Carl Jaenisch: How Did He Pronounce His Surname?
dph
According to _The Oxford Companion to Chess_,
the name is pronounced "yanish," the first syllable
rhyming with the "yan" in Janowski
("pron. yanovsky").
However, if the pronunciation were German, it
probably would be "YAY-nish" (long A sound in English),
as indicated by "Pronounce that Chess Word" at
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/5076/chess_ref_pronounce.html.
Regards,
David
Dan Scoones
There was a great influx of foreign merchants and technical
specialists into Russia during the reign of Peter the Great. It's
likely the Jaenisch family was part of this group.
I would say that the answer to your question depends on how long the
family was in Russia prior to Carl's birth, and whether they hung onto
their German roots and maintained the original pronunciation, or made
a concession to their new homeland and Russified it to "Yanish."
Jaenisch's full name was Carl Friedrich Andreyevich Jaenisch,
indicating that his father's forename was already the Russian
"Andrei."
Based on this slender evidence I think it's more likely he used the
Russian pronunciation.
Miriling
>Subject: Re: Carl Jaenisch: How Did He Pronounce His Surname?
>From: Dan Scoones dsco...@telus.net
>Date: 11/2/02 1:11 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <hmq6suog5bpgmbvg6...@4ax.com>
>
>It is questionable whether Jaenish was of German extraction. When he was born
in 1813 in Viipuri, that city at that time was part of Finland. Swedes know it
as Vyborg. According to the Italian reference work "Dizionario Enciclopedico
degli Scacchi," Jaenish was Finnish by birth ("Finlandese di nascita") but
studied in Russia. The Russians pronounced his name as YAH-nish. But Germans
pronounced his name as YAY-nish, reflecting an umlauted "a" in his name. The
most common pronunciation that I have heard among English-speaking chessplayers
is YAY-nish, echoing the German pronunciation. How Jaenish himself pronounced
his surname is open to question.
George Mirijanian
>
>
>
>
>
Pasi ja Minna
> >
> >It is questionable whether Jaenish was of German extraction. When he was
born
> in 1813 in Viipuri, that city at that time was part of Finland. Swedes
know it
> as Vyborg. According to the Italian reference work "Dizionario
Enciclopedico
> degli Scacchi," Jaenish was Finnish by birth ("Finlandese di nascita") but
> studied in Russia. The Russians pronounced his name as YAH-nish. But
Germans
> pronounced his name as YAY-nish, reflecting an umlauted "a" in his name.
The
> most common pronunciation that I have heard among English-speaking
chessplayers
> is YAY-nish, echoing the German pronunciation. How Jaenish himself
pronounced
> his surname is open to question.
>
> George Mirijanian
> >
What I have heard, is that Jaenisch's "real" family name was Jänis (Rabbit
in English :-))
and because his family was very internationally oriented, they changed the
spelling
of their name to Jaenisch. Scandinavian letter "ä" is written "ae" in most
languages
and the pronunciation is easier when you add "ch" in the end. And in those
days the
individual's name had a lot more meaning than these days.
Pasi
Anders Thulin
Dan Scoones wrote:
>There was a great influx of foreign merchants and technical
>specialists into Russia during the reign of Peter the Great. It's
>likely the Jaenisch family was part of this group.
The influx in this case may also be explained by conquest. Jaenisch
was born in Viborg, 1813. This city became Russian in the Nystad peace
treaty, 1721. I can't say, though, when the Jaenisch family settled there, so
the possibility remains that they arrived later.
> Based on this slender evidence I think it's more likely he used the
> Russian pronunciation.
There is more evidence to be found, though.
He published some books and analyses in French: in these the name is written
as 'Jaenisch'. My minuscule knowledge of Russian does not allow me to decide just
what Cyrillic letters the 'Jae' is a transcription of. If the Russian form
of the name was pronounced 'yanish', and he used that form himself, I don't
understand where the 'e' comes from.
There are also a number of articles published in Schachzeitung -- the
name given here are either 'Jänisch' or 'Jaenisch'. Again, if this was
a pure Russian-to-German transcription, the letter ä seems a bit unlikely, but
as I said my knowledge of Russian is too small to allow me to be certain.
The 'ae' can sometimes be explained by noting that the material is
taken from French sources.
The German ä to French ae makes sense, as there is no ä in French (except as part
of a diphtong).
OCC lists his name as 'Carl Friedrich Andreyevich Jaenisch'. The obituary in
Schachzeitung 1872 p 241 gives the name as 'Carl (Andreewitsch) Friedrich von Jaenisch',
though von der Lasa's followup in 1873 does not have the (), which then suggests some kind of addition.
Gaige gives the name as v.d.Lasa does: 'Carl Friedrich von Jaenisch'. (Why OCC does not use 'von'
seems not to be explained.) French sources use the form 'de Jaenisch'. However,
none of his printed books seem to use the patronymic 'Andreyevich', which, together
with the (), might be a suggestion that he himself did not use the Russian form of his name,
or did not insist strongly on it being more correct than any other.
His connection with Finland seems to have been strong: he left his chess
books to the library in Helsinki/Helsingfors, rather than to his home city
St. Petersburg.
I'm thus inclined to suspect that he himself used the Finnish/German pronounciation
(Jänisch), rather than a Russian pronounciation.
--
Anders Thulin a...@algonet.se http://www.algonet.se/~ath
Anders Thulin
Pasi ja Minna wrote:
> What I have heard, is that Jaenisch's "real" family name was Jänis (Rabbit
> in English :-))
> and because his family was very internationally oriented, they changed the
> spelling
> of their name to Jaenisch.
I've seen this explanation, too. It would be interesting to know what the basis
for it is -- it has, somehow, an odd feeling of someone trying to make him slightly
more Finnish. I don't really believe in it, as it does not explain the 'von' used
in his name (except by OCC).
'Von' suggests some kind of connection with an estate of that name, or perhaps some
kind of minor peerage. If so, there may be more information to be found in Almanach
de Gotha or similar calenders from Finland or Russia.
It may be possible that he left more material than just his chess books to the library
of Helsinki -- if anything remains of it there, it may give better hints as to how
he wrote his own name.
Miriling
>Subject: Re: Carl Jaenisch: How Did He Pronounce His Surname?
>Date: 11/2/02 4:49 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <3DC39FD0...@algonet.se>
>
>I think it's more likely he used the
>> Russian pronunciation.
>My minuscule knowledge of Russian does not allow me to decide just
>what Cyrillic letters the 'Jae' is a transcription of. If the Russian form
>of the name was pronounced 'yanish', and he used that form himself, I don't
>understand where the 'e' comes from.
> I'm thus inclined to suspect that he himself used the Finnish/German
>pronounciation
>(Jänisch), rather than a Russian pronounciation.
If Jaenisch was originally the Finnish name Janis (with the "a" umlauted), then
the pronunication of his name would not be the same in Finnish and German. An
umlaut in his name in German would make his name pronounced with the "a" like
in the English word "late", while in Finnish an umlauted "a" is a short front
vowel with the "a" pronounced like the "a" in the English word "bad."
Since Russian does not have the natural sound of the umlauted "a" of Finnish,
it is logical that his name was pronounced as YAH-nisch when it was
transliterated into Cyrillic.
George Mirijanian
Miriling
>Subject: Re: Carl Jaenisch: How Did He Pronounce His Surname?
>Date: 11/2/02 1:11 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <hmq6suog5bpgmbvg6...@4ax.com>
>There was a great influx of foreign merchants and technical
>specialists into Russia during the reign of Peter the Great. It's
>likely the Jaenisch family was part of this group.
>I would say that the answer to your question depends on how long the
>family was in Russia prior to Carl's birth, and whether they hung onto
>their German roots and maintained the original pronunciation, or made
>a concession to their new homeland and Russified it to "Yanish."
>Jaenisch's full name was Carl Friedrich Andreyevich Jaenisch,
>indicating that his father's forename was already the Russian
>"Andrei."
For what it's worth, the Web site of the Jarvenpaa Chess Club in Finland
reports that "The most famous Finnish chess author [who] ever lived is still
Carl (Karl Friedrich von) Jaenisch (1813-1872). He was born in Viipuri (the
second largest city in Finland at the time), and his last name Jaenisch is
probably a Germanized spelling of the Finnish word janis [umlaut over the "a"],
which means hare."
Checking Finnish genealogical Web sites, one finds the name of Andreas Jaenisch
[Carl's father?], who lived from 1763 to 1832. Other sites lead one to believe
that the Jaenisch family was indeed originally from Germany, but later members
of the family settled in Viipuri (Vyborg), where Carl Friedrich was born.
George Mirijanian
Anders Thulin
Miriling wrote:
> If Jaenisch was originally the Finnish name Janis (with the "a" umlauted), then
> the pronunication of his name would not be the same in Finnish and German. [...]
But since the conclusion depends entirely on the assumption that the name
indeed was Jänis, it would be well to verify that first.
Also, names seldom follow rules. Alyokhin is a good example. How did *he*
pronounce his name?
> Since Russian does not have the natural sound of the umlauted "a" of Finnish,
> it is logical that his name was pronounced as YAH-nisch when it was
> transliterated into Cyrillic.
It may be logical that it was so pronounced by Russians, who got his name
in Cyrillic form. But that seems rather to be beside the point.
The question is how did he himself pronounce his name?
DHarris776
Thanks for the learned and interesting hypotheses.
The question arose last weekend, when I was playing
chess in Harvard Square, where I frequently go
to practice my fledgling chess skills against the experienced
regulars who play there.
I asked the same question of my experienced opponent, who
seemed to favor the German pronunciation--but was open to the
possibility that another pronunciation was used.
I'll print out this thread and take it with me to Harvard Square
today to share with him.
Regards,
David
Miriling
>Subject: Re: Carl Jaenisch: How Did He Pronounce His Surname?
>Date: 11/2/02 9:29 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <3DC3E147...@algonet.se>
>
>Miriling wrote:
>
>> If Jaenisch was originally the Finnish name Janis (with the "a" umlauted),
>then
>> the pronunication of his name would not be the same in Finnish and German.
>[...]
Anders Thulin wrote:> But since the conclusion depends entirely on the
assumption that the name
>indeed was Jänis, it would be well to verify that first.
> Also, names seldom follow rules. Alyokhin is a good example. How did *he*
>pronounce his name?
I'm sure that after he became a naturalized French citizen in 1927, with his
name transliterated into French as Alekhine, Alyokhin pronounced his name as
al-yekh-EEN, with the accent on the final syllable. When playing in Germany,
where his name was transliterated as Aljechin, I would not be surprised that
Germans pronounced his name with the accent on the second syllable. What is
grating to my ear is the pronunciation by U.S. players of his name as
AL-eh-kine, with the incorrect accent on the first syllable. If they knew it
was a French transliteration, then those with a knowledge of French would
pronounce it correctly and accent the proper syllable. The same problem exists
for Botvinnik, whose name I have heard countless times by players (who should
know better) who incorrectly accent the first syllable of his name instead of
the proper second. That also applies to Nimzowitsch, whose name has been
transliterated several different ways, but it does not alter the fact that the
accent in his name belongs on the second syllable instead of the first, as
pronounced by many U.S. players.
Since Russian does not have the natural sound of the umlauted "a" of
>Finnish,
>> it is logical that his name was pronounced as YAH-nish when it was
>> transliterated into Cyrillic.
Thulin continues:
>It may be logical that it was so pronounced by Russians, who got his name
>in Cyrillic form. But that seems rather to be beside the point.
>
> The question is how did he himself pronounce his name?
Miriling responds:
The answer to that question perhaps can only be answered by descendants of the
Jaenisch family, if there are any members of that family still living in
Viipuri, the Petersburg area in Russia or anywhere else.
George Mirijanian