On 7/30/06, John Lyden <rasputinaxp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
That's what I was trying to illustrate with the
Dvořák/Dvorak example.
It's not a bias against using "those funny little foreign characters."
Like you said, it's how the word is best-known amongst English
speakers. I certainly understand and respect that American isn't
I missed the debate, but it seems obvious that the accents in
(Antonin) Dvorak should be retained: any CD or score of music by
Dvorak would have the accents written. Any discussion of Dvorak would
have them. And so should we.
If we were discussing a different Dvorak (perhaps the one after whom
the keyboard layout I'm using is named), then different considerations
would apply. I don't think the Dvorak layout is ever called the Dvořák
layout for instance, nor is the writer John Dvorak ever called John
Dvořák.
Blanket rules like "Use English" don't help at all.
Steve