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Bonus 32: Jobs, locations, family, and invention: Surnames!
🕑 Added 2019-10-04 00:38:40 +0000 UTCNot everyone has a surname, but for many people surnames are a personal or cultural story wrapped up in a convenient little package.
In this bonus episode we get enthusiastic about surnames! We talked about where our own surnames come from, surname-formation strategies from different cultures, people changing and not changing their surnames, and surnames that are common and uncommon in different contexts.
Where does your surname come from? Have you ever considered what it would be like to have a different one?
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Also, it's almost our anniversary! Three whole years of Lingthusiasm!
In celebration, we'd love you to share something that you've learned from the show -- maybe a fact or story that you've noticed recently or find yourself retelling or remembering. Share it on social media and tag @lingthusiasm so we can see it and reshare, which will also help new people realize why they'd enjoy listening to the show!
We always see a great bump in listens this time of year when people recommend Lingthusiasm for our anniversary, and we've noticed some people already doing really great specific recommendations, so we decided to try combining the two this year!
Here are the links mentioned in this episode:
- Gawne meaning
- McCulloch meaning
- Rise of the Smiths
- Gender-neutral Icelandic surnames
- Nepali surnames and caste (Wikipedia)
- Lauren's life as Ms. Wong
- Previous bonus episode about given names
You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript of this episode is available as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page. Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All ThingsLinguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, our editorial manager is Emily Gref, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
Comments
Erica Koch-Johnston
I grew up with the surname Koch in the US, from the German word for cook /kɒx/ and I always thought it interesting how divergent the various pronunciations are. There's the closest-in-sound Anglicization, /koʊk/ like the Koch brothers use, sounds like the soda. There's the pronounced-as-spell version, /kɒtʃ/ like Ed Koch the former mayor of NYC. And then there's the pronunciation which is basically a translation, pronouncing it "cook" /kʊk/
I found Gretchen´s comment on segmenting her last name very interesting, since I also unconsciously adopted my mother´s way of segmenting our last name from listening to her do it on the phone. However, I´m German and I found that our way of doing it, "Bar-tsch", only works with German people, because "sch" is pronounced as one sound, "sshhh", which is very common in German so people process is as one unit. Whereas Englisch speaking people have to process four seperate consonants, so they usually tell me I´m doing it too fast. Now I always remind myself to segment it further if I´m talking in Englisch.
