From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Jun 16 01:03:02 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id BAA17641 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Tue, 16 Jun 1998 01:03:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from techunix.technion.ac.il (mellon@techunix.technion.ac.il [132.68.1.28]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id BAA17467 for ; Tue, 16 Jun 1998 01:02:31 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mellon@techunix.technion.ac.il) Received: (from mellon@localhost) by techunix.technion.ac.il (8.8.7/8.8.5) id LAA20582; Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:02:03 +0300 (IDT) Message-ID: <19980616110201.54724@techunix.technion.ac.il> Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:02:01 +0300 From: Anatoly Vorobey To: Terry Lambert Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: internationalization References: <19980614051600.62407@techunix.technion.ac.il> <199806150326.UAA09328@usr05.primenet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88 In-Reply-To: <199806150326.UAA09328@usr05.primenet.com>; from Terry Lambert on Mon, Jun 15, 1998 at 03:26:05AM +0000 X-Disclaimer: I was young, I needed the money! Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Terry, I'll try to find some time to address your large message today; just a small nitpicker's datum meanwhile. What the heck, this *is* -chat, isn't it? ;) > Would you also dismiss Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" as not a > classic because it is also SF? Jules Verne's "20,000 leagues unders > the sea"? Carel Kapek's play "R.U.R.", from which we derive the word > "Robot"? The frequency of this misspelling (Kapek instead of Capek) has an interesting explanation. The unfortunate fact is that Capek's name is frequently misspelled, and even more frequently mispronounced, in most of the Western countries. The first sound of the name should really be pronounced as 'ch' in 'church'. Combine this with the fact that in Slavic languages 'a' is almost universally pronounced as something like 'u' in 'cut' (and never like 'a' in 'actor'), and you arrive at the correct pronunciation being as something like 'Chupek', stressed at the first syllable. Now, of course not every 'c' is pronounced like 'ch' in Czech. 'c' is pronounced like 'ch' when it has a special sign above it, which is similar to an inverted French circumflex. So, the name should, I believe, accurately be written like this: v Capek The Roman alphabet doesn't have such a sign, naturally, and the sign is almost always omitted, which then results in silly pronunciation mistakes. For example, ISO-8859-1 doesn't (I think) have such a sign, although Unicode certainly does. Another superb Czech writer is Milan Kundera (living in France for the last 23 years and writing in Czech and French), one of my most favourites among contemporary writers (he doesn't write SF though ;)). In one of his latest novels, 'Slowness', there's a touching and funny passage dedicated exactly to this intricate detail of Czech orthography. I liked it so much I typed it in so show to my online friends; I'm sending you a copy in private email, perhaps you'll like it. Sincerely, Anatoly. -- Anatoly Vorobey, mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/ "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message