Lovely to have you here  - would you like to post in the introduce yourself thread?
I keep having this connection to Good King Wenceslas in mind - english christmas carol ;-)

More czech hints: There is also this stationery from Czechia in another episode.

Last edited by Harriet (December 18, 2012 4:59 pm)

Hello! You can introduce yourself in the introduction thread, if you would like to. 
The Czech elements in the BBC series are an obvious nod to the canon since there are mentioned at least twice in the original stories. At first, the Scandal in Bohemia, quite obviously, although I am afraid ACD got it wrong, all that stuff about a Czech king- quite ridiculous for the period. Then there is another story mentioning the capital Prague being a source of a drug for a respectable professor.
Wenceslas is indeed a typical Czech first name, Vaclav. ¨
As far as the pronunciation is concerned, I didn´t remember any wrong features, I have to listen for it to capture! 

I saw the episode just now and was also surprised why is somebody called Wenceslas considered to be Czech. 
I am Czech, too, and have never heard such surname here before. It is an English transcription of Czech first name, that is used also as surname in rear cases but have no idea why any Czech person used such a strange form of it. I guess that she would either keep her original form Václavová or choose something international but surname Wenceslas even sounds terrible and artificial to Czech ears.

besleybean wrote:

Good King Wenceslas was Czech...apparently.

 
Yes, he was, but it is an English version of his name, his name was Vaclav.  Czech language even does not use letter w in other then foreign words.

But it is probably quite common for writers to use a well-know name or mixture of them to name their characters that should come from the respective country. Sergej Ljukjanenko in one of his book needed a person from Prague and he created it from two Czech poets. He used the Czech version of the names it looked credible contrary of Ms. Wenceslas. 

But apparently nobody except  for Czech has problem with it so it is OK

And I hope that Oscar Dzundza is not considered to be a Czech name (as Golem comes from Prague).