[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] GERMANS FROM RUSSIAN POLAND ACCENTS

[DANWWAGNER at aol.com]

A short question with a long wind up.  
 
My father's father was an ethnic German, Lutheran, raised in  Volhynia: 
Gustav Wagner, born 10 May 1885 in Redufka.  The family  spent several 
generations in Volhynia, mostly living in  Roschischtsche.  Some family members 
(including my grandparents)  left Volhynia for Elsenau (then in Germany) in the 
late 1890's or the  1910's.  Elsenau is a manoral village east of Berlin in 
present-day  Poland.  I suspect that Elsenau, or nearby Loosen, was the 
Wagner's  ancestral home before the migration to Russian-occupied territory in 
the  late 1700's (yes, that early).  My father was born in 1915 in Chicago 
just  one year after his parents immigrated from Elsenau, and Dad learned 
German  at home.
 
My father used to make a point of telling me that he pronounced  "ich" like 
"ish."  I think he went on to explain that his pronunciation  came from 
Prussia.  Does that tell us anything?  Prussian  dialect, low German, Volhynia 
dialect?  What little German I learned was in  high school.  Anyway, "ish" 
is just one tiny detail, but it's stuck in my  memory for decades.
 
Thanks.  Dan Wagner