The Italian alphabet. I guess things could be worse. I could be reading state documents from old Polish Russia that are written in Cyrillic. But I am reading Italian documents, both those from the Napoleonic Era and those from a united Italy. And therein lies the problem.
In the early 1800's the alphabet is much like the one we use. That is, it has a J. In the current Italian alphabet, there are 21 letters: five vowels and sixteen consonants. The letters J, K, W, X and Y do not exist except in special words - like merchandise names. And why is that a problem you ask?
So, if I have a relative in the 1700's whose last name is Tamaj, when I get to Italy after unification, the spelling becomes Tamai. My Iuston cousins? Well, those names were Jus or Just. When the J disappeared, it could become Ius, Iuston, Gust, Giust. If I am searching for relatives in a family, I have to search with several different spellings.
I will have more to say about spelling later in the alphabet, but for now I'll let you ponder I and J.
Now, having done two letters together, I have to think about the letter K. I am clueless at this point.
I guess you are learning a bit of Italian if you don't already know Italian. Even in English, the names can be quite Quirky. I came across the name Melch today.
ReplyDeleteI was never taught Italian as my parents only wanted us to speak English. The adults spoke Italian so none of us kids could understand. I suppose if I had paid more attention I might have learned some. I have been able to read some documents - barely.
DeleteSo, If I was Italian my name would be Eith! I had no idea t used less letters than we do. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteI guess. But maybe you would not exist as Keith in the first place since they have no name even similar to that.
DeleteThis is great - I did not know about the alphabet.
ReplyDeleteK is for kinfolk?? Kielbasa?? LOL
I didn't know that Italian does not have those letters. It must throw a curveball to the people trying to learn the English language. Hey, I came across 12 different spellings of my grandmom's maiden name. My dad always said it was Dudenskie. Of course, in Polish, the females had the last name as Dudenska. I have seen Dujenskie, Judenskie, Jujenska, Duenskie..yadda yadda...
ReplyDeleteYeah, a post about that is coming up.
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