User talk:Cepek

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[edit] Use of Czechia as the shortform country name of the Czech Republic

To Cepek,

Thanks for your message. Indeed I do not intend to fight for(?) or argue(?) that there is an absolute need to adopt a single word (Czechia) for the country name of the Czech Republic. I just found that the word is being used (though infrequently) by some. So I put the links there just for reference.

For your question of Hong Kong, it's true that Hong Kong composes of two single words. So do Bukina Faso, Cape Verde, Coast Rica, and many others. And all of them are noun by themselves. Concerning the Czech Republic, as you would be aware, Czech is an adjective and Czech Republic is much more formal/diplomatic and refers more to a form of government. Just like the case of France, the formal name of France - French Republic - composes of an adjective (French) and the form of government (Republic). But in both French and English languages, people prefer using France (a noun) rather than French Republic in daily life. For people living in Hong Kong, we prefer Hong Kong to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (so long for general use, we're not diplomats ^_^). So I can understand what the government and the academic sector of the Czech Republic want to do is to adopt a noun Czechia as the shortform name of the country and promote it to both domestic and international comunity. Although Czechia is still not so common, as it does exist and is being promoted, I think it's worth mentioning it by quoting relevant examples in the subject article and elsewhere in Wikipedia.

For me, both Czehia and Czech Republic are good to me. I have no prefernece anyway. But if the government and the people of a country wish to adopt a name for their country, what we can do is to point out the fact and respect.

Anyway, happy to discuss with you.

-- DD Ting 14:30, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

To DD Ting,
I can agree with probably everything from your comment. Namely I like your "preference" of Hong Kong to the full official name. But still I feel that your examples of usage of Czechia are not ideal (or are not relevant; with the exception of the article by Horova).
From my point of view there was much better alternative for Czechia available, but for several reasons Bohemia was not considered and I am afraid that now is too late to try to revive it as a candidate for the English short name for the Czech Republic.
zài jiàn
Cepek 15:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
Bohemia is also my favourite. But I think the Czech government is not likely to adopt this for historical/cultural/political reasons (just like the government of the Netherlands would not accept Holland as the country name). What do you think? -- DD Ting 17:15, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
Good point!
My firm opinion is that we Czechs could wait after splitting of former Czechoslovakia and use official name Czech Republic for some time until some unofficial short name(s) was introduced by natural development. But there was an active pro-Cesko/Czechia lobby and they still do their best to promote these much artificial names whenever possible.
By the way, may be that unofficial English short name should be introduced by native English speakers and not by Czechs. To me, Czechia sounds strange (compared with Bohemia and/or Moravia). -- Cepek 18:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
I guess the making of the name Czechia (ie Czech + ia) shares the same form as that of its neighbour (ie Slovak + ia = Slovakia). -- DD Ting 19:15, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
Your logic is excellent. Actually there is a Czech obsolete bookish word Čechie (meaning Bohemia), probably not used in nowadays Czech anymore. It sounds queer and too pathetic and may be this the reason why some Czechs (including me) do not like Czechia. --Cepek 19:51, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
However, I just wonder why the Czech government doesn't formally adopt Czechia if it really wish to do so (eg to register the name with the UN as like the precedents of other countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Myanmar and Timor-Leste), but instead still using Czech Republic as the sole official name (both long and short forms). -- DD Ting 20:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
I cannot say for sure but probably Czechia has been officially registered already. I tried to use search engine of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it seems that Czechia is not frequently used by them these days.
Good night. --Cepek 20:18, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
But the name registered with UN and other international organizations is still Czech Republic, so that's why I have such query. -- DD Ting 06:12, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
Umm.. I was reading the convo, and I noticed you used the word "queer". That word once used to mean strange, odd, etc. Now it means gay, homosexual. I thought I'd just warn you, in case you try to use it at a formal dinner or something, that would create one hell of an awkward situation. :) Oh, I reccomend putting a babel template on your user page too. The syntax is simple, for example {{Babel-X|cs|en-3|de-0}} would show up as three boxes, one saying you are a native Czech speaker (that's the cs), the other you are an "advanced speaker" of english (en-3) and the last that you don't speak German (de-0). You can read more about it at WP:BABEL. +Hexagon1 (t) 14:02, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the warning! I didn't know about the new postmodern meaning of queer, until now I only have known about the idiom "queer fish" (http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/queer+fish). And following your suggestion I also openly declared my language ignorance. Cepek 09:34, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
No worries. I'd rate your English at en-3 though, you're almost fluent, just sometimes confuse sentence structure in a minor way. +Hexagon1 (t) 11:58, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Rate fixed, thanks for your kind opinion. In fact, probably I should rate my Czech to 3 at maximum to be serious ... I am not gifted for languages, namely for grammar, really ;-)

BTW, could you please visit Talk:Velvet Divorce I am sugest renaming the article to "Split of Czechoslovakia" and I am not sure if it sounds well in English (and I am never sure about articles a/the in cases like this). Cepek 12:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

≈Tulkolahten≈≈talk≈ 21:33, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the invitation! I have added myself to the list, but most likely I will not be one of the most active members (too busy these days). I'll do my best be unbiased, which is not easy, but I am going to do my best. Cepek 21:47, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] Dášeňka

You are wrong, the correct title of the book is Dášeňka. Cepek 18:43, 25 March 2007 (UTC))

Please forgive me, my edit was just because of common knowledge and widely spread usage of "DášeNka". I thought that somebody in America just made typing error. I wish you all the best in your Wikipedian efforts, especially in Czech Republic WikiProject --Bluewind 19:09, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
No problem ;-) Actually I had believed myself that the title reads without "háček" because I was introduced to the book by my parents (before I could read). And the more, "Dášeňka" is not a typical Czech diminutive.
But there is another point that probably needs clarification, the authorship. Was really Josef Čapek co-author of his brother Karel. There is on say in the edition I have at home. Cepek 08:46, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stredohori

Podle webu ceskestredohori.cz je spravny anglicky nazev Czech Central Mountains. Take nemluvim nativne anglicky, ale podle vseho co vim tak medium neznamena stred geografcky, ale stred mnozstevni pripadne casovy (medium coke, medium steak). Priklanel bych se k nazvu Czech Central Mountains. ≈Tulkolahten≈≈talk≈ 11:00, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Kdybych si měl opravdu vymyšlet hezky překlad, pak bych se obrátil k Tolkienově Středozemi (Middle-earth) a přeložil bych to metodou reverse-ingeneeringu jako "Czech Middle-Mountains". Určitě by to ale němělo tu Tolkienovskou vůni. Czech Central Mountains má problém v tom, že evokuje umístění ve sředu Čech což není pravda. Czech Highlands je hezké, ale úplně vycucané z prstu. Ideální by bylo nechat to rozhodnout rodilé mluvčí. (mimochodem, nevím proč, ale žil jsem v domnění, že jsi Němec). --Cepek 11:19, 6 April 2007 (UTC)