[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] ..ski versus. ...sky

[Jerry Frank]

The article provides an excellent answer to the 
question.  For those who do not take the time to 
read it, the most important part is the conclusion, where Fred writes:

"Often the only way you can tell ethnic origin 
for sure is to trace the family history. The way 
people spell their names may give you a useful 
clue; but you can’t really count on it. If you 
see one fellow called Sikorski and another called 
Sikorsky, odds are the first is a Pole, the 
second a Russian. Still, do yourself a favor and 
dig a little before you jump to any conclusions."


By the way, Fred Hoffmann is well respected in 
the Polish Genealogical community, especially 
regarding his language skills and interpreting place names and surnames.

Jerry Frank





At 02:50 AM 24/04/2006, Bronwyn Klimach wrote:
>Gary,
>Fred Hoffman has written some great articles on the ski vs ski topic - see
>February's Gen Dobry magazine at Polish Roots - and many other aspects of
>Polish names.  Hopefully this link will take you there!
>http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:3UmWCVBMrP8J:www.polishroots.org/gendobry/PDF/GenDobry_VII_2.pdf+%22always+ski+never+sky%22&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1
>Regards,
>Bronwyn Klimach
>
>On 4/22/06, Gary Warner <gary at warnerengineering.com> wrote:
> >
> > Guenther,
> >
> > I do not speak Polish or Russian or Ukrainian, so
> > I suppose that the information given to me can be
> > incorrect.   All I was reporting is what my
> > Polish friend (who also speaks Russian) told me,
> > and also what has occurred in my own family.   If
> > the ski and sky riddle is not answered as I have
> > indicated, then why do some names end in ski, and some in sky?
> >
> > Gary Warner
> >
> > At 01:03 PM 04/21/06, Günther Böhm wrote:
> > >Gary Warner schrieb:
> > >
> > > >I just asked a Polish friend who speaks both Polish and Russian, and
> > > >who is also part Ukrainian.   She says that the sound of ski and sky
> > > >is identical, but she says it has to do with the Cyrillic alphabet
> > > >that the letter is a y instead of an i.   She says that typically a
> > > >person with an ski name is Polish (or at least their name was formed
> > > >in Poland), and that sky is usually a Russian or Ukrainian name (or
> > > >at least their name was formed in Russia or the Ukraine).    I
> > > >suppose that a German living in both Poland and Volhynia might have a
> > > >Polonized name that ended in ski, and when they moved to Volhynia
> > > >that it might have changed to sky.
> > > >
> > >
> > >Gary,
> > >sorry, but this is definitely wrong. In Russian and Ukrainian there is
> > >never a "y" [in Russian "iery"] after a "k". It is written instead as "i
> > >- i kratkoye" and transcribed in Latin characters as "ij". If you want,
> > >I can send you the original cyrillian writing in a private mail (as I
> > >suppose, the ger-poland-volhynia list is still not able to transmit
> > >Unicode [UTF-8]).
> > >
> > >Guenther
> > >