Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sexist names

"Linguistically speaking, the vast majority of Czech women spend their entire lives belonging to one man or another. They're born with their dads' surnames, plus "ova" at the end; tennis champion Martina Navratilova, for example, is the stepdaughter of Miroslav Navratil. Then, after marriage, when a woman takes her spouse's last name with the usual ending, she switches "allegiance" from father to husband." (thanks Toufic)