[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Stelmach : is this a Ukrainian surname?

Irene König kopetzke at gmx.net
Sun Dec 3 14:37:46 PST 2006


Miles Ertman schrieb am 03.12.2006 20:41 Uhr:
> Just curious, is the surname, "Stelmach" a Ukrainian surname?  In  
> Alberta, the name is pronounced, "Stelmak".  Ed Stelmach is Alberta's  
> new premier and the media state that he is the first Ukrainian  
> premier of Alberta.  If this is a Ukrainian name, shouldn't the "ch"  
> be pronounced as it is pronounced in English and not as a "k"?


Miles,

"Stellmacher" is definitely a German word, an old profession, it means 
cartwright. My father was a stellmacher.

http://www.diffusion.ens.fr/index.php?res=conf&idconf=1179
---
German Lexical Borrowings are among the oldest adopted words in the 
Ukrainian language. There are many words of German origin which are 
regarded by most Ukrainians as their ethnic features, e.g. ганок (Ging), 
грунт (Grund), стельмах (Stellmacher), пампушкa, смалець and so on. That 
is because most Germanisms were adopted to the norms of the Ukrainian 
language and lost some of their original phonetic, lexical and other 
features. In-depth examination of this question shows that loan words 
came into the Ukrainian language from German as a result of 
international trade, cultural, political and other relations which 
lasted for centuries.
---

irene

(Sorry for the Cyrillic letters that may not show up correctly for some 
of you).



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