Jiří – George

What is it with first names? People are so sensitive about them, demanding that we call them by what they have decided, rather than by what makes sense. Take the case of Jiří. All the Jiří’s I know a swell fellas. All of the insist that the proper way to address them in English is „George“. Sorry, but this just doesn’t sound right. It may be linguistically correct, but wouldn’t it make more sense to call them Jerry? Let’s not even get started on the rolling r with a hacek. We just don’t have this sound. But to transform this into George? Similarly, a Czech friend named „Jakub“ insists that this translates properly into James. He knows it’s true because he saw it in a dictionary. Nonsense. I declare that Jiri shall henceforth be named Jerry, and Jakub is Jacob. If they don’t like it, they should change their names to Fred!

6 odpovědí na “Jiří – George”

  1. he is wodering why it is Jiřulka „SAYS“ ? He has never „SAID“ anything here, he always „WROTE“ the comment! Or in fact he „TYPED“ it!
    As my first name Jiří is difficult or even impossible to pronounce for non Czech people, I ask them to call me JIRKA. [yirka]. It is not good to use Jerry [džery], as it is Jarda for Czech ears. And it is not good to translate names and I dislike being titled George. We do not translate English names to Czech, either – we do not say to William „ÚČTENKO“ !
    It was a good advice – to look to old Words of the Day. It is nice to observe the growth of audience. Most of old ones have no comment at all, even though many topics are inspiring. Pity that I am too busy now, I intend to comment many old ones.
    People, awake ! (Lidé bděte!) Go back to Archivy and fertilize the deserted land !

  2. Vždycky jsem si myslel, že Bill je niknejm pro Williama (jako Joe pro Josepha, či Honza pro Jana), a až později se tyhle domácké tvary začaly používat přímo, bo v USA lze zapsat cokoli (na rozdíl od u nás, kde se smí zapsat jen základní schválený tvar schváleného jména). Jinak Janinko gratuluji, přesně to jsem do svého komentáře schoval, jestli si někdo všimne, jste skvělá!

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