Talk:Janika Balaž

Rác?

The currently existing Hungarian family name Rác is in the most cases written as Rácz. Normally you would have written rác instead of rácz, if you wanted to use it for the nation (which is in fact not very common since it holds a kind of pejorative meaning), Rácz is a bit old-fashioned, but this phenomenon is common in Hungarian first names (e.g. Tóth instead of Tót (meaning Slovak), Horváth instead of Horvát (meaning Croat) etc.). In fact Rácz is a currently existing Hungarian first name among the Hungarians living in Serbia, too. See for example the politician Rácz Szabó László (http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A1cz_Szab%C3%B3_L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3). So it is very likely that his original family name was Rácz. But since I can't prove that, I don't want to modify it. Fcsaba 13:42, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I wrote it from Serbian source [1], which said just "Rac" (transcribed) so I, possibly wrongly, reconstructed it back to Rác. If you think that Rácz is more plausible, be my guest. I'm relatively familiar with Hungarian phonology (not with the language!) but "c" versus "cz" is a mystery to me – are they pronounced differently, or is it just an etymological difference?Duja► 14:22, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I just wanted to say, you could even say "(or Rácz)", there are enough names on Wikipedia which are given in multiple variations for a number of reasons. The actual link sends you to a page not about the Hungarian wordname, but the collective name for the Slavic people of the region at a certain time. That too can be ammended freely. Evlekis 14:25, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

According to the Serbian "upiši kao što govoriš" rule some parts of the name "disappear". It is same pronounced. I think in such cases 'z' comes from the German, where it is pronounced 'c'. See for example krajcár (a kind of small money) and its older form krajczár. Fcsaba 12:29, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

The write how you hear policy was a Vuk Karadžić brainwave. To be honest, I am sure that the way Rác(z) appears is based on either an earlier spelling, though most unlikely for Serbs or Orthodox Slavs as in Karadžić's time given that they used Cyrillic. The diacritic above the /a/ looks more Hungarian in character, but it is used by the Banatian Bulgarians for what is their own language, I don't know how close they come to all this. I must say that I didn't know Hungarian had this feature. I know of "h" following "t" in words such as "Horvath", and names such as "Nemeth", and I know about the unusual /y/ on endings such as the former PM Medgyjessy (if it's spellt correctly), meant to sound like an /i/. But a /z/ ending is interesting, you realise that following a /c/ gives one to asume the sound is as in chop, because that is how the Polish use /cz/, like Hungarian /cs/. But if the influence is German then yes, it will blend in with the /c/ because as far as I know, the German sound is /ts/ or sometimes /dz/. Evlekis 12:44, 27 July 2007 (UTC)