Spelling Variants in German Documents

In this day and age of high literacy and standardization, we are used to, indeed expect, that what we see in print will be uniform. For example, we can look up words in dictionaries to find the ‘correct spelling.’ However, such has not always been the case. Centuries ago, there were no dictionaries available to dictate ‘correct spelling’ and most dictionaries that were available were designed to give definitions, not spelling. Most writers from the before the 18th century would have found the idea of a single spelling for any particular spelling rather odd. If several possible spelling variants are available, why should one be limited to only one choice? Early writers certainly took advantage of the many possibilities available to them. After all, variety is the spice of life. In modern German, the sound represented by the English word ‘I’ can be rendered by ‘ei, ai, ey,’ and ‘ay.’ Again, writers from previous centuries could and did use any of these to render the ‘I’ sound.

In this article we will look at spelling that deviate from standard modern German that appear fairly often genealogical documents. In the vast majority of cases, the variant spellings represent the same pronunciation as the standard form. We will not consider personal names, dialect forms, or words that have Latin endings, such as ‘Aprilis.’ (Click here to see articles on Low German and dialect basis of spelling in German). We will, however, consider some place names.
So, the researcher should not be alarmed, nor think the scribe ‘did not know how to spell’ when he encounters these variants.

Standard German     Variant

auf                           auff
bei                           bey, beÿ
-dorf                         -dorff
ein(en)                     ain(en)
Eltern                      Aeltern, Ältern
Freitag                     Freytag
geboren                   gebohren
getauft                     getaufft
heist                       heist
hiermit                    hiemit
Juli                         Julÿ
Juni                        Junÿ
Köln                       Cöln
Krefeld                   Crefeld
März                      Merz
Name                     Nahme
Oktober                  October
sein                       seyn, seÿn
sind                       seint
sind                       sint
tat                         that
tun                        thun
tot                         todt
untertan                unterthan
Vater                    Vatter

Often, very old verb forms appear. For example, today we spell ‘scheint,’ but you might find ‘scheinet,’ with an extra ‘e.’

This list will grow in time as the writer finds more variants to add.

Although the following is not a spelling variation, we mention it here:
gewesene geweste