[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Name translations +

[Otto]

Jan Textor is correct.
Annegret Krause is correct.
Some may feel I'm not, I will leave the door open for that.

The spellings are not 'pictographic' symbols as perhaps Chinese  
Mandarin.
Our alphabet characters generate sound. Vowel combinations,  
'diphthongs', generate double sounds. -example> The name 'Leon' with  
an 'eo' vowel combination is never pronounced 'Leen' or 'Lon'.

Following is an expanded upon excerpt from an E-letter I'd sent to  
Dan previously.
Everyone unfamiliar with the German language should as least learn  
how to sound out the alphabet in German. After all, isn't that what  
our forefathers were about?

It would be beneficial to learn the sounds of the Polish alphabet,  
also the Russian alphabet. They are fascinating to learn. It is  
amazing what we do not know until we try.

In German every letter is pronounced. . . precisely.
If you've studied Latin in school it is similar in some ways.
More than anything else German is spoken precisely.

Albertine is pronounced as Ahl'beer'teen'eh     (feminine of Albert/ 
Albrecht)
the ending 'e' is never pronounced Anglo style as 'uh', but always as  
'eh' -precisely.
an 'uh' gets the klutz award.  :D (yes, I have a few awards)(German  
was my first language)
(I have German cousins constantly reminding me of proper sounds with  
pedantic glee.)
Emilie is pronounced as Aye'meel'ee'eh   (feminine of Emil)
Practice pronouncing the two names.

In German 'E' is sounded as 'AYE'
'I' as 'EE' and short 'e' as 'eh'
.........
The German alphabet without umlaut characters and the double S  
character (ß) Eszet (ess'tset)
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Pronouncing the alphabet in German..
(spelled out phonetically.  Read as if English to obtain the German  
sound.)

Ahh, Bay, Tsay, Day, Aye, Eff, Gay, Hah, Ee, Yut, Kah, El, Em, En,   
Oh,  Pay, Koo, Are, Ess, Tay, Ooh,  Fou, Vay, Ixx, Ipsilon,  
Tset        The 'Y' is named the same as the 2oth. letter of the  
Greek alphabet, 'ipsilon'. We are interested in the sound generated  
by pronouncing 'ipsilon'... 'iu' or 'ih' if you prefer, for the Y sound.

Now that you can speak German, go for it.  My Canadian cousins are  
exceptionally adept at the 'Aye' sound.
Practice rolling your 'R's' by speaking out 'Burro' each night to  
fall asleep by. A neat trill should develop. (I still mask my trill  
when I speak the English language, it warped my tongue) Next, we'll  
move most of the vocalization to the back of the mouth, gutturals,  
throaty sounds, so we can practice umlauts to bring the sounds back  
to the front of the tongue again.  When the lessons are complete you  
will appreciate the English language.

. . .   Otto

             " The Zen moment..." wk. of October 15, 2006-
                   ________________________________
                      "Dreams seem so real... life different?"