Minor Differences

Minor Differences—Various minor differences remain to be noticed. One is a divergence in orthography due to differences in pronunciation.Specialty,aluminumandalarmoffer examples. In English they arespeciality,aluminiumandalarum, thoughalarmis also an alternative form.Specialty, in America, is always accented on the first syllable;speciality, in England, on the third. The result is two distinct words, though their meaning is identical. Howaluminium, in America, lost its fourth syllable I have been unable to determine, but all American authorities now make italuminumand all English authorities stick toaluminium.

Another difference in usage is revealed in the spelling and pluralization of foreign words. Such words, when they appear in an English publication, even a newspaper, almost invariably bear the correct accents, but in the United States it is almost as invariably the rule to omit these accents, save in publications of considerable pretensions. This is notably the case withcafécrêpe,début,débutante,portière,levée,éclat,fête,régime,rôle,soirée,protégé,élite,mêlée,tête-à-têteandrépertoire. It is rare to encounter any of them with its proper accents in an American newspaper; it is rare to encounter them unaccented in an English[Pg265]newspaper. This slaughter of the accents, it must be obvious, greatly aids the rapid naturalization of a newcomer. It loses much of its foreignness at once, and is thus easier to absorb.Dépôtwould have been a long time working its way into American had it remaineddépôt, but immediately it became plaindepotit got in. The process is constantly going on. I often encounternaïvetéwithout its accents, and evendéshabille,hofbräu,señorandrésumé.Cañonwas changed tocanyonyears ago, and the cases ofexposé,divorcée,schmierkäse,employéandmatinéeare familiar. At least one American dignitary of learning, Brander Matthews, has openly defended and even advocated this clipping of accents. In speaking ofnaïfandnaïveté, which he welcomes because "we have no exact equivalent for either word," he says: "But they will need to shed their accents and to adapt themselves somehow to the traditions of our orthography."[34]He goes on: "After we have decided that the foreign word we find knocking at the doors of English [he really means American, as the context shows] is likely to be useful, we must fit it for naturalization by insisting that it shall shed its accents, if it has any; that it shall change its spelling, if this is necessary; that it shall modify its pronunciation, if this is not easy for us to compass; and that it shall conform to all our speech-habits, especially in the formation of the plural."[35]

In this formation of the plural, as elsewhere, English regards the precedents and American makes new ones. All the English authorities that I have had access to advocate retaining the foreign plurals of most of the foreign words in daily use,e. g.,sanatoria,appendices,virtuosi,formulaeandlibretti. But American usage favors plurals of native cut, and theJournalof the American Medical Association goes so far as to approvecurriculumsandseptums.Banditti, in place ofbandits, would seem an affectation in America, and so wouldsopraniforsopranos[Pg266]andsoliforsolos.[36]The last two are common in England. Both English and American labor under the lack of native plurals for the two everyday titles,MisterandMissus. In the written speech, and in the more exact forms of the spoken speech, the French plurals,MessieursandMesdames, are used, but in the ordinary spoken speech, at least in America, they are avoided by circumlocution. WhenMessieurshas to be spoken it is almost invariably pronouncedmessers, and in the same wayMesdamesbecomesmez-dames, with the first syllable rhyming withsezand the second, which bears the accent, withgames. In place ofMesdamesa more natural form,Madames, seems to be gaining ground in America. Thus, I lately foundDames du Sacré Coeurtranslated asMadames of the Sacred Heartin a Catholic paper of wide circulation,[37]and the form is apparently used by American members of the community.

In capitalization the English are a good deal more conservative than we are. They invariably capitalize such terms asGovernment,Prime MinisterandSociety, when used as proper nouns; they capitalizePress,Pulpit,Bar, etc., almost as often. In America a movement against this use of capitals appeared during the latter part of the eighteenth century. In Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independencenatureandcreator, and evengodare in lower case.[38]During the 20's and 30's of the succeeding century, probably as a result of French influence, the disdain of capitals went so far that the days of the week were often spelled with small initial letters, and evenMr.becamemr. Curiously enough, the most striking exhibition of this tendency of late years is offered by an English work of the highest scholarship, the Cambridge History of English Literature. It uses the lower case for all titles, evenbaronandcolonelbefore proper names, and also avoids capitals in such[Pg267]words aspresbyterian,catholicandchristian, and in the second parts of such terms as Westminsterabbeyand Atlanticocean.

Finally, there are certain differences in punctuation. The English, as everyone knows, put a comma after the street number of a house, making it, for example,34, St. James street. They usually insert a comma instead of a period after the hour when giving the time in figures,e. g.,9,27, and omit the0when indicating less than 10 minutes,e. g.,8,7instead of8.07. They do not use the period as the mark of the decimal, but employ a dot at the level of the upper dot of a colon, as in3·1416. They cling to the hyphen in such words asto-dayandto-night; it begins to disappear in America. They useanbeforehotelandhistorical; Kipling has even used it beforehydraulic;[39]American usage prefersa. But these small differences need not be pursued further.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Fowler & Fowler, in The King's English, p. 23, say that "when it was proposed to borrow from France what we [i. e., the English] now know as theclosure, it seemed certain for some time that with the thing we should borrow the name,clôture; a press campaign resulted inclosure." But in theCongressional Recordit is stillcloture, though with the loss of the circumflex accent, and this form is generally retained by American newspapers.[2]Richard P. Read: The American Language,New York Sun, March 7, 1918.[3]To shewhas completely disappeared from American, but it still survives in English usage.Cf.TheShewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, by George Bernard Shaw. The word, of course, is pronouncedshow, notshoe.Shrew, a cognate word, still retains the early pronunciation ofshrowin English, but is now phonetic in American.[4]Cf.Lounsbury; English Spelling and Spelling Reform; p. 209et seq.Johnson even advocatedtranslatour,emperour,oratourandhorrour. But, like most other lexicographers, he was often inconsistent, and the conflict betweeninteriourandexterior, andanteriourandposterior, in his dictionary, laid him open to much mocking criticism.[5]In a letter to Miss Stephenson, Sept. 20, 1768, he exhibited the use of his new alphabet. The letter is to be found in most editions of his writings.[6]R. C. Williams: Our Dictionaries; New York, 1890, p. 30.[7]Nomenclature of Diseases and Condition, prepared by direction of the Surgeon General; Washington, 1916.[8]American Medical Association Style Book; Chicago, 1915.[9]Democratic Review, March, 1856.[10]VideEnglish Spelling and Spelling Reform, p. 229.[11]A Critical Review of the Orthography of Dr. Webster's Series of Books ...; New York, 1831.[12]Good English; p. 137et seq.[13]Studies in English; pp. 64-5.[14]Americanisms and Briticisms; New York, 1892, p. 37.[15]Authors' & Printers' Dictionary ... an attempt to codify the best typographical practices of the present day, by F. Howard Collins; 4th ed., revised by Horace Hart; London, 1912.[16]Horace Hart: Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford: 23rd ed.; London, 1914. I am informed by Mr. Humphrey Davy, of theLondon Times, that, with one or two minor exceptions, theTimesobserves the rules laid down in this book.[17]Cassell's English Dictionary, ed. by John Williams, 37th thousand: London, 1908. This work is based upon the larger Encyclopaedic Dictionary, also edited by Williams.[18]Caliberis now the official spelling of the United States Army.Cf.Description and Rules for the Management of the U. S. Rifle,Caliber.30 Model of 1903; Washington, 1915. Butcalibreis still official in England as appears by the Field Service Pocket-Book used in the European war (London, 1914, p. viii.)[19]Even worse inconsistencies are often encountered. Thusenquiryappears on p. 3 of the Dardanelles Commission's First Report; London, 1917; butinquiringis on p. 1.[20]Mere stupid copying may perhaps be added. An example of it appears on a map printed with a pamphlet entitled Conquest and Kultur, compiled by two college professors and issued by the Creel press bureau (Washington, 1918). On this map, borrowed from an English periodical calledNew Europewithout correction,annexis spelledannexe. In the same way English spellings often appear in paragraphs reprinted from the English newspapers. As compensation in the case ofannexeI findannexon pages 11 and 23 of A Report on the Treatment by the Enemy of British Prisoners of War Behind the Firing Lines in France and Belgium; Miscellaneous No. 7 (1918). When used as a verb the English always spell the wordannex.Annexeis only the noun form.[21]VideMatthews: Americanisms and Briticisms, pp. 33-34.[22]Handbook of Style in Use at the Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass.; Boston, 1913.[23]Notes for the Guidance of Authors; New York, 1918.[24]Preparation of Manuscript, Proof Reading, and Office Style at J. S. Cushing Company's; Norwood, Mass., n. d.[25]Style Book, a Compilation of Rules Governing Executive, Congressional and Departmental Printing, Including theCongressional Record, ed. of Feb., 1917; Washington, 1917. A copy of this style book is in the proof-room of nearly every American daily newspaper and its rules are generally observed.[26]Accounts of earlier proposals of reform in English spelling are to be found in Sayce's Introduction to the Science of Language, vol. i, p. 330et seq., and White's Everyday English, p. 152et seq.The best general treatment of the subject is in Lounsbury's English Spelling and Spelling Reform; New York, 1909.[27]Its second list was published on January 28, 1908, its third on January 25, 1909, and its fourth on March 24, 1913, and since then there have been several others. But most of its literature is devoted to the 12 words and to certain reformed spellings of Webster, already in general use.[28]TheLiterary Digestis perhaps the most important. Its usage is shown by the Funk & Wagnalls Company Style Card; New York, 1914.[29]Tyrewas still in use in America in the 70's. It will be found on p. 150 of Mark Twain's Roughing It; Hartford, 1872.[30]VidetheCongressional Recordfor March 26, 1918, p. 4374. It is curious to note that the French themselves are having difficulties with this and the cognate words. The finalehas been dropped frombiplan,monoplanandhydroplan, but they seem to be unable to dispense with it inaéroplane.[31]For example, in Teepee Neighbors, by Grace Coolidge; Boston, 1917, p. 220; Duty and Other Irish Comedies, by Seumas O'Brien; New York, 1916, p. 52; Salt, by Charles G. Norris; New York, 1918, p. 135, and The Ideal Guest, by Wyndham Lewis,Little Review, May, 1918, p. 3. O'Brien is an Irishman and Lewis an Englishman, but the printer in each case was American. I findallright, as one word but with twoll's, in Diplomatic Correspondence With Belligerent Governments, etc., European War, No. 4; Washington, 1918, p. 214.[32]VideHow to Lengthen Our Ears, by Viscount Harberton; London, 1917, p. 28.[33]Krapp: Modern English, p. 181.[34]Why Not Speak Your Own Language? inDelineator, Nov., 1917, p. 12.[35]I once noted an extreme form of this naturalization in a leading Southern newspaper, theBaltimore Sun. In an announcement of the death of an American artist it reported that he had studied at theBozartin Paris. In New York I have also encounteredchaufer.[36]Now and then, of course, a contrary tendency asserts itself. For example, the plural ofmedium, in the sense of advertising medium, is sometimes mademediaby advertising men.VidetheEditor and Publisher, May 11, 1918.[37]Irish World, June 26, 1918.[38]VideThe Declaration of Independence, by Herbert Friedenwald, New York, 1904, p. 262et seq.[39]Now and then the English flirt with the American usage. Hart says, for example, that "originally the cover of the large Oxford Dictionary had 'ahistorical.'" But "anhistorical" now appears there.

[1]Fowler & Fowler, in The King's English, p. 23, say that "when it was proposed to borrow from France what we [i. e., the English] now know as theclosure, it seemed certain for some time that with the thing we should borrow the name,clôture; a press campaign resulted inclosure." But in theCongressional Recordit is stillcloture, though with the loss of the circumflex accent, and this form is generally retained by American newspapers.

[2]Richard P. Read: The American Language,New York Sun, March 7, 1918.

[3]To shewhas completely disappeared from American, but it still survives in English usage.Cf.TheShewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, by George Bernard Shaw. The word, of course, is pronouncedshow, notshoe.Shrew, a cognate word, still retains the early pronunciation ofshrowin English, but is now phonetic in American.

[4]Cf.Lounsbury; English Spelling and Spelling Reform; p. 209et seq.Johnson even advocatedtranslatour,emperour,oratourandhorrour. But, like most other lexicographers, he was often inconsistent, and the conflict betweeninteriourandexterior, andanteriourandposterior, in his dictionary, laid him open to much mocking criticism.

[5]In a letter to Miss Stephenson, Sept. 20, 1768, he exhibited the use of his new alphabet. The letter is to be found in most editions of his writings.

[6]R. C. Williams: Our Dictionaries; New York, 1890, p. 30.

[7]Nomenclature of Diseases and Condition, prepared by direction of the Surgeon General; Washington, 1916.

[8]American Medical Association Style Book; Chicago, 1915.

[9]Democratic Review, March, 1856.

[10]VideEnglish Spelling and Spelling Reform, p. 229.

[11]A Critical Review of the Orthography of Dr. Webster's Series of Books ...; New York, 1831.

[12]Good English; p. 137et seq.

[13]Studies in English; pp. 64-5.

[14]Americanisms and Briticisms; New York, 1892, p. 37.

[15]Authors' & Printers' Dictionary ... an attempt to codify the best typographical practices of the present day, by F. Howard Collins; 4th ed., revised by Horace Hart; London, 1912.

[16]Horace Hart: Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford: 23rd ed.; London, 1914. I am informed by Mr. Humphrey Davy, of theLondon Times, that, with one or two minor exceptions, theTimesobserves the rules laid down in this book.

[17]Cassell's English Dictionary, ed. by John Williams, 37th thousand: London, 1908. This work is based upon the larger Encyclopaedic Dictionary, also edited by Williams.

[18]Caliberis now the official spelling of the United States Army.Cf.Description and Rules for the Management of the U. S. Rifle,Caliber.30 Model of 1903; Washington, 1915. Butcalibreis still official in England as appears by the Field Service Pocket-Book used in the European war (London, 1914, p. viii.)

[19]Even worse inconsistencies are often encountered. Thusenquiryappears on p. 3 of the Dardanelles Commission's First Report; London, 1917; butinquiringis on p. 1.

[20]Mere stupid copying may perhaps be added. An example of it appears on a map printed with a pamphlet entitled Conquest and Kultur, compiled by two college professors and issued by the Creel press bureau (Washington, 1918). On this map, borrowed from an English periodical calledNew Europewithout correction,annexis spelledannexe. In the same way English spellings often appear in paragraphs reprinted from the English newspapers. As compensation in the case ofannexeI findannexon pages 11 and 23 of A Report on the Treatment by the Enemy of British Prisoners of War Behind the Firing Lines in France and Belgium; Miscellaneous No. 7 (1918). When used as a verb the English always spell the wordannex.Annexeis only the noun form.

[21]VideMatthews: Americanisms and Briticisms, pp. 33-34.

[22]Handbook of Style in Use at the Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass.; Boston, 1913.

[23]Notes for the Guidance of Authors; New York, 1918.

[24]Preparation of Manuscript, Proof Reading, and Office Style at J. S. Cushing Company's; Norwood, Mass., n. d.

[25]Style Book, a Compilation of Rules Governing Executive, Congressional and Departmental Printing, Including theCongressional Record, ed. of Feb., 1917; Washington, 1917. A copy of this style book is in the proof-room of nearly every American daily newspaper and its rules are generally observed.

[26]Accounts of earlier proposals of reform in English spelling are to be found in Sayce's Introduction to the Science of Language, vol. i, p. 330et seq., and White's Everyday English, p. 152et seq.The best general treatment of the subject is in Lounsbury's English Spelling and Spelling Reform; New York, 1909.

[27]Its second list was published on January 28, 1908, its third on January 25, 1909, and its fourth on March 24, 1913, and since then there have been several others. But most of its literature is devoted to the 12 words and to certain reformed spellings of Webster, already in general use.

[28]TheLiterary Digestis perhaps the most important. Its usage is shown by the Funk & Wagnalls Company Style Card; New York, 1914.

[29]Tyrewas still in use in America in the 70's. It will be found on p. 150 of Mark Twain's Roughing It; Hartford, 1872.

[30]VidetheCongressional Recordfor March 26, 1918, p. 4374. It is curious to note that the French themselves are having difficulties with this and the cognate words. The finalehas been dropped frombiplan,monoplanandhydroplan, but they seem to be unable to dispense with it inaéroplane.

[31]For example, in Teepee Neighbors, by Grace Coolidge; Boston, 1917, p. 220; Duty and Other Irish Comedies, by Seumas O'Brien; New York, 1916, p. 52; Salt, by Charles G. Norris; New York, 1918, p. 135, and The Ideal Guest, by Wyndham Lewis,Little Review, May, 1918, p. 3. O'Brien is an Irishman and Lewis an Englishman, but the printer in each case was American. I findallright, as one word but with twoll's, in Diplomatic Correspondence With Belligerent Governments, etc., European War, No. 4; Washington, 1918, p. 214.

[32]VideHow to Lengthen Our Ears, by Viscount Harberton; London, 1917, p. 28.

[33]Krapp: Modern English, p. 181.

[34]Why Not Speak Your Own Language? inDelineator, Nov., 1917, p. 12.

[35]I once noted an extreme form of this naturalization in a leading Southern newspaper, theBaltimore Sun. In an announcement of the death of an American artist it reported that he had studied at theBozartin Paris. In New York I have also encounteredchaufer.

[36]Now and then, of course, a contrary tendency asserts itself. For example, the plural ofmedium, in the sense of advertising medium, is sometimes mademediaby advertising men.VidetheEditor and Publisher, May 11, 1918.

[37]Irish World, June 26, 1918.

[38]VideThe Declaration of Independence, by Herbert Friedenwald, New York, 1904, p. 262et seq.

[39]Now and then the English flirt with the American usage. Hart says, for example, that "originally the cover of the large Oxford Dictionary had 'ahistorical.'" But "anhistorical" now appears there.

[Pg268]toc

§ 1

Surnames—A glance at any American city directory is sufficient to show that, despite the continued political and cultural preponderance of the original English strain, the American people have quite ceased to be authentically English in race, or even authentically British. The blood in their arteries is inordinately various and inextricably mixed, but yet not mixed enough to run a clear stream. A touch of foreignness still lingers about millions of them, even in the country of their birth. They show their alien origin in their speech, in their domestic customs, in their habits of mind, and in their very names. Just as the Scotch and the Welsh have invaded England, elbowing out the actual English to make room for themselves, so the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Scandinavians and the Jews of Eastern Europe, and in some areas, the French, the Slavs and the hybrid-Spaniards have elbowed out the descendants of the first colonists. It is not exaggerating, indeed, to say that wherever the old stock comes into direct and unrestrained conflict with one of these new stocks, it tends to succumb, or, at all events, to give up the battle. The Irish, in the big cities of the East, attained to a truly impressive political power long before the first native-born generation of them had grown up.[1]The Germans, following the limestone belt of the Alleghany foothills, pre-empted the best lands East of the mountains before the new[Pg269]republic was born.[2]And so, in our own time, we have seen the Swedes and Norwegians shouldering the native from the wheat lands of the Northwest, and the Italians driving the decadent New Englanders from their farms, and the Jews gobbling New York, and the Slavs getting a firm foothold in the mining regions, and the French Canadians penetrating New Hampshire and Vermont, and the Japanese and Portuguese menacing Hawaii, and the awakened negroes gradually ousting the whites from the farms of the South.[3]The birth-rate among all these foreign stocks is enormously greater than among the older stock, and though the death-rate is also high, the net increase remains relatively formidable. Even without the aid of immigration it is probable that they would continue to rise in numbers faster than the original English and so-called Scotch-Irish.[4]

Turn to the letterzin the New York telephone directory and you will find a truly astonishing array of foreign names, some of them in process of anglicization, but many of them still arrestingly outlandish. The only Anglo-Saxon surname beginning withzisZacharias,[5]and even that was originally borrowed from the Greek. To this the Norman invasion seems to have added onlyZouchy. But in Manhattan and the Bronx, even among the necessarily limited class of telephone subscribers, there are nearly 1500 persons whose names begin with the letter, and among them one finds fully 150 different surnames. The GermanZimmermann, with either onenor two, is naturally the most numerous single name, and following close upon it are its derivatives,ZimmerandZimmern. With them are many more German names:Zahn,Zechendorf,Zeffert,Zeitler,Zeller,Zellner,Zeltmacher,Zepp,Ziegfeld,Zabel,Zucker,Zuckermann,Ziegler,Zillman,Zinserand so on. They are all represented heavily, but they indicate neither the earliest nor the most formidable accretion, for underlying them are many Dutch[Pg270]names,e. g.,ZeemanandZuurmond, and over them are a large number of Slavic, Italian and Jewish names. Among the first I noteZabludosky,Zabriskie,Zachczynski,Zapinkow,Zaretsky,Zechnowitz,ZenzalskyandZywachevsky; among the second,Zaccardi,Zaccarini,Zaccaro,Zapparano,Zanelli,ZicarelliandZucca; among the third,Zukor,ZipkinandZiskind. There are, too, various Spanish names:Zelaya,Zingaro, etc. And Greek:Zapeion,ZervakosandZouvelekis. And Armenian:Zaloom,ZaronandZatmajian. And Hungarian:Zadek,ZagorandZichy. And Swedish:ZetterholmandZetterlund. And a number that defy placing:Zrike,Zvan,Zwipf,Zula,ZurandZeve.

Any other American telephone directory will show the same extraordinary multiplication of exotic patronymics. I choose, at random, that of Pittsburgh, and confine myself to the saloon-keepers and clergymen. Among the former I find a great many German names:Artz,Bartels,Blum,Gaertner,Dittmer,Hahn,Pfeil,Schuman,Schlegel,von Hedemann,Weissand so on. And Slavic names:Blaszkiewicz,Bukosky,Puwalowski,Krzykolski,TuladzieckeandStratkiewicz. And Greek and Italian names:Markopoulos,Martinelli,Foglia,GigliottiandKarabinos. And names beyond my determination:Tyburski,Volongiatica,HeriskoandHajduk. Very few Anglo-Saxon names are on the list; the continental foreigner seems to be driving out the native, and even the Irishman, from the saloon business. Among the clerics, naturally enough, there are more men of English surname, but even here I find such strange names asAuroroff,Ashinsky,Bourajanis,Duic,Cillo,Mazure,Przvblski,Pniak,Bazilevich,SmelszandVrhunec. But Pittsburgh and New York, it may be argued, are scarcely American; unrestricted immigration has swamped them; the newcomers crowd into the cities. Well, examine the roster of the national House of Representatives, which surely represents the whole country. On it I findBacharach,Dupré,Esch,Estopinal,Focht,Heintz,Kahn,Kiess,Kreider,La Guardia,Kraus,Lazaro,Lehbach,Romjue,SiegelandZihlman, not to mention the insular delegates,Kalanianole,[Pg271]de Veyra,DavilaandYangko, and enough Irishmen to organize a parliament at Dublin.

In the New York city directory the fourth most common name is nowMurphy, an Irish name, and the fifth most common isMeyer, which is German and chiefly Jewish. TheMeyersare theSmithsof Austria, and of most of Germany. They outnumber all other clans. After them come theSchultzesandKrauses, just as theJonesesandWilliamsesfollow theSmithsin Great Britain.SchultzeandKrausdo not seem to be very common names in New York, butSchmidt,Muller,SchneiderandKleinappear among the fifty commonest.[6]CohenandLevyrank eighth and ninth, and are both ahead ofJones, which is second in England, andWilliams, which is third.Taylor, a highly typical British name, ranking fourth in England and Wales, is twenty-third in New York. Ahead of it, besideMurphy,Meyer,CohenandLevy, areSchmidt,Ryan,O'Brien,KellyandSullivan.Robinson, which is twelfth in England, is thirty-ninth in New York; evenSchneiderandMullerare ahead of it. In ChicagoOlson,Schmidt,Meyer,HansenandLarsenare ahead ofTaylor, andHoffmanandBeckerare ahead ofWard; in BostonSullivanandMurphyare ahead of any English name saveSmith; in PhiladelphiaMyersis just belowRobinson. Nor, as I have said, is this large proliferation of foreign surnames confined to the large cities. There are whole regions in the Southwest in whichLópezandGonzalesare far commoner names thanSmith,BrownorJones, and whole regions in the Middle West whereinOlsonis commoner than eitherTaylororWilliams, and places both North and South whereDuvalis at least as common asBrown.

Moreover, the true proportions of this admixture of foreign blood are partly concealed by a wholesale anglicization of surnames, sometimes deliberate and sometimes the fruit of mere confusion. ThatSmith,BrownandMillerremain in first, second and third places among the surnames of New York is surely no sound evidence of Anglo-Saxon survival. The German and[Pg272]ScandinavianSchmidthas undoubtedly contributed many aSmith, andBraunmany aBrown, andMüllermany aMiller. In the same wayJohnson, which holds first place among Chicago surnames, andAnderson, which holds third, are plainly reinforced from Scandinavian sources, and the former may also owe something to the RussianIvanof.Milleris a relatively rare name in England; it is not among the fifty most common. But it stands thirtieth in Boston, fourth in New York and Baltimore, and second in Philadelphia.[7]In the last-named city the influence ofMüller, probably borrowed from the Pennsylvania Dutch, is plainly indicated, and in Chicago it is likely that there are also contributions from the ScandinavianMöller, the PolishJannszewskiand the BohemianMlinár.Myers, as we have seen, is a common surname in Philadelphia. So areFoxandSnyder. In some part, at least, they have been reinforced by the Pennsylvania DutchMeyer,FuchsandSchneider. SometimesMüllerchanges toMiller, sometimes toMuller, and sometimes it remains unchanged, but with the spelling madeMueller.MullerandMuellerdo not appear among the commoner names in Philadelphia; all theMüllersseem to have becomeMillers, thus puttingMillerin second place. But in Chicago, withMillerin fourth place, there is alsoMuellerin thirty-first place, and in New York, withMillerin third place, there is alsoMullerin twenty-fourth place.

Such changes, chiefly based upon transliterations, are met with in all countries. The name ofTaaffe, familiar in Austrian history, had an Irish prototype, probablyTaft. GeneralDemikof, one of the Russian commanders at the battle of Zorndorf, in 1758, was a Swede bornThemicoud. Franz Maria vonThugut, the Austrian diplomatist, was a member of an Italian Tyrolese family namedTunicotto. This becameThunichgut(=do no good) in Austria, and was changed toThugut(=do good) to bring it into greater accord with its possessor's deserts.[8]In[Pg273]Bonapartethe Italianbuon(o)became the Frenchbon. Many English surnames are decayed forms of Norman-French names, for example,SidneyfromSt. Denis,DivverfromDe Vere,BridgewaterfromBurgh de Walter,Montgomeryfromde Mungumeri,GarnettfromGuarinot, andSeymourfromSaint-Maure. A large number of so-called Irish names are the products of rough-and-ready transliterations of Gaelic patronymics, for example,FindlayfromFionnlagh,DermottfromDiarmuid, andMcLanefromMac Illeathiain. In the same way the name ofPhoenixPark, in Dublin, came fromFion Uisg(=fine water). Of late some of the more ardent Irish authors and politicians have sought to return to the originals. Thus,O'Sullivanhas becomeO Suilleabháin,Pearsehas becomePiarais,Mac Sweeneyhas becomeMac Suibhne, andPatrickhas suffered a widespread transformation toPadraic. But in America, with a language of peculiar vowel-sounds and even consonant-sounds struggling against a foreign invasion unmatched for strength and variety, such changes have been far more numerous than across the ocean, and the legal rule ofidem sonansis of much wider utility than anywhere else in the world. If it were not for that rule there would be endless difficulties for theWiseswhose grandfathers wereWeisses, and theLeonardsbornLeonhards,LeonhardtsorLehnerts, and theManneyswho descend and inherit fromLe Maines.

"A crude popular etymology," says a leading authority on surnames,[9]"often begins to play upon a name that is no longer significant to the many. So theThurgodshave becomeThoroughgoods, and theTodenackershave become the Pennsylvania DutchToothakers, much asasparagushas becomesparrow-grass." So, too, theWittnachtsof Boyle county, Kentucky, descendants of a Hollander, have becomeWhitenecks, and theLehnsof lower Pennsylvania, descendants of some far-off German, have becomeLanes.[10]Edgar AllanPoewas a member of a family long settled in Western Maryland, the founder being onePohorPfau, a native of the Palatinate. Major George[Pg274]Armistead, who defended Fort McHenry in 1814, when Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner," was the descendant of anArmstädtwho came to Virginia from Hesse-Darmstadt. General George A.Custer, the Indian fighter, was the great-grandson of oneKüster, a Hessian soldier paroled after Burgoyne's surrender. WilliamWirt, anti-Masonic candidate for the presidency in 1832, was the son of oneWörth. WilliamPaca, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the great-grandson of a Bohemian namedPaka. General W. S.Rosecranswas really aRosenkrantz. Even the surname of AbrahamLincoln, according to some authorities, was an anglicized form ofLinkhorn.[11]

Such changes, in fact, are almost innumerable; every work upon American genealogy is full of examples. The first foreign names to undergo the process were Dutch and French. Among the former,Reigerwas debased toRiker,Van de VeertoVandiver,Van HuystoVannice,Van SiegeltoVan Sickle,Van ArsdaletoVannersdale, andHaerlen(orHaerlem) toHarlan;[12]among the latter,PetitbecamePoteet,Cailléchanged toKyle,De la HayetoDillehay,DejeantoDeshong,GuizottoGossett,GuereanttoCaron,SouletoSewell,GervaisetoJarvis,BayletoBailey,FontainetoFountain,DenistoDenny,PebaudièretoPeabody,Bon PastoBumpusandde l'HôteltoDoolittle. "Frenchmen and French Canadians who came to New England," says Schele de Vere, "had to pay for such hospitality as they there received by the sacrifice of their names. The braveBon Coeur, Captain Marryatt tells us in his Diary, became Mr.Bunker, and gave his name to Bunker's Hill."[13]But it was the German immigration that provoked the first really wholesale slaughter. A number of characteristic German sounds—for example, that ofüand the guttural inchandg—are almost impossible to the Anglo-Saxon pharynx, and so they had to go. Thus,Blochwas changed toBlockorBlack,Ochsto[Pg275]Oakes,HocktoHoke,FischbachtoFishback,AlbrechttoAlbertorAlbright, andSteinwegtoSteinway, and theGrundwort,bach, was almost universally changed tobaugh, as inBrumbaugh. Theümet the same fate:Grünwas changed toGreen,FührtoFearorFuhr,WärnertoWarner,DüringtoDeering, andSchnäbeletoSnavely,SnabelyorSnively. In many other cases there were changes in spelling to preserve vowel sounds differently represented in German and English. Thus,Blumwas changed toBloom,[14],ReusstoRoyce,KoestertoKester,KuehletoKeeley,SchroedertoSchrader,StehlitoStaley,WeymanntoWayman,FriedmanntoFreedman,BaumantoBowman, andLang(as the best compromise possible) toLong. The change ofOehmtoAmesbelongs to the same category; the addition of the finalsrepresents a typical effort to substitute the nearest related Anglo-Saxon name. Other examples of that effort are to be found inMichaelsforMichaelis,BowersforBauer,JohnsonforJohannsen,FordforFurth,HinesforHeintz,KempforKempf,ForemanforFuhrmann,KuhnsorCoonsforKuntz,HooverforHuber,LeveringforLiebering,JonesforJonas,SwopeforSchwab,HiteorHydeforHeid,AndrewsforAndré,YoungforJung, andPenceforPentz.[15]

The American antipathy to accented letters, mentioned in the chapter on spelling, is particularly noticeable among surnames. An immigrant namedFürstinevitably becomes plainFurstin the United States, and if not the man, then surely his son.Löwe, in the same way, is transformed intoLowe(pro.low),[16][Pg276]LürmannintoLurman,SchönintoSchon,SupléeintoSupleeorSupplee,LüdersintoLudersandBrühlintoBrill. Even when no accent betrays it, the foreign diphthong is under hard pressure. Thus the Germanoedisappears, andLoebis changed toLobeorLaib,OehlertoOhler,LoesertoLeser, andSchoentoSchonorShane. In the same way theauin such names asRosenauchanges toaw. So too, the Frenchoi-sound is disposed of, andDuboisis pronouncedDoo-bóys, andBoileauacquires a first syllable rhyming withtoil. So with theknin the German names of theKnappclass; they are all pronounced, probably by analogy withKnight, as if they began withn. So withsch;SchneiderbecomesSnyder,SchlegelbecomesSlagel, andSchluterbecomesSluter. If a foreigner clings to the original spelling of his name he must usually expect to hear it mispronounced.Roth, in American, quickly becomesRawth;Frémont, losing both accent and the Frenche, becomeFreemont;Blumbegins to rhyme withdumb;Mannrhymes withvan, andLangwithhang;Krantz,Lantzand their cognates withchance;Kurtzwithshirts; the first syllable ofGutmannwithbut; the first ofKahlerwithbay; the first ofWernerwithturn; the first ofWagnerwithnag.Uhler, in America, is alwaysYouler.Bergloses its Germane-sound for an Englishu-sound, and its German hardgfor an Englishg; it becomes identical with thebergoficeberg. The same change in the vowel occurs inErdmann. InKönigthe German diphthong succumbs to a longo, and the hardgbecomesk; the common pronunciation isCone-ik. Often, inBerger, thegbecomes soft, and the name rhymes withverger. It becomes soft, too, inBittinger. InWilstachandWelsbachthechbecomes ak. InAnheusertheeuchanges to a longi. The finale, important in German, is nearly always silenced;Dohmerhymes withfoam;KühnebecomesKeen.

In addition to these transliterations, there are constant translations of foreign proper names. "Many a PennsylvaniaCarpenter," says Dr. Oliphant,[17]"bearing a surname that is English, from the French, from the Latin, and there a Celtic loan-word[Pg277]in origin, is neither English, nor French, nor Latin, nor Celt, but an original GermanZimmermann."[18]A great many other such translations are under everyday observation.PfundbecomesPound;Becker,Baker;Schumacher,Shoemaker;König,King;Weisberg,Whitehill;Koch,Cook;[19]Neuman,Newman;Schaefer,ShepherdorSheppard;Gutmann,Goodman;Goldschmidt,Goldsmith;Edelstein,Noblestone;Steiner,Stoner;Meister,Master(s);Schwartz,Black;Weiss,White;Weber,Weaver;Bucher,Booker;Vogelgesang,Birdsong;Sontag,Sunday, and so on. Partial translations are also encountered,e. g.,StudebakerfromStudebecker, andReindollarfromRheinthaler. By the same process, among the newer immigrants, the PolishWilkiewiczbecomesWilson, the BohemianBohumilbecomesGodfrey, and the BohemianKovárand the RussianKuznetzovbecomeSmith. Some curious examples are occasionally encountered. Thus HenryWoodhouse, a gentleman prominent in aeronautical affairs, came to the United States from Italy as Mario Terenzio EnricoCasalegno; his new surname is simply a translation of his old one. And theBelmonts, the bankers, unable to find a euphonious English equivalent for their German-Jewish patronymic ofSchönberg, chose a French one that Americans could pronounce.

In part, as I say, these changes in surname are enforced by the sheer inability of Americans to pronounce certain Continental consonants, and their disinclination to remember the Continental vowel sounds. Many an immigrant, finding his name constantly mispronounced, changes its vowels or drops some of its consonants; many another shortens it, or translates it, or changes it entirely for the same reason. Just as a well-known Graeco-French poet changed his Greek name ofPapadiamantopoulostoMoréasbecausePapadiamantopouloswas too much for Frenchmen, and as an eminent Polish-English novelist[Pg278]changed his Polish name ofKorzeniowskitoConradbecause few Englishmen could pronounceowskicorrectly, so the Italian or Greek or Slav immigrant, coming up for naturalization, very often sheds his family name with his old allegiance, and emerges asTaylor,JacksonorWilson. I once encountered a firm of Polish Jews, showing the name ofRobinson & Joneson its sign-board, whose partners were bornRubinowitzandJonas. I lately heard of a German namedKnoche—a name doubly difficult to Americans, what with theknand thech—who changed it boldly toKnoxto avoid being calledNokky. A Greek namedZoyiopoulous,Kolokotronis,MavrokerdatosorConstantinopolouswould find it practically impossible to carry on amicable business with Americans; his name would arouse their mirth, if not their downright ire. And the same burden would lie upon a Hungarian namedBeniczkynéorGyalui, orSzilagyi, orVezercsillagok. Or a Finn namedKyyhkysen, orJääskelainen, orTuulensuu, orUotinen,—all honorable Finnish patronymics. Or a Swede namedSjogren, orSchjtt, orLeijonhufvud. Or a Bohemian namedSrb, orHrubka. Or, for that matter, a German namedKannengiesser, orSchnapaupf, orPfannenbecker.

But more important than this purely linguistic hostility, there is a deeper social enmity, and it urges the immigrant to change his name with even greater force. For a hundred years past all the heaviest and most degrading labor of the United States has been done by successive armies of foreigners, and so a concept of inferiority has come to be attached to mere foreignness. In addition, these newcomers, pressing upward steadily in the manner already described, have offered the native a formidable, and considering their lower standards of living, what has appeared to him to be an unfair competition on his own plane, and as a result a hatred born of disastrous rivalry has been added to his disdain. Our unmatchable vocabulary of derisive names for foreigners reveals the national attitude. The Frenchboche, the Germanhunyadi(for Hungarian),[20]and the old Englishfroggy(for Frenchman) seem lone and feeble beside our great repertoire:[Pg279]dago,wop,guinea,kike,goose,mick,harp,[21]bohick,bohunk,square-head,greaser,canuck,spiggoty,[22]chink,polack,dutchie,scowegian,hunkieandyellow-belly. This disdain tends to pursue an immigrant with extraordinary rancor when he bears a name that is unmistakably foreign and hence difficult to the native, and open to his crude burlesque. Moreover, the general feeling penetrates the man himself, particularly if he be ignorant, and he comes to believe that his name is not only a handicap, but also intrinsically discreditable—that it wars subtly upon his worth and integrity.[23]This feeling, perhaps, accounted for a good many changes of surnames among Germans upon the entrance of the United States into the war. But in the majority of cases, of course, the changes so copiously reported—e. g., fromBielefeldertoBenson, and fromPulvermachertoPullman—were merely efforts at protective coloration. The immigrant, in a time of extraordinary suspicion and difficulty, tried to get rid of at least one handicap.[24][Pg280]

This motive constantly appears among the Jews, who face an anti-Semitism that is imperfectly concealed and may be expected to grow stronger hereafter. Once they have lost the faith of their fathers, a phenomenon almost inevitable in the first native-born generation, they shrink from all the disadvantages that go with Jewishness, and seek to conceal their origin, or, at all events, to avoid making it unnecessarily noticeable.[25]To this end they modify the spelling of the more familiar Jewish surnames, turningLevyintoLewy,Lewyt,Levitt,Levin,Levine,Levey,Levie[26]and evenLever,CohenintoCohn,Cahn,Kahn,Kann,CoyneandConn,AaronsintoArensandAhrensandSolomonintoSalmon,SalomonandSolmson. In the same way they shorten their long names, changingWolfsheimertoWolf,GoldschmidttoGold, andRosenblatt,Rosenthal,Rosenbaum,Rosenau,Rosenberg,Rosenbusch,Rosenblum,Rosenstein,RosenheimandRosenfeldttoRose. Like the Germans, they also seek refuge in translations more or less literal. Thus, on the East Side of New York,Blumenthalis often changed toBloomingdale,SchneidertoTaylor,ReichmantoRichman, andSchlachtfeldtoWarfield.Fiddler, a common Jewish name, becomesHarper; so doesPikler, which is Yiddish fordrummer.Stolar, which is a Yiddish word borrowed from the Russian, signifyingcarpenter, is often changed toCarpenter.LichtmanandLichtensteinbecomeChandler.Meilach, which is Hebrew forking, becomesKing, and so doesMeilachson. The strong tendency to seek English-sounding equivalents for names of noticeably foreign origin changesSherintoSherman,MichelintoMitchell,RogowskyintoRogers,KolinskyintoCollins,RabinovitchintoRobbins,DavidovitchintoDavis,MoiseyevintoMacyorMason, andJacobson,JacobovitchandJacobovskyintoJackson. This last[Pg281]change proceeds by way of a transient change toJakeorJackas a nickname.Jacobis always abbreviated to one or the other on the East Side.Yankelevitchalso becomesJackson, forYankelis Yiddish forJacob.[27]

Among the immigrants of other stocks some extraordinarily radical changes in name are to be observed. Greek names of five, and even eight syllables shrink toSmith; Hungarian names that seem to be all consonants are reborn in such euphonious forms asMartinandLacy. I have encountered aGregorywho was bornGrgurevichin Serbia; aUhlerwho was bornUhlyarik; aGraveswho descends from the fine old Dutch family of'sGravenhage. I once knew a man namedLawtonwhose grandfather had been aLautenberger. First he shed thebergerand then he changed the spelling ofLautento make it fit the inevitable American mispronunciation. There is, again, a family ofDicksin the South whose ancestor was aSchwettendieck—apparently a Dutch or Low German name. There is, yet again, a celebrated American artist, of the Bohemian patronymic ofHrubka, who has abandoned it for a surname which is common to all the Teutonic languages, and is hence easy for Americans. The Italians, probably because of the relations established by the Catholic church, often take Irish names, as they marry Irish girls; it is common to hear of an Italian pugilist or politician namedKellyorO'Brien. The process of change is often informal, but even legally it is quite facile. The Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, authorizes the court, as a part of the naturalization of any alien, to make an order changing his name. This is frequently done when he receives his last papers; sometimes, if the newspapers are to be believed, without his solicitation, and even against his protest. If the matter is overlooked at the time, he may change his name later on, like any other citizen, by simple application to a court of record.

Among names of Anglo-Saxon origin and names naturalized long before the earliest colonization, one notes certain American peculiarities, setting off the nomenclature of the United States[Pg282]from that of the mother country. The relative infrequency of hyphenated names in America is familiar; when they appear at all it is almost always in response to direct English influences.[28]Again, a number of English family names have undergone modification in the New World.Venablemay serve as a specimen. The form in England is almost invariablyVenables, but in America the finalshas been lost, and every example of the name that I have been able to find in the leading American reference-books is without it. And where spellings have remained unchanged, pronunciations have been frequently modified. This is particularly noticeable in the South.Callowhill, down there, is commonly pronouncedCarrol;CrenshaweisGranger;Hawthorne,Horton;Heyward,Howard;Norsworthy,Nazary;Ironmonger,Munger;Farinholt,Fernall;Camp,Kemp;Buchanan,Bohannan;Drewry,Droit;Enroughty,Darby; andTaliaferro,Tolliver.[29]The EnglishCrowninshieldspronounce every syllable of their name; the AmericanCrowninshieldscommonly make itCrunshel.Van Schaick, an old New York name, is pronouncedVon Scoik. A good many American Jews, aiming at a somewhat laborious refinement, change the pronunciation of the terminalsteinin their names so that it rhymes, not withline, but withbean. Thus, in fashionable Jewish circles, there are no longer anyEpsteins,GoldsteinsandHammersteinsbut onlyEpsteens,GoldsteensandHammersteens. The American Jews differ further from the English in pronouncingLevyto make the first syllable rhyme withtea; the English Jews always make the nameLev-vy. To match such[Pg283]American prodigies asDarbyforEnroughty, the English themselves haveHoolsforHowells,SillingerforSt. Leger,SinjinforSt. John,PoolforPowell,WeemsforWemyss,KerduggenforCadogen,MobrerforMarlborough,KeyforCains,MarchbanksforMarjoribanks,BeechamforBeauchamp,ChumleyforCholmondeley,TrosleyforTrotterscliffe, andDarbyforDerby, not to mentionMaudlinforMagdalen.

§ 2

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