Contents
-SUBJECT INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921.
Page 331
Weber, Weaver; Bucher, Booker; Vogelgesang, Birdsong; Sonntag, Sunday, and so on. It is not unusual for some members of a family to translate the patronymic while others leave it unchanged. Thus in Pennsylvania (and no doubt elsewhere) there are
Carpenters and
Zimmermans of the same blood. A Frenchman named
LeRoi settled in the Mohawk Valley in the early eighteenth century; today his descendants are variously named
Leroy, Larraway and
King. Partial translations are also encountered,
e. g., Studebaker from
Studebecker, and
Reindollar from
Rheinthaler, and radical shortenings,
e. g., Swiler from
Lebenschweiler, Kirk from
Kirkeslager, and
Castle (somewhat fantastically) from
Katzenellenbogen. The same processes show themselves in the changes undergone by the names of the newer immigrants. The Hollanders in Michigan often have to submit to translations of their surnames. Thus
Hoogsteen becomes
Highstone, Veldhuis becomes
Fieldhouse, Huisman becomes
Houseman, Prins becomes
Prince, Kuiper becomes
Cooper, Dykhuis becomes
Dykehouse, Konig becomes
King, Werkman becomes
Workman, Nieuwhuis becomes
Newhouse, and
Christiaanse becomes
Christians. Similarly the Greek
Triantafyllopoulos (signifying
rose) is often turned into the English
Rose, Giannopoulos becomes
Johnson, and
Demetriades becomes
Jameson. So, too,
Constantinopoulos is shortened to
Constant or
Constantine, Athanasios to
Nathan or
Athan, Pappadakis, Pappadopoulos or
Pappademetriou to
Pappas. Transliteration also enters into the matter, as in the change from
Mylonas to
Miller, from
Demopoulos to
DeMoss, and from
Christides to
Christie. 22 And so, by one route or another, the Polish
Wiikiewicz becomes
Wilson, the Scandinavian
Knutson becomes
Newton, the Bohemian
Bohumil becomes
Godfrey, and the Bohemian
Kovár and the Russian
Kuznetzov become
Smith. Some curious examples are occasionally encountered, particularly among the Italians of the big cities. The late James E.
March, Republican leader of the Third Assembly District in New York, was originally
Antonio Maggio. Paul Kelly, leader of the Longshoremen’s Union, was
Paolo Vaccarelli. One
Alessandro Smiraglia has become
Sandy Smash, Francesco Napoli is