Mailbox
Today in Mailbox: How do we refer to the inhabitants of Prague? The Czech national anthem, the Czech Republic's membership in the UN. Listeners quoted: Lindley L. Becker, US; Margaret M. Lally, US; Srikanta Nandy, India.
First of all, let me remind you that the deadline for sending your entries to Radio Prague's annual listeners' competition passed on Wednesday. The contest is now closed and none of the entries that have arrived since Wednesday can be taken into consideration.
We received a whole lot of your answers from all over the world and all six Radio Prague language sections are now busy reading them and voting on the best ones. Thank you very much for taking the time to send us your views and memories of Czech beer.
But onto other mail now. Mr Lindley L. Becker from Florida, United States, has sent us this question:
"If you could please answer this question, it would surely settle a huge debate:
In English, people from Paris are Parisians. People from Rome are Romans. What do you call people from Prague?"
Although neither dictionaries nor the spell check on my computer recognise it, one can come across the word "Praguers", especially among the expat community in Prague. In Czech the word is Prazan - or Prazak in colloquial speech - so it would make sense to have a short, one-word term in English, too. On Radio Prague we usually refer to them as Prague citizens. But we'd like to know what you, the listeners, think about the terms - which one do you prefer? Please, let us know...
Margaret M. Lally, from the US has sent us this greeting.
"My father's grandparents came to the United States from Bohemia in 1880 (or thereabouts). Radio Prague is the closest I've ever come to it. But I have so enjoyed the tone in what you write; it sounds familiar to me. (I know the Czech love of learning, and of laughing.) Even though I've never visited your country, I know it from the inside out - looking back at it through the lens of three generations. One day I hope I'll be able to visit, to find the other side of my heart - and, I hope, loads and loads of people who look like me!"
And Mr Srikanta Nandy from India has two questions, regarding Czech history.
"Who wrote the national anthem of Czech Republic?"
The Czech national anthem "Kde domov muj?" or "Where is my homeland?" recently celebrated its 170th birthday. It comes from the opening scene of the opera "Fidlovacka", composed by Frantisek Skroup, a strong advocate of Czech national music at the time, and the lyrics, and in fact the whole libretto was written by Josef Kajetan Tyl. The opera was first performed in 1834 in the Prague Estates Theatre and played an important part in the Czech national revival movement. Translated into English, the lyrics go:
Where is my homeland, where is my homeland?
Waters murmur through the meadows,
forests rustle all over the rocky hills,
spring blossoms glitter in the orchards,
paradise on earth to look at!
This is a beautiful country,
the Czech country, my homeland,
the Czech country, my homeland!
And Srikanta Nandy's second question is:
For the answer I went to the UN's official website: Czechoslovakia was one of the 51 original member states of the United Nations who signed its Charter on 26 June, 1945 at a conference in San Francisco. It officially became a member when the United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945. When Czechoslovakia split up and ceased to exist on 31 December 1992, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, as successor States, applied for membership in the United Nations. The Security Council, on 8 January 1993, recommended to the General Assembly that the Czech Republic be admitted to United Nations membership. The Czech Republic was thus admitted on 19 January of that year as a Member State.
Thank you for your questions and in turn we have one for you. The lucky winner who answers it correctly will get a CD of Czech music from Radio Prague.
"In the 1930s an alternative typewriter keyboard to the QWERTY keyboard was invented and patented in the United States by a man of Czech origin. The man, who was born in 1894 and died in 1975, used his extensive knowledge of linguistics and body mechanics to create a simplified keyboard which was supposed to speed up typing and reduce the typists' fatigue. If you think you are totally in the dark, there is a clue: His has the same surname as a world-famous Czech composer, who was actually his distant relative."
Please send your answers to us by the end of June to the usual address, Radio Prague, 12099, Prague, Czech Republic or [email protected]. That is also the address for your questions and comments. Do let us know what you think about our broadcasts.
