Otherwise known as the Michael Lawrence Focht Fan Page.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Why...
...do the cultured voices on the classical music stations always refer to the composer as Dvor-CHAK? His name is very clearly spelled Dvor-AK. Do Czech words just automatically insert random ch sounds?
First rule of classical music: don't go by the clear spelling of the composer's name. See: Beethoven, Wagner, Bach. (There are a few other composers of classical music, but I can't think of them right now.)
I know nothing about Czech, but there are unfamiliar symbols in Dvorak's name, which probably change the pronounciation.
I've worked with some Czech people, and I think it's a general principle of Czech to rearrange the letters in the word and throw in a few extra sounds for good measure.
2 comments:
First rule of classical music: don't go by the clear spelling of the composer's name. See: Beethoven, Wagner, Bach. (There are a few other composers of classical music, but I can't think of them right now.)
I know nothing about Czech, but there are unfamiliar symbols in Dvorak's name, which probably change the pronounciation.
-- SJ
I've worked with some Czech people, and I think it's a general principle of Czech to rearrange the letters in the word and throw in a few extra sounds for good measure.
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