he served as examinator and exhortator. When the S.J. was suppressed in Portugal in 1762, he returned to Lisbon and was emprisoned, like others. Released in 1768 because of an appeal from Maria Theresia he returned to Bohemia and became Rector of Collegium in Königgrätz. When the S.J. was suppressed in Bohemia, too, he spent his last years at episcopal seminary.
In his Konkani grammar, much praised by Lesný, Przikril described the dialect of Goanese Brahmans and even dealt with syntax. The manuscript was obtained in 1791 by J. Dobrovský, who compared the language to Czech and even considered its publication.
Publications: Four unpublished works: Principia linguae brahmanicae, also known as Grammatica linguae Canarinae, quam gentiles Goani et circumjacentes Ethnici inter se loquuntur (Konkani grammar, manuscript still kept in Prague); Dramata et exercitia poetica; Epistolae, quibus civitas, collegium et portus Goani, mores Orientalium describuntur, et errores plurium scriptorum, qui in hac materia versati sunt, deteguntur (already lost in the 1790s); Grammatica linguae Graecae ex Gallico latinitate donata.
– “Karel Přikryl, S.J. Principia linguae Brahmanicae. A Grammar of Standard Konkani. Edited with Introduction by José Pereira”, ArO 36, 1968, 625-684.
Sources: *M. Krása, “First Czech Scholar in India”, ArO 36, 1968, 609-624; V. Lesný, “Principia linguae Brahmanicae von C.P.”, ArO 3, 1934, 50-52.
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