I’m surprised that a Czech name was Anglicized (not sure if that’s the correct word) for this. I’m not used to seeing that. I think I like it? Nothing insignificant grinds me more than watching sports and having Czech names sounded out phonetically via an English approach, and this anglicization is pretty good.
It’s interesting to me because other names like the difficult-to-pronounce Dvořák are kept intact and even attempted quite well by classical fans.
He is also well-known in neurology for his discovery of a particular type of cerebellar neurons, and his name is also misspelled in this field: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purkinje_cell
As a Slovenian to whom Czech sounds like Slovenian with a lisp, how do you pronounce ř?
It’s weird how similar the languages are. Visiting Prague, we could get by on speaking a more proper Slovenian with the locals who spoke back in Czech. Add some hand waving and it worked great.
The way one can learn to say ř is to whisper very very quietly r in a long sequence... rrrrrr. Not [ar] but "just" hard r. Over time, this rolling r can become ř. Children take several months to learn pronouncing it.
They definitely /do not/ pronounce it correctly, but a valiant attempt is made! That’s good enough for me! I’ve noticed most folks pronounce it Dvor-zhak, with a slight but distinct gap added into the pronunciation of the ř.
But like I said, this is leagues better than the butchery I hear when watching hockey, say. :)
It’s interesting to me because other names like the difficult-to-pronounce Dvořák are kept intact and even attempted quite well by classical fans.