Orð og tunga - 01.06.2016, Page 133

Marie Novotná: Adaptation of foreign words into Czech 123
uses the sounds from the more-known languages to pronounce Ice-
landic graphemes (ö), and that þ, ð are usually pronounced diff er-
ently to how they sound in the original language. Much more detail
can be found in Zeman (2000), an overview of how foreign personal
names are pronounced and declined in Czech texts. The second part
of the overview is entirely dedicated to the Nordic languages, and
they all belong to the so-called third group of languages. This means
that personal names from these languages do not occur in the mass
media very oft en, just a few times a month. The usual pronunciation
is reviewed, but also our main topic, i.e., the declension of Icelan-
dic personal names, is described on three pages. Zeman (2000) states
that masculine names which end in the nominative with a consonant
(Halldór, Gröndal) are declined as the Czech paradigm pán (gen. Hall-
dóra, Gröndala). If the nom. ending is -ur (Grímur), in oblique cases
it either falls off (gen. Gríma) or it is retained (gen. Grímura), and
the latt er possibility is said to be the more common solution (Zeman
2000:60).
There is no list of Zeman’s (2000) sources from which he made this
conclusion, but my own research shows that his statement is not valid
for prose translations from Icelandic and there is an increasing major-
ity of books where the Czech oblique cases are formed without the
Icelandic nominative ending -ur. A reason for that might be that Ze-
man (2000) is focusing on mass media where the majority of authors
– in contrast to all translators – are not familiar with Icelandic gram-
mar and therefore do not know that there is a nominative masculine
ending and, consequently, they handle the whole name as if it were
a stem.
Zeman (2000) further states that possessive adjectives (“Gríms”)
are formed partly with the masc. nom. ending (Grímurův) and partly
without it (Grímův). If personal names end in an -s (Jónas), they are
declined according to another paradigm (muž). If they end in -i (Ind-
ridi), Czech declension follows the pronominal endings.
As to feminine names, those with the ending -a naturally follow
the Czech paradigm žena. Those ending in a consonant (Gudbjörg)
are, according to Zeman (2000), not declined at all, except in some
literary works (Gudbjörgy). The possessive adjective then fl uctuates
between Gudbjörgin/Gudbjöržin. One sometimes adds the possessive
ending -ová – typical in Czech female surnames – to feminine pat-
ronyms (Svava Jakobsdótt irová), and this enables declension. In a few
poetic texts, this ending replaces the second part of the name -dótt ir
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