American Language (96 page)
Authors: H.L. Mencken
The farmers of a certain county refused to patronize a banker who had assumed
Newer
in place of
Novák.
(
Newman
, a better translation, is now more commonly substituted for this name.) A storm of protest arose when a Nebraska politician,
Lapáček
, announced himself a
La Pache
, and a
Votruba
who translated his name to
Bran
was thereafter in disrepute.… In spite, however, of indignation meetings, lodge resolutions and the newspaper jibes and denunciations provoked by the turncoats, a voluntary de-Bohemianization was constantly in progress, to which the younger set of Czech-Americans, surreptitiously at least, lent hearty encouragement. Removal to another, especially a purely American, community, attainment of majority, engagement in a new occupation, entrance into connubial felicity, and the like were seized as occasions for shaking off cognominal impedimenta.
28
Even when a Czech clings to the original form of his patronymic, he must bear with its mutilation at the hands of his neighbors. Such forms as
Hořčička, Ranhojič, Trpaslik
and
Uprchl
, says Monsignor Dudek, “are, while they last, the despair of rural editors and printers, of postmasters, small-town bankers, county clerks, justices of the peace and other officials, and simply through repeated misspelling, misreading and mispronunciation by these worthies, the first steps toward their de-Bohemianization are taken.” The Czech accents disappear almost at once, and the values of the Czech letters are quickly changed.
Hanska, Kouba, Kuba, Macá, Suva
and others ending in
a
continue to be so written, but the owners succumb readily enough to pronunciations affected by their American neighbors —
Kobey, Koobie, Cuby, Kewpie, Macey, Soovy
, and the like. Similarly,
Myška
(or
Myšička
) is known as
Mitchky
, and one, at least, wrote it
Mitschka; Jedlička
condescends to be known as
Jedlicker
or
Shedlicker, Skála
as
Scaler, Źaba
as
Jobber
or
Chopper
, and
Hobza
, wearying at length of being called
Hubsy
, adopts
Hobbs
or even
Hobbes
of his own accord.
29
Among the Poles, as among the Czechs, the older immigrants regard abandonment of the native surnames with aversion, but it goes on wholesale, and in all the usual ways. By translation
Krawiec
becomes
Taylor, Kowalczyk
becomes
Smith, Tomaszewski
becomes
Thompson, Mielnik
becomes
Miller
, and
Kucharz
becomes
Cook
; by transliteration
Jaroscz
is converted into
Jerris
, and
Waitr
into
Waiter
; by shortening
Filipowicz
changes to
Philip
or
Phillips, Winiarecki
to
Winar
, and
Pietruszka
to
Pietrus
; and by various combinations
of these devices
Siminowicz
changes to
Simmons, Bart-oszewicz
to
Barton
, and
Chmielewski (chmiel
=
hops) to
Hopson
and then to
Hobson
.
30
Many a poor Pole, despairing of making anything feasible to Americans out of his surname, abandons it for some quite unrelated English name, or elevates a given name to its place. The example of
Josef Konrad Korzienowski
will be recalled; he became
Joseph Conrad
in England, and made the name one that will be long remembered. The Polish suffixes,
-ewski, -owicz
and so on, are fast succumbing to linguistic pressure in this country, and it seems likely that after a few generations most of them will be gone. The Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian names are subject to the same attrition. They suffer, in addition, from the fact that the transliteration of the Cyrillic alphabet presents difficulties that have yet to be solved. Does
-owski, -ovski
or
-offski
come nearest the Russian original? This is a problem that confronts many a Russian.
31
All of these Slavs follow the examples of the Czechs and Poles in changing their names in this country. Of the Yugo- or South-Slavs, Louis Adamic, the well-known Yugoslav-American writer and publicist, says:
Often they choose Anglo-Saxon names, or what appear to them to be Anglo-Saxon names, whose sound or spelling or both resemble the original Yugoslav patronymics. Thus
Onlak
becomes
O’Black; Miklavec
or
Milavič, McClautz; Ogrin, O’Green; Crečk, Church; Jakša
or
Jakšič, Jackson; Bizjak, Busyjack; Oven, Owens
; and
Stritar, Streeter
. Not infrequently they translate their names into literal or near-literal English equivalents; for instance,
Cerne
into
Black, Belko
or
Belič
into
White
, or
Podlesnik
into
Underwood
.
32
All the Slavs differentiate between the masculine and feminine forms of surnames. Thus the son of the famous actress, Helena
Modjeska
, became Ralph
Modjeski
, and as such attained to fame of his own as an engineer.
33
But in this country the feminine form disappears.
34
Perhaps the American gypsies should be included among
the Slavs, for many of them, though they are largely of Rumanian blood, bear Slav surnames. For example, Joe
Adams
, long celebrated as the King of the Gypsies, was really Ioano
Adamovič
. Most gypsies have two names — the
nav romanes
, which is used among themselves and is formed by adding the father’s given-name to the given-name of the son or daughter, and the
nav gajikanes
, which is an American-sounding name for general use. The numerous
Mitchells
among them all descend from a patriarch named
MiXail
.
35
The Scandinavians have had to make almost as many changes in their surnames as the Slavs, and for much the same reasons. This is especially true of the Swedes. “A number of characteristic Swedish sounds, particularly
ö
and
sj
,” says Roy W. Swanson,
36
“are almost impossible to the Anglo-Saxon vocal organs. Thus
Sjörgren
, that common name in which these obstacles occur, is variously written
Shogren, Schugren, Segren
or
Seagren
.” Mr. Swanson continues:
The fate of the
ö
in America is decided in divers ways: the umlaut is omitted, which is the most usual change (
Grondahl, Stromberg, Lonnquist, Mork, Soderstrom
, etc.); or the name is translated (
Grön
becomes
Green
); or there is an attempt by the learned few to perpetuate the ö-sound by resorting to French phonetics (
Huerlin, Leuvenmark
)…. With the other two umlauted vowels,
ä
and
å
, the attempts to preserve the original sound are more successful. Thus
å
is replaced by
o
or
oh
, so that names like
Åman
and
Åslund
become
Ohman
and
Ohslund, Spångberg
becomes
Spongberg, Åker-berg
becomes
Okerberg
, etc.… [and] the English
e
seems to replace very satisfactorily the Swedish
ä
, [so that]
Ånberg
becomes
Engberg; Sällström, Sellstrom; Slättengren, Slettengren
, etc.
Certain combinations of letters in Swedish,
e.g., bj, hj, ki
and
lilj
, quickly succumb to Americanization. Thus, one
Esbjörn
enrolled in the Federal Army during the Civil War as
Esbyorn
and was mustered out as
Osborn
. Says Mr. Swanson:
The native American persists in giving the
hj
sound a
j
instead of a
y
pronunciation. The
Hjelms
seem to get round the difficulty by universally dropping the
j
, and becoming
Helms
. In Swedish it is the
h
which is silent. The
Hjorts
find an acceptable English translation in
Hart. Kilberg, Kind-bloom, Kindlund, Kilström, Kindberg, Kjellstrand, Kjellman, Kilgren
receive phonetic changes in
Chilberg, Chindbloom, Chinlund, Cilstrom, Chinberg
,
Chilstrand, Challman, Chilgren
and
Gillgren
. This change seems to be universal. In fact, the Minneapolis telephone directory has less than ten Swedish-American names in the original
ki-. Liljedahl, Liljegren, Liljeqvist
often translate the first part:
Lilydahl, Lilygren, Lilyquist
, or in some other way remove the embarrassment of the
lj
combination:
Liliecrona, Lillquist
.
In other cases
lj
is got rid of by bolder devices, as when
Ljung
(signifying heather) is turned into
Young, Ljungdahl
into
Young-dahl
, and so on. Other attempts at transliteration are numerous. Thus
-qvist
and
-kvist
become
-quist
or
-quest; -gren
(a bough) becomes
green
or
grain
, as in
Holmgrain
and
Youngreen; -blad
(a leaf) becomes
blade
, as in
Cedarblade
; and
bo-
(an inhabitant) is turned into
bow
, as in
Bowman
from
Boman
. Direct translations are also frequent,
e.g.
, of
Nygren
into
Newbranch, Sjöstrand
into
Seashore
and
Högfelt
into
Highfield
. Sometimes the spelling of a name is changed to preserve the Swedish pronunciation, as when
Ros
becomes
Roos, Strid
becomes
Streed
, and
Andrén
becomes
Andreen
. “The
-een
termination,” says Mr. Swanson, “seems to be very popular among the Swedes in America, and is sometimes carried even into the
-son
names,
e.g., Olseen
for
Olson
.” Nearly all these changes are in what the Swedes call
borgerliganamn, i.e.
, names of the plain people. The
prästnamn
(priest-names), all of which end with either
-us
or
-ander
, are changed less often, partly because their bearers are very proud of them, and partly because they usually present less difficulty to Americans. The
adelsnamn
(aristocratic names) are cherished even more jealously, but they are naturally not numerous. When Archbishop Nathan Söderblom visited the Swedish marches of the Middle West in 1923 he made an eloquent plea for the preservation of Swedish patronymics, but it seems to have had little effect. Many well-known Swedish-Americans bear changed names. Thus Col. Charles A.
Lindbergh’s
family name was originally
Månsson
,
37
and that of Professor C. H.
Seashore
of the University of Iowa was
Sjöstrand
. The orthodox Swedish spelling calls for two
s
’s in such names as
Svensson, Jonsson
and
Olsson
, but one of them is usually dropped in America. In the names ending in
-ander, e.g., Lekander, Kilander
and
Bolander
, the accent is shifted from the second syllable, where it lies in Sweden, to the first.
38
Many of the early Swedish immigrants really had no surnames, in our sense of the word. The son of Johan
Karlsson
was not Lars
Karlson
but Lars
Johansson
, and
Lars’s son Johan in his turn was simply the son of Karl. Says Dr. George M. Stephenson of the University of Minnesota:
So it went from father to son. The very limited number of given names resulted in an unusually large number of
Johanssons, Anderssons, Peterssons, Olssons, Karlssons
and
Swenssons
. In the United States, of course, much confusion resulted in the delivery of mail, in legal transactions, and so forth. The similarity of names led to nicknaming to give distinction to individuals: for instance,
John Johnson
in the employ of Mr.
Green
was called John
Green
to distinguish him from another
John Johnson
; the
John
Carlson who had gone with the gold rush to California was known as
California
Carlson. The portly Albert Swanson was called Albert
Fat
Swanson, and the Peter Anderson whose house was set back some distance from the road was designated
Pete-in-the-Field
, whereas a man by the same name residing in the village was
Pete-in-the-Street
. John G.
Princell
, the religious leader, was the son of Magnus Gudmund-son, who changed his name to
Gummeson
in America. Princell took his name from Princeton, Ill.
39
The Norwegians and Danes have also made changes in their names — for example,
Bakken
has been translated as
Hill, Leebakken
has been shortened as
Lee
, and
Bruss, Knutson
and
Terjesen
have been transliterated as
Bruce, Newton
and
Toycen
(pro.
Tyson
)
40
— but on the whole those changes have been fewer than among the Swedish names, for many Norwegian patronymics lie well within the phonological patterns of American. Indeed, not a few of them are of English or Scotch origin, and even more are of German (or Swiss) or Dutch origin.
41
The names of the Finns need a more extensive overhauling in this country. Some of them are translated,
e.g., Mäki
into
Hill, Jarvi
into
Lake, Unsijärvi
into
Newlake, Joki
into
River
(
s
),
Hahti
into
Bay, Tuisku
into
Storm, Talvi
into
Winter
(
s
), and
Metsä
into
Forest
or
Forrest
; others are transliterated, so that
Laine, e.g.
, becomes
Lane, Hämäläinen
becomes
Hamlin, Paatalo
becomes
Pat-low
, and
Hartikainen
becomes
Hartman
; and others are abbreviated,
e.g., Peijariniemi
to
Niemi, Hakomäki
to
Maki
or
Mackey; Saarikoski
to
Koski
, and
Höyhtyä
to
Hoyt. Lähteenmäki
(spring hill) may be abbreviated to
Mäki
and then translated into
Hill. Pitkäjärvi
(long
lake) may be abbreviated to
Järvi
, and then changed to
Jarvis
or translated into
Lake. Pulkka
and
Pulkkinen
are often changed to
Polk
. At least 20% of the Finns bear Swedish surnames, and not infrequently a Finn makes a surname for himself, in the ancient Swedish manner, by adding
-son
to his father’s given name. Thus, the son of
Jaakko
becomes
Jackson
and the son of
Antti
becomes
Anderson
. The fact that the Finnish
p
has a sound somewhere between the English
b
and
p
and the Finnish
t
a sound somewhere between the English
t
and
d
is responsible for other changes. Thus, when a Finn named
Pelto
gives his name, it may be written down
Beldo
, and like the German
Schneiders
who became
Snyders
he may decide to retain the “American” form.
42