Louis Weichmann

[STS Lincolnite]

(02-08-2015 03:26 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  They also mess up the English TH sound pronouncing it as an English T.

My Great Grandfather was a German immigrant and so my Grandfather spoke German. Even though born here, he spoke as Bill described above. When we were kids we would always laugh when he would call the number 3 "tree". It should also be noted that, similar to the many variant English accents, there are a number of German dialects that can be quite different. I remember my Grandfather speaking one time to German visitor and even though they both spoke German, they spoke different dialects and had difficulty conversing. I am sure this could also account for different pronunciations to some degree.

Back to the "correct" pronunciation. My surname is Schroeder. In America you will hear it with the "oe" having a "long a" sound (as my family utilizes) or the "oe" having a "long o" sound. No one can tell me my pronunciation is incorrect because it is what my family uses. But in my research, it is likely that neither the "long a" or the "long o" would be historically correct. When I visited relatives in Germany and Belgium near where my family emigrated from, they pronounced it more like "Schroyder". That's not exactly right either - it was hard to hear correctly and wrap my tongue around.

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(02-08-2015 03:26 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  I believe that Ed Steers refers to Weichmann's name being correctly Wiechmann in Blood on the Moon.

I seem to remember that too, but I think Ed was speaking as to what was historically correct. As I posted above, that is the way the rest of his family spelled it so would be historically correct. But what is truly correct, to me anyway, is how a single individual chooses to spell and use their surname (same goes for individual choice of pronunciation, as my personal example in a previous post). And for LJW, at least from the point of the assassination onward, he chose Weichmann.

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(02-08-2015 03:36 PM)Rogerm Wrote:  You could maybe say that the German "ch" sound is halfway between our "k" and "sh" sounds.

I think that is well described. Much the same as with my surname. I think a good description of my German/Belgian relatives' pronunciation (to my ear anyway) would have the "oe" somewhere between the English "long a" and "long o".