How to pronounce my Great grandparents last names.

Discussion in 'Grammar & Pronunciation' started by JeremeyN, Nov 7, 2004.

  1. JeremeyN

    JeremeyN New Member

    My Great grand parrents are dead and I am trying to find thier family trees in the Czech republic, but I need to see how to pronounce there last name. Because in Ellis island a lot of names have been changed and they changed their names by what they thought they were pronouning and such. I am hoping there names was not changed except for the czech characters and accents marks. My Great-Grandfather's name was Truhlicka I have been pronouncing it ( True-Lick_ka) Some people say (True-Lish-Ka). My Great-Grandmothers madien name was Hnevsa. I am pronouncing it (Hin-nes-va). but I am sure its wrong. Also thes names are in english how would the be writen if they were in the czech republic with all the characters and accents.ANy help would be greatly apreciative.
    Jeremey :
     
  2. Halef

    Halef Well-Known Member

    Truhlička and Hněvsa, I guess. Your Great-Grandmothers madien name was most probably Hněvsová (in Czech, woman's and man's names differ a bit).

    Pronounciation of those names can be tricky, I will give it a try...

    True_h - litch - kah

    The "h" in the middle is fully pronounced, like in "hand" or "how", not silent.
    The final "a" is Czech "a", pronounced rather like the English "u".
    You can hear the "ka" ending at Locallingo (miska)

    Hněvsa - again, full h, then the tricky "ně" combination - listen to it at Locallingo again - , together with "v" - try saying "ff", and the final "sa" sounds like "sun" without the "n".
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  3. JeremeyN

    JeremeyN New Member

    Also currious on thier first name my great-grandfather Truhlička first name was Joseph and his wife Hněvsa was Marry(Marla). Were there first names changed when coming to the U.S. Are thier names normal for somone who was born in the late 19th century or early 20th century in czechoslovakia?
    Thanks,
    Jeremey
     
  4. Halef

    Halef Well-Known Member

    Their Czech forms, Josef and Marie, are ones of the most common names in that time (and even now).

    It is in fact a nice biblical pair :)
     
  5. A74

    A74 New Member

    Hello Jeremy,

    people above me already wrote you the right names and their pronunciation. So I will tell you more about an origin of these surnames, just for a interest :)

    Truhlička is in our language word for yours "a little chest"(So translated in english his name is Mr. Littlechest) - funny isn't it?
    This name were given to your ancestors probably because their craft in a village in the paaast times was to be a carpenter or your ancestor could be someone who made some special little chest, so people start to call him like that.

    A carpenter = in czech truhlář -(see truhlička vs. truhlář)

    Second name is Hněvsa - the base of this name is czech word hněv = in english an anger.
    In czech we have a verb "hněvat se" or "zlobit se" - be angry with/at. In old czech you could say he is angry with/at - hněvá sa.

    When we follow this track we can say, that this man was named like this because "he's angry with or at st/sb".. :)

    It is just a simple name analysis. Of course, how your ancestors got their names is still a mystery ...

    Have a nice day :D
     
  6. CORRIN THOMPSON

    CORRIN THOMPSON New Member

    Jeremy,

    I was searching my great grandfathers name and this website popped up. My grandma is Vera Truhlicka- Lawson. It appears we have the same ancestors. This was my first time searching for this info with not a whole lot of luck. Maybe you have found out more. Let me know. Thanks, Corrin Thompson
     
  7. CORRIN THOMPSON

    CORRIN THOMPSON New Member

    Jeremy,

    I was searching my great grandfathers name and this website popped up. My grandma is Vera Truhlicka- Lawson. It appears we have the same ancestors. This was my first time searching for this info with not a whole lot of luck. Maybe you have found out more. Let me know. Thanks, Corrin Thompson
     
  8. Alexx

    Alexx Well-Known Member

    little correction:

    truhlář = joiner
    tesař = carpenter

    I have a book at home - "Víc než jen tesař" ("More than just a carpenter" - I am not 100% sure about the english name) about Jesus.
     
  9. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    Jesus is the greek translation of the jewish name Yeshua.
     

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