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Spelling Variants in the Northern Rheinland (view source)
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Sooner or later every family history researcher will come across spellings in documents that deviate from the standard. However, such spellings do not mean that the scribe ‘did not know how to spell.’ In this article, we look at a few spellings from Wesel, which is in the Lower Rhine (northern Rheinland) area in Germany. The linguistic situation in the Lower Rhine has been very complicated. In past centuries, German, Dutch, and a local, Low German dialect have been used. Click here for an article on the [ | Sooner or later every family history researcher will come across spellings in documents that deviate from the standard. However, such spellings do not mean that the scribe ‘did not know how to spell.’ In this article, we look at a few spellings from Wesel, which is in the Lower Rhine (northern Rheinland) area in Germany. The linguistic situation in the Lower Rhine has been very complicated. In past centuries, German, Dutch, and a local, Low German dialect have been used. Click here for an article on the [[The_Low_German_Language_in_German_Research|Low German language in German research]] or here for [[Languages_in_the_Lower_Rhine_Area_of_Germany|Languages in the Lower Rhine Area of Germany.]]This situation has caused an interesting linguistic situation. | ||
<br>German, as well as English, has both long and short vowels. For centuries, how to spell the long vowels has vexed writers and it has been only recently (within the last 200 years or so!) that a standard has been agreed upon. Before that time (and sometimes later, especially in dialects) writers used a variety of devices to indicate long vowels. In Modern English, one way to indicate a long in to add an ‘e’ at the end of a monosyllabic word, e.g. hat/hate, kit/kite and so on. Other languages handle the problem differently; some languages double the vowel, others put another vowel or ‘h’ after the vowel in question. Most use a combination of devices, however. | <br>German, as well as English, has both long and short vowels. For centuries, how to spell the long vowels has vexed writers and it has been only recently (within the last 200 years or so!) that a standard has been agreed upon. Before that time (and sometimes later, especially in dialects) writers used a variety of devices to indicate long vowels. In Modern English, one way to indicate a long in to add an ‘e’ at the end of a monosyllabic word, e.g. hat/hate, kit/kite and so on. Other languages handle the problem differently; some languages double the vowel, others put another vowel or ‘h’ after the vowel in question. Most use a combination of devices, however. | ||
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<br>Some other spelling variations appear in the records. ''Kynt ''and ''Kynder ''for ‘Kind’ and ‘Kinder.’ The letter ‘y’ can alternate with ‘i’ in many instances in many languages. ''Dochter ''and ''dat ''are typical Low German/Dutch words for German ‘Tochter’ and ‘das.’ | <br>Some other spelling variations appear in the records. ''Kynt ''and ''Kynder ''for ‘Kind’ and ‘Kinder.’ The letter ‘y’ can alternate with ‘i’ in many instances in many languages. ''Dochter ''and ''dat ''are typical Low German/Dutch words for German ‘Tochter’ and ‘das.’ | ||
<br>These spellings in and of themselves should cause no problem to the German researcher. But since the handwriting in and quality of these particular documents are poor, the spellings add to the difficulty in deciphering the document. If the researcher knows these variations, then the deciphering of the documents becomes much easier. <br> | <br>These spellings in and of themselves should cause no problem to the German researcher. But since the handwriting in and quality of these particular documents are poor, the spellings add to the difficulty in deciphering the document. If the researcher knows these variations, then the deciphering of the documents becomes much easier. <br> | ||
[[Category:Rheinland]] | [[Category:Rheinland]] | ||