What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 31 December 2022.

Prior to yesthealliedthingagain in 1926, the street was called Puchmajerova, after Antonín Jaroslav Puchmajer (1769-1820), writer, priest and the first Czech specialist in Romani studies.

Keeping things ex-YU after yesterday, Lublaň is Ljubljana, which is the capital of Slovenia. It’s also freaking gorgeous, and, while I’m intending to stay in Prague, Ljubljana… gave me second thoughts on more than one occasion in 2019.

Even if their openness about selling horse burgers isn’t for everyone (picture taken April 2013).

Piran, on the coast, is absurdly gorgeous too.

The most influential Slovene in the Czech Republic was probably the architect Jože Plečnik (1872-1957). He worked on Prague Castle between 1920 & 1934, and, from 1929-32, created the Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord (Kostel Nejsvětějšího Srdce Páně) on Jiřák.

I’m not going to bring you a false friends fest today, but I can’t go by without mentioning that the Slovenian word for child – otrok – is the Czech word for slave. Make of this what you will.

Oh, and the Slovenian verb kaditi means to smoke, whereas kadit in Czech means, erm, ‘to do a poo’.

And on that delightful note: Srečno novo leto vsem! Se vidimo na drugi strani.