Talk:Alois Musil

Ethnicity of Alois Musil

The article states that Alois Musil is Czech. As far as I can tell, both his first name and surname are of the German language. Which was the mother tongue of Alois Musil? If indeed German, then it would be accurate to describe his ethnicity as 'Bohemian German' say, but certainly not as Czech. It might also seem appropriate to swap out the Czech modernisms of the names of the locations mentioned in the article to their German counterparts, since this then better fits the context of his life and times. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.166.209.59 (talk) 00:10, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Well I do not know about Alois - it has a quite complex etymology, but Musil is actually based on a czech word "musit" (http://www.ptejteseknihovny.cz/uloziste/aba001/2007-2009/prijmeni-rutar-klimus-a-musil). I'm planning to buy a book on him, so maybe, I will be able to provide additional information, but I strongly believe he was not of German descent. --Belenor (talk) 06:35, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

In this article "From Moravia to Arabia" he describes himself as Czech: 'During his journey in the winter of 1909, Musil accompanied the migrating Ruwala under Ibn Sha‘lan. “A strange dispensation of Allah,” Musil commented, “for a Bedouin prince to be riding beside a Czech at the head of a big tribe!”' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.133.214.31 (talk) 15:01, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Belenor is perfectly correct about the etymology of the name Musil - you can find other names derived from verbs like that in the Czech language, like Navrátil(ová!) (navrátit = somewhat archaically "to return"), Kvapil (kvapit = an archaic word for "to hurry"), Nepil (pít = to drink), Sušil (sušit = to dry), Donutil (donutit = to make / pressure someone to do something)... I tried to choose the surnames of Czech figures that could be googled if wanted. Names of this derivation tend to be used in Moravia, and Musil was born in Vyškov, which is in Moravia (oh, and that also means "Bohemian" is NOT a better option - it only applies to the western part of the country). You can check the surnames' current distribution on http://kdejsme.cz - here's Musil, still more or less centered in Moravia (excluding Prague, which is only common sense): http://www.kdejsme.cz/prijmeni/Musil/pocet/ It is necessary to remember that thanks to the history and political and cultural make-up of the country at the time, one's ethnicity / nationality was somewhat fluid and depended on personal choice, or the personal choice of your family, especially concerning the language you chose to consider your own; you can still find many names of Czech origins in Austria, after all. Having it confirmed in Musil's own words is therefore the best possible source, but I thought adding more context to the original argument against his Czechness could be helpful. As for Alois, it is one of those international names, much like you can find people with names of e.g. Latin origin in England. The staunchly Czech writer Alois Jirásek was another bearer from around this time. 2A00:1028:9943:A6BA:381D:67D4:2672:4989 (talk) 13:37, 20 February 2016 (UTC)