Читать книгу Fleeting Snow - Pavel Villikovsky - Страница 14

1.e

I love native American place names like Mississauga, Petawawa, Maniwaki, Oshawa, Saginaw, Pukaskwa, Cheektowaga. These are English transcriptions of the original words but it makes no difference. To me they are unique; like brand names, they don’t carry any other meaning, they mean only what they designate. My brand name is Čimborazka. It is the Slovak transcription of an original word that doesn’t exist in any language.

Štefan would say that its English transcription might be something like Cheemborazkah, with the main stress on the first syllable and a secondary stress on the first element of ‘razkah’. It would make quite a nice native American place name, with its two bilabial consonants back to back.

Štefan’s surname doesn’t need an English transcription although the pronunciation would be different, ‘Kovack’, instead of how we say it, ‘Kovach’. Though it would be even easier to just translate it as Smith. In English, too, it is one of the most frequent, most ordinary names. The one people use when they wish to remain anonymous.