Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
American Language Supplement 2 (83 page)
At the start, in all probability, these names were pronounced more or less correctly, but before long they acquired spelling pronunciations, and at present the
baugh
in them is usually
bow
, though in some instances it stops at the half-way point of
bock
, rhyming with
clock
. In other names the
ch
was changed to
k
forthwith, so that
Bloch
became
Block, Hoch
became
Hoke
, and
Koch
became
Cook
or
Coke
. In yet others it was changed to an
i
-sound, so that
Albrecht
became
Albright
, or to
x
, so that
Trechsler
became
Trexler
. And in still others the guttural
g
was changed to
y
, so that
Hollweg
became
Holloway
. To these Barker, in the Report of the Committee on Linguistic and National Stocks,
1
adds
Rock
and
Rugh
, both from
Rauch;
the membership rolls of a German parish in Maryland add
Upperco
from
Opferkuchen;
2
a list from the Valley of Virginia adds
Churchman
from
Kirchman
and
Newkirk
from
Neukirch
,
3
and one from Wisconsin adds
Slaght
for
Schlacht
.
4
The other common changes in German names are discussed in AL4
5
– the dropping of the umlaut,
e.g., Sanger
from
Sänger, Furst
from
Fürst, Lowe
from
Löwe, Warfel
from
Würfel, Burger
or
Berger
from
Bürger, Custer
from
Köster
,
6
Ohler
or
Oler
from
Oehler, Muller
from
Müller;
7
the change of
sch
to simple
s, e.g.,
Snyder
from
Schneider
1
and
Small
from
Schmal;
the dropping of the terminal
e, e.g., Keen
from
Kuhne, Lang
from
Lange;
the frequent changes of vowel,
e.g., Hayes
from
Heisse, Harman
from
Hermann, Lantz
from
Lentz, Spilman
from
Spielmann, Warner
from
Werner
, or of consonant,
e.g., Smith
from
Schmidt, Hite
from
Reid, Hood
from
Huth, Lowther
from
Lauter, Mitchell
from
Michel, Shriver
from
Schreiber;
the transliterations, sometimes involving other changes,
e.g., Cline
from
Klein, Bloom
from
Blum, Price
from
Preus, Eisenhower
from
Eisenhauer, Gates
from
Goetz, Hines
from
Heinz, Cole
from
Kohl, Kramer
from
Kraemer, Coon
from
Kuhn, Shane
from
Schön, Russell
from
Rössel, Saylor
from
Seiler, Frietchie
from
Fritsche, Lawrence
from
Lorenz, Early
from
Oehrle, Crouse
from
Kraus, Royce
from
Reuss, Coler
from
Kohler, Snead
from
Sniedt, Deeds
from
Dietz, Stine
from
Stein, Ewell
from
Uhl, Bowler
from
Bauer
, and the almost innumerable translations,
e.g., Wise
from
Weiss, Baker
from
Becker, Carpenter
from
Zimmerman, Friend
from
Freund, Green
from
Grun, Goodman
from
Gutmann, Young
from
Jung, Hunter
from
Jaeger, Booker
from
Bucher, Bishop
from
Bischof, Brewer
from
Brauer, Fox
from
Fuchs, Brown
from
Braun, Weaver
from
Weber, Stone
from
Stein, Slaughter
from
Schlachter, Wanamaker
from
Wannemacher, Miller
from
Müller; Long
from
Lang, Short
from
Kurtz, Newman
from
Neumann, Lewis
from
Ludwig, Sharp
from
Scharf, Taylor
from
Schneider, Shoemaker
from
Schumacher, Black
from
Schwarz
and Steel from Stahl.
2
The American tendency to add
s
to short British names, already noted in the cases of
Hayes, Brooks
and
Johns
, extended to names originally German, and there are examples in
Ames
from
Oehm, Richards
from
Reichardt, Bowers
from
Bauer
and
Sowers
from
Sauer
. In the somewhat decadent village of Potosi, Wis., Miss Baumann
3
has found a curious habit of preserving the original German
spellings, even when the pronunciation of names has changed greatly. Thus a man always called
Smith
still writes his name
Schmidt
, and one called
Bryan
writes it
Broihahn
.
Donald Herbert Yoder has offered the plausible theory that many of the changes in Pennsylvania German names, making them different from the standard German forms, were not produced by pressure from the English-speaking population but by phonetic peculiarities of the dialects spoken by the immigrants, and especially by the Palatinate dialect that gradually engulfed all the others. Yoder calls this a Dutchifying of names, and says that “the immigrants and their descendants simply learned to spell their surnames as they themselves pronounced them.” “Our family names,” he goes on,
bear the same relation to the High German forms as do many of our dialect words. That is to say, they show the same vowel and consonant shifts.… On a visit through Berks, Schuylkill, Dauphin and Northumberland counties, visiting some of our older ceneteries, I took particular notice of the name changes. Often in the same cemetery tombstones stood side by side bearing the High German and the Dutchified forms of the name, as for example
Hertlein
and
Hartlein
in the Oley Reformed Cemetery at Spangsville, Berks county.
1
Yoder lists twelve common vowel changes and seven consonant changes, as follows:
a
to
o
, as in
Spahn
to
Spohn, Graff
to
Grove, Rahn
to
Rhone
, and
Fahrni
to
Forney
.
au
to
aw
, as in
Lauffer
to
Lawfer
and
Kaufmann
to
Coffman
.
au
to
o
, as in
Stauffer
to
Stover
.
e
to
a
, as in
Berger
to
Barger, Bernhardt
to
Barnhart
, and
Spengler
to
Spangler
.
ei
to
oi
, as in
Meyer
to
Moyer
,
2
Beyer
to
Boyer
, and
High
(originally
Hoch
) to
Hoy
.
eu
to
ei
, as in
Kreuzer
to
Kreitzer, Kraeutler
to
Kreidler
, and
Baeumler
to
Bimeler
.
i
to
a
, as in
Hirschberger
to
Harshbarger
and
Hirtzell
to
Hartzell
.
i
to
e
, as in
Pfirsching
to
Pershing
.
oe
to
e
, as in
Hoeppler
to
Hepler
and
Goetz
to
Getz
.
ue
to
e
, as in
Zuericher
to
Zercher
.
ue
to
ie
, as in
Kuefer
to
Kieffer
.
ue
to
i
, as in
Guengerich
to
Gingerich, Buechsler
to
Bixler
, and
Nuessli
to
Nissley
.
b
to
v
, as in
Gruber
to
Gruver, Eberhart
to
Everhart
, and
Gerber
to
Garver
.
g
to
k
or
k
to
g
, as in
Gintner
to
Kantner
and
Kreider
to
Greider
.
k
or
g
to
ng
, as in
Daenliker
to
Denlinger
and
Nafziger
to
Naftzinger
.
1
ig
to
ich
, as in
Neidig
to
Neidich
.
p
to
b
and
b
to
p
, as in
Pressler
to
Bressler
and
Bitsche
to
Peachy
.
pf
to
p
, as in
Stumpf
to
Stump, Pfeffer
to
Pepper, Pfaelzer
to
Pelzer
and
Pfaffenberger
to
Poffenberger
.
t
to
d
, as in
Tressler
to
Dressler, Jotter
to
Yoder
, and
Rautenbusch
to
Roudebush
.
In addition, Yoder notes the frequent change of names by interpolation, as in
Minnich
from
Muench
and
Yearick
from
Goerg
.
2
All these forces, sometimes working together and sometimes in opposition, have produced a great variety of forms. For example, the
Huber
family from which President Herbert Hoover descended has left progeny named not only
Hoover
, but also
Hoeber, Hover
, and
Hoofer
, and many preserve the original name of
Huber
. Whenever one of the Pennsylvania German families holds a reunion this diversity is as apparent as it is when the Knickerbocker
Van Kouwenhoven-Conovers
have a party. Many of the
Schwarzes
are now
Swartzes
and others are
Blacks
.
3
In Maryland there are
Kaelbers
who have become
Calvert
4
but others remain
Kaelber
. The name
Leipersberger
became
Leibelsperger, Leibensperger
and
Livelsberger
in Pennsylvania, and
Livelsberger, Livelsparger
and
Livenspire
in Ohio.
5
Pfoersching
became
Pfirsching
in western Pennsylvania, and then
Pershin
, and finally
Pershing
. Some of the
Knoches
became
Knoxes
and others became
Bones
or
Boones
. Some of the
Günthers
became
Gunthers
and others became
Ginters
. Among the descendants of the primeval
Kleins
are
Klines, Clines
and
Kleins
. Some of the latter-day
Schnaebelis
are
Snabelys
, others are
Snavelys
, and yet others are
Snabels
. “Whenever William Penn could translate a German name into a corresponding English one,” says an early chronicler,
6
“he did so in issuing patents for land in
Pennsylvania; thus the respectable
Carpenter
family in Lancaster are the descendants of a
Zimmerman
.” But
Zimmerman
is still a more common name in Pennsylvania than
Carpenter
. The
Allgeiger
family which settled in Maryland in the Eighteenth Century has left descendants named
Allgeier, Algeier, Allgier, Allgeyer, Allgire
and
Algire
. The
Bortz
offspring are
Borz, Portz
and
Ports
. Those of
Eltzroth
are
Elserote, Elseroad, Elserode, Elsrode
and
Elsroad
. Those of
Lautenschläger
are
Laudenslager, Lautenslager
and
Lautenschleger
.
1
It would be possible to compile an enormous catalogue of Americans of mark who have borne names originally German.
Pershing, Custer
and
Hoover
have been mentioned. George
Westinghouse
, the inventor of the air-brake, was the descendant of a Westphalian named
Wistinghausen
.
2
George W.
Crile
, the surgeon, descended from a German
Kreil
. Owen
Wister’s Ur-Grossvater
was a
Wüster
. The forefathers of the Hon. John W.
Bricker
lie in a Frederick, Md., churchyard under the names of
Brücker
or
Brücher
.
3
The evangelist Billy
Sunday
was the son of a Union soldier named
Sonntag
.
4
Buffalo Bill Cody’s actual surname was
Kothe
or
Köthe
.
5
Wendell L.
Willkie’s
father was a German named
Willcke
.
6
Dr. Frederick A.
Cook
, the arctic explorer, was the son of a German
Koch
. Lew
Dockstader
, the old-time minstrel, was born
Clapp
, and got his stage name from an earlier minstrel whose original name was
Dachstädter
. General W. S.
Rosecrans
, who lost the battle of Chickamauga, was a
Rosenkrantz
. William
Wirt
, candidate for the Presidency in 1832, was a
Wörth
. The
Rockefellers
were originally
Roggenfelders
. General Nicholas
Herkimer
, killed in the Revolution, was the son of a
Herchheimer
born near Heidelberg in 1700.
7
The name of Peter Stenger
Grosscup
, once a celebrated Federal judge, was originally
Grosskopf
.
8
Daniel
Boone
may have been the
grandson of a
Böhn
.
1
The William
Rittenhouse
who was the first American paper-maker and grandfather of the first American astronomer arrived in Pennsylvania by way of Holland as William
Rittinghuysen
, originally the German Wilhelm
Rittershausen
.
2
Pal
Moore
, the lightweight pugilist, who died in 1943, started out in life as Paul Walter
von Frandke
.
3