How Do You Say Your Name?
Miller, Moeller, and Mueller were all pronounced the same when I was a
child in the 1940s and 1950s. The name Tangeman began with the sound of
tang and Luedeke started with the sound of “Lee.” Topp and Poppe sounded
like “Tupp” and “Puppy” and Bruns sounded like “Broons.” These names as
well as other names in New Bremen have changed the way they sound and I
wonder why. The change in pronunciation of names in New Bremen seems to have
started in the 1970s and may be an attempt of Americanization.
Typically, when German names have been Americanized, the spelling has changed
to retain the sound of the name. An example of this might be Kohl to
Cole or Braun to Brown. The opposite has happened in New Bremen.
The spelling of the German name has been retained and the pronunciation has
changed! That is why we now have Millers and Moellers and Muellers with
each vowel taking the English sound. This pattern of Americanization loses the sound of the
name. The German language has specific rules of pronunciation resulting
in German words sounding different from English words. There are
special rules to pronounce the various letter combinations in German such as
the diphthongs ai, au, ei, eu and double vowels aa, ee, oo. In German
there is also the umlaut that modifies certain vowels and produces a sound
that is impossible to spell in English. The umlaut refers to the two
little dots over the vowel that is being modified. Originally the
umlaut was an “e” written sideways over the vowel and represented a change to
the sound of the letter. The modified vowels can be a, o, and u.
To pronounce these vowels with umlauts it is necessary to get your lips,
tongue, and teeth in the position to the sound “ah”, “oh”, or “oo”, but in
that position say “ee” instead. There are no sounds like this in
English and this may represent some of the change in pronunciation.
Names like Luedeke, Ruedebusch, and Mueller had an umlaut over the “u” and
required the German pronunciation. English script and typewriters do
not have umlauts and thus the “u” was followed by an “e” and eventually the
way we say the name has changed. The Americanization of the names may also be due to the absence of the
spoken German language over the past three to four decades. German was
not taught in the public school in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Most of
our grandparents spoke German and it was quite common that German was the
first language in the home in the early part of the century. My mother
learned to speak German when she married my father and moved to the family
farm with his parents in the 1930s. Even the family dog “Pete” only
responded to German commands. Paul Lietz often told the story about his
first grade experience in the 1920s and his inability to speak English.
His teacher pretended not to understand his pleas in German to go home, thus
he spent many hours looking out of the schoolhouse window and crying. I remember hearing German spoken at family gatherings. The
family often switched to German when they did not want the children to
understand what they were saying. My cousin, Edythe (Conradi) Henschen,
often served as translator because she had learned German from her
grandmother. I also remember many people in the 1950s greeting Marge (Scheer)
Howell at the IGA in German. But the 1950s also brought a decline in the interest of a second
language in New Bremen. There was an increase in jobs, prosperity,
births after the war and an increase in the Americanization of the
children. We read books about Dick, Jane, and Sally and there was no
hint of ethnic heritage. It was not until the racial unrest of the
sixties and the emerging black pride that led to a re-examination of cultural
heritage and our German pride. The New Bremen Historic Association,
Bremenfest, and Octoberfest in Minster are examples of this. We still
have many German names in this area in spite of how we say them. There
are some deeper qualities, though, that I admire. The well manicured
lawns and fields, everything neatly in its place, pride in a job well done
and help to those who need it. These characteristics will outlast the
superficiality of names. Oh, by the way, my name is "Con-rah-dee",
what’s yours? [Genevieve
Conradi] |