Page:The American Language.djvu/293

Rh word in origin, is neither English, nor French, nor Latin, nor Celt, but an original German Zimmermann." A great many other such translations are under everyday observation. Pfund becomes Pound; Becker, Baker; Schumacher, Shoemaker; Ko'nig, King; Weisberg, Whitehill; Koch, Cook; Neuman, Newman; Schaefer, Shepherd or Sheppard; Gutmann, Goodman; Gold- schmidt, Goldsmith; Edelstein, Noblestone; Steiner, Stoner; Meister, Master (s) ; Schwartz, Black; Weiss, White; Weber, Weaver; Bucher, Booker; Vogelgesang, Birdsong; Sontag, Sun- day, and so on. Partial translations are also encountered, e. g., Studebaker from Studebecker, and Reindollar from Rheinthaler. By the same process, among the newer immigrants, the Polish Wilkiewicz becomes Wilson, the Bohemian Bohumil becomes Godfrey, and the Bohemian Kovdr and the Russian Kuznetzov become Smith. Some curious examples are occasionally en- countered. Thus Henry Woodhouse, a gentleman prominent in aeronautical affairs, came to the United States ffbm Italy as Mario Terenzio Enrico Casalegno; his new surname is simply a translation of his old one. And the Belmonts, the bankers, unable to find a euphonious English equivalent for their German- Jewish patronymic of Schönberg, chose a French one that Amer- icans 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 of Papadia- mantopoulos to Moreas because Papadiamantopoulos was too much for Frenchmen, and as an eminent Polish-English novelist