Converting Russian Names and Surnames to the Czech Language: Theory and Practice
The article deals with the conversion of Russian names and surnames to the Czech language, which is an urgent topic in terms of current migration processes. The first part of the article analyzes the linguistic works in Czech (from the 1950s) that deal with the transliteration/transcription of Russian names and surnames, define the terms transcription, practical transcription, and transliteration. Examples of transliteration are given in accordance with the international standard ISO 9, examples of practical transcription in accordance with the "Rules of Czech Orthography". The first part of the article analyzes the norms of transliteration of the National Library of the Czech Republic. This part of the article contains comparative tables of transliteration/transcription of Russian names and surnames to the Czech language according to three aforesaid norms/standards, e.g., Fedor Tjutcev (ISO 9), Fjodor Tutcev (Rules of Czech Orthography), Fedor Tjutcev (National Library of the Czech Republic). The second part of the article analyzes legal acts of the Russian Federation that govern the coversion of Russian names and surnames using the letters of the Latin alphabet, the results of transliteration are compared according to three norms: ICAO, GOST 2000, GOST 2014. The third part analyzes the Czech legal acts that govern the conversion of Russian names and surnames into the Czech language and their display in the Czech state information systems. Transliteration is compared according to the Russian GOST and ICAO standards and the Czech standards, as a result of which various electronic systems of Czech ministries and departmental divisions (driver's license register, foreigners register, marriage register) can display the same name/same surname in several variations, for example: Jevgenij Vorob-jov / Yevgeny Vorobyov /Evgenii Vorobev / Jevgenij Vorob 'jev, which causes both problems with the identification of a specific person and problems associated with contacting a specific person. Special notes relate to female surnames that in accordance with the grammar of Czech acquire the formant -ova (irrespective of occurrence/absence of this formant in Russian), e.g. Darja Gusova (Dar'ya Gus'), Olga Zajcevova (Ol'ga Zaytseva), Jelena Mescerjakovova (Elena Meshcheryakova). The last part of the article is devoted to the need to distinguish the Russian letters e and ё in writing, examples from Czech journalistic texts are given, in which the conversion of names and surnames with ё (e.g., Semin, Artem) is presented differently because these two letters are not distinguished in Russian. At the end of the article conclusions are drawn.