[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Dreger; Spelling and Phonetics

Günther Böhm GHBoehm at ish.de
Wed Apr 16 13:45:19 PDT 2003


>Would the german name Ittermann also have different spellings in Russian and
>Polish. I noticed that Brent Mai translated Ittermann as Sterman in his
>translation of The Expropriation of Land from the Germans in Volhynia 1915.
>Nelson Itterman
>Edmonton
>

Hello Nelson,
think of ITTERMANN as the correct version. The name is quite common in 
Westphalia and I hope to know something about its origin. A minor river 
named Itter runs from Solingen-Graefrath through Haan and Hilden (which 
is my residence) in Itter, a southern part of Duesseldorf and former 
village, into the Rhine. Though there is also a castle Itter near Brixen 
[Bressanone] in South Tyrol [Alto Adige], since 1919 Italy, I'm sure the 
Northrhine or Westphalian ones are more appropriate. The name is no more 
present in Solingen, Haan, Hilden and Duesseldorf, but nearby in Neuss, 
Krefeld, Moers, Kamp-Lintfort, Duisburg, Bochum, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, 
Herne etc. The IGI has most of it in Groenebach, now a part of 
Winterberg. And since the German telephone register has 29 ITTERMANN in 
Winterberg (of just 14848 inhabitants), this might really be the source 
of all. South of Korbach, Waldeck County, runs another creek named Itter 
down to Hassia [Hessen] through Itterbeck, Dorfitter, Thalitter into the 
Eder (which might be just another spelling of Itter). Itter [Eder] could 
originally derive from Otter, a snake - like the Wupper [Wipper] river 
actually derives from the snake Viper, in English "viper" or "adder"!

Guenther
of Hilden, Germany



More information about the Ger-Poland-Volhynia mailing list