Czech names in Japanese help please
 

I'm working on text that has many German and Czech names and places in it. While I can usually work out what it ought to be with internet searches, sometimes it's still a puzzle, especially since I don't quite understand all the rules about how small katakana affect pronunciation and spelling in other languages (or in English, for that matter). I thought this might be a better part of the forum to find people who are familiar with such names and places. :)

The name as written in the text is ヤブロネッツ・ナッド・ニソウ

That would seem to be, I think, Jablonetz nad Nisou (nudd? I don't think that can be right, but I don't know what the ッ is doing in there).

I've found Jablonetz as a city in the Jablonec nad Nisou region (which I've seen written as ヤブロネツナドニソウ), but nothing that's actually called Jablonetz nad Nisou. Are the separation marks present in the text crucial? Could Jablonetz nad Nisou be some sort of shorthand for the city of Jablonetz in Jablonec nad Nisou? Am I reading it wrong (seems the mostly likely). Or should I just use Jablonec nad Nisou and call it a day? :)

Though the work is fiction, I don't think this name is intended to be a fictional place since it's so very nearly the name of an actual place, but I can't tell for sure.

Jablonec nad Nisou

Jablonec nad Nisou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

***DO NOT seek a formula as it exists not. We don't go from the spelling in the first place. We take the pronunciation and re-write it the closest way possible yet within the Japanese sound system.

You help me wherever I go. ;) Thanks!

I would have just gone with Jablonec nad Nisou, but when WWWJDIC's database wrote that as ヤブロネツナドニソウ, I wondered why it wasn't just written that way in the book, especially after seeing Jablonetz as a city name here, as though it were not simply a variant spelling.

There is simply no "rule" regarding when to use the 「・」. We write New York as ニューヨーク, never as ニュー・ヨーク. We just follow what we are used to seeing.

As for ヤブロネッツ・ナッド・ニソウ, it's a name most Japanese will never see in their life time, so we really couldn't care less if you used the dots or not.

NOTE: I hate to look like I'm following you around. If you prefer having others responding, I'm perfectly fine with it. I do warn you, though, that there are only about 2 other members who could answer the kinds of questions that you have been asking.

No, no, that's not it. I'm just worried that if you're the only one answering me, you'll get tired of me really quick. :o

I didn't think the dots made any difference here, but I didn't know for sure. What I was most wondering about was why one version of the name included the two occurrences of ッ while the other didn't. That (and that website) was what made me think they might be different places.

I just posted in here on the chance there might be some native Czechs learning Japanese who knew the area in question. It's sort of like if someone asked about Urbana in Champaign County (Ohio) and Champaign-Urbana (in Champaign County, Illinois). I think someone outside the US who didn't know the former existed could easily confuse it with the latter, at least more so than someplace like Columbus, Ohio and Columbus, Georgia.

I overthink too much. :)