ridiculous and weird surname

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Re: Ridiculous and weird surnames

Postby MillMaths » 2012-03-11, 19:26

ˈbøːnər

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Re: Ridiculous and weird surnames

Postby linguoboy » 2012-03-11, 20:04

Sophie wrote:ˈbøːnər

What is that, the Norwegian pronunciation?
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Bao » 2012-03-11, 21:00

In German it should be
Boehner, Boener [ˈbøːnɐ]
Boener, Bohner ['boːnɐ]

.. but putting an eɪ̯ in there seems rather, uhm, more embarrassing than actually saying boner.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Spaigelploatje » 2012-03-12, 3:24

Bao wrote:In German it should be
Boehner, Boener [ˈbøːnɐ]
Boener, Bohner ['boːnɐ]

.. but putting an eɪ̯ in there seems rather, uhm, more embarrassing than actually saying boner.

Indeed, if I'd see the surname Boehner (in an other country) I'd pronunciate it the German way.. Just because the surname seems German to me I'd use the German pronunciation.

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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby linguoboy » 2012-03-12, 3:37

Bao wrote:In German it should be
Boehner, Boener [ˈbøːnɐ]
Boener, Bohner ['boːnɐ]

.. but putting an eɪ̯ in there seems rather, uhm, more embarrassing than actually saying boner.

Why? This is SOP in the part of the Midwest where I was brought up. For instance, a major thoroughfare on the way to my grandparents' house was "Spoede Road", pronounced ['spɛɪ̯diɪ̯]. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced that many of these names weren't pronounced with [eː] when their bearers first came over here. After all, unrounding is extremely common in dialectal German, but the prestige of the standard is such that it's generally not reflected in spelling.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby JackFrost » 2012-03-12, 3:56

linguoboy wrote:
JackFrost wrote:
ILuvEire wrote:There's always the oft made fun of example in America: Boehner. It looks like boner, but it's pronounced bay-ner.

Speak for yourself. I say "boner".

Image

Actually I didn't know how to say it, so I try to say it as if it's German.

I'd never thought it would be "bayner". At least I know now.

EDIT: I guess I should've written "böner". My bad.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Dormouse559 » 2012-03-12, 4:02

linguoboy wrote:
JackFrost wrote:
ILuvEire wrote:There's always the oft made fun of example in America: Boehner. It looks like boner, but it's pronounced bay-ner.

Speak for yourself. I say "boner".

Image
Or at least someone who doesn't pay much attention to US politics (not a good or bad thing, just saying), considering how much John Boehner has been in the news over the past two years.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby linguoboy » 2012-03-12, 4:31

Dormouse559 wrote:Or at least someone who doesn't pay much attention to US politics (not a good or bad thing, just saying), considering how much John Boehner has been in the news over the past two years.

Honestly, most of the people I know who say "boner" actually know full well how it should be pronounced and are just "making a point" (i.e. exhibiting their partisanship in the most petty and puerile manner possible).
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Sol Invictus » 2012-03-12, 5:44

linguoboy wrote:
Sol Invictus wrote:God's child

I wonder if this wasn't a name originally given to a foundling. Examples of such names from other languages are Casadio "House [of] God" (Italian) and Deulofeu "God made him" (Catalan).

It was listed among of surnames possibly chosen to ridicule the peasants in the source I took it from. In Latvian, if you say somebody is god given (though not child of god) it means that one is not very phisically/mentally capable of much

As for foundlings - I think I remember reading that in historical cases they were named after season/time of year they were found in, one I remember for sure was "Spring", in recent casesthe doctors sometimes pick names that have to do with luck for children left on street, from those a boy was named "The lucky one".

Out of curiosity I looked it in historical press from pre-WWII
Apparently placenames:
"Rainbow" found at the building of corporation "Rainbow" (I think it is girl university fraternity)
"Oak hill" found by house named "Oak hills"
"Flower hill" - didn't say so, but it is uncommon surname

Might be weather conditions/season when child was found:
"North" - two such, one found on cold January day
"Frost"
"Winter" - as directed by note on the child, but he was born in December

Most likely just common surnames
"Grain"
"Pine"
"Shore"
"Bush"
"Valley"
"Swamp" (this one was left on a doorstep in Riga, not found in swamp, and named against abandoner's wishes, not sure why)

Seem random
"Mustard"
"Shield"
"Sun ray"

There were some untranslatable/foreign surnames, which might be either have been given per abandoner's wishes or just to have common surname. One of these had root "Free", so might be referring to legal status of the child

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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Car » 2012-03-12, 10:27

Bao wrote:In German it should be
Boehner, Boener [ˈbøːnɐ]
Boener, Bohner ['boːnɐ]

.. but putting an eɪ̯ in there seems rather, uhm, more embarrassing than actually saying boner.


Agreed, I'd never have guesseed anyone would pronounce it that way.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Sol Invictus » 2012-03-12, 10:53

Reminds me an old British sitcom - It's pronounced Bouquet, not Bucket

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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby ILuvEire » 2012-03-13, 6:20

*shrug* That's how we pronounce the ö in completely assimilated words in the USA. Dunno how they do it in the UK (or if they even have any assimilated German toponyms...)

There's a road around here called Koenig lane; it's pronounced /ˈkinɪŋ/, which came from /ˈkeɪnɪg/. I find it particularly funny, because if we were going to use an Anglicisation of the Hochdeutsch pronunciation, it'd be something like /ˈkɚɹnɪʃ/ :D
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby lumiel » 2012-03-13, 7:13

I guess I'd get some weird stares if I said [kø:nɪŋ] where you live... :mrgreen:
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby JackFrost » 2012-03-13, 7:40

ILuvEire wrote:*shrug* That's how we pronounce the ö in completely assimilated words in the USA. Dunno how they do it in the UK (or if they even have any assimilated German toponyms...)

There's a road around here called Koenig lane; it's pronounced /ˈkinɪŋ/, which came from /ˈkeɪnɪg/. I find it particularly funny, because if we were going to use an Anglicisation of the Hochdeutsch pronunciation, it'd be something like /ˈkɚɹnɪʃ/ :D

The idea of saying ö as [ei] is completely new to me and I'm come from a state that was heavily settled by the Germans (the Pennsylvanian Dutch). Using my English logic, I'd say ö as [o(ʊ)]. But then I had two years of German, I tend to say it as [ø] (or close to it). :?

lumiel wrote:I guess I'd get some weird stares if I said [kø:nɪŋ] where you live... :mrgreen:

Why would you say it as if it's Swedish? Surely you can say [g]. :?
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby lumiel » 2012-03-15, 10:48

JackFrost wrote:
lumiel wrote:I guess I'd get some weird stares if I said [kø:nɪŋ] where you live... :mrgreen:

Why would you say it as if it's Swedish? Surely you can say [g]. :?

Sure I can. It's just that [g] is not native to my first language so [ŋ] just comes out so much more naturally somehow.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby MillMaths » 2012-03-19, 13:15

Sol Invictus wrote:Reminds me an old British sitcom - It's pronounced Bouquet, not Bucket
If you mean "Keeping Up Appearances", it's not that old.

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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby linguoboy » 2012-03-19, 14:17

Sophie wrote:
Sol Invictus wrote:Reminds me an old British sitcom - It's pronounced Bouquet, not Bucket
If you mean "Keeping Up Appearances", it's not that old.

Half the board wasn't yet born when production ceased!
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby Dormouse559 » 2012-03-19, 18:52

Yet I still have fond memories of watching reruns on PBS.
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby linguoboy » 2012-03-19, 19:20

Dormouse559 wrote:Yet I still have fond memories of watching reruns on PBS.

And I have fond memories of watching Please Don't Eat the Daisies on UHF. Doesn't somehow make that programme not "old".
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Re: ridiculous and weird surname

Postby JackFrost » 2012-03-19, 20:50

Oh, how I miss Mrs. Slocombe and her pussy double-entendres.
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