Hi Phil You're having a rotten one with this, eh? I have sheet upon sheet of old German scripts which I searched through after your first message. The nearest I came to your umlaut was as in this e --é--. Dumb eh? Don't know the name of that thingo just now - but I'm sure you know what I mean. As for the pronunciation - David has kin in Hannover and they are ROSEMEIER - "my-er''. The neighbour I have spoken about with you previously, pronounces his name as WED-MY-ER. When I look at your GGF's name, I feel there are two syllables in 'meyer' - IMHO they could be 'may-er' or my-er'. I can't relate to 'mire' as in 'quagmire'. Sorry Phil - tuppence worth of nothing, but letting you know that someone has tried <g>. You have been working very seriously on this thing. Good luck! Cheers Bev ----- Original Message ----- From: "PD & LE Strong" <plstrong@pnc.com.au> To: <AUS-QLD-SE-Germans-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 12:09 PM Subject: Changing German Surname Pronunciations I have tracked down some 1870's letters written around Gayndah, Qld by my g-grandfather WEDEMEYER, (b. 1825 in Goslar near Hannover, Germany). The letters were in English language and in a typical rounded English script and addressed to the Qld Lands Department. Significantly, on four occasions he signs his name with a definite umlaut over the Y of WEDEMEYER.... two vertical strokes. A research archivist from Germany tells me that she has found the Y umlaut in 17th century archives "very often" and it was not found in any particular region. However, I still don't know how it would have been definitively pronounced in the context of "WEDEMEYER". Can anyone advise?

Thank you Bev for digging out your old German scripts and thinking about pronunciations. I was sure there must be others out there who have wondered about all this? At least my problem of the "Y" umlaut was solved... 1700's ornamentation without function... thus WEDEMEYER returns effectively to WEDEMEIER. Now to the pronunciation of "MEIER": Bev Kerlin wrote: > As for the pronunciation - David has kin in Hannover and they are > ROSEMEIER -"my-er''. The neighbour I have spoken about with you > previously, pronounces his name as WED-MY-ER. When I look at your > GGF's name, I feel there are two syllables in 'meyer' - IMHO > they could be 'may-er' or my-er'. I can't relate to 'mire' > as in 'quagmire'. The best way to explain this is in terms of phonetics. Pronunciations are given in phonetics symbols in larger dictionaries (with the key to the symbols at the front). The symbols for the sounds or phonemes have exact meaning, however they can't be replicated on the normal computer keyboard, still less read in the text of a RootsWeb posting. If you analyse "MEIER", the pronunciation is the same as the English word "mire", as in "wire" etc, since the first syllable "MEI" of "MEIER" is pronounced as the English word "MY", and the second syllable "ER" of "MEIER" is an un-stressed syllable consisting of a short "E" and a short "A" sounded together. Think about it... what are you actually saying when you say mire or wire... is it a two syllable sound? .... then relate it to your ROSEMEIER. -- ***Philip Strong***Email:plstrong@pnc.com.au***Blue Mountains, Australia*** German Interest: WEDEMEYER. Most of the WEDEMEYERS in the Queensland telephone book are related through George Henry Louis WEDEMEYER of Gayndah Qld.