German Surname "Distortion" and Pronunciation (DIESCH,TEACH,DYCHE)

[Mark Young]

Rooters,

Consider the surnames ...
DIESCH
TEACH
DYCHE
and say that DIESCH is a German Surname.

I had been told by a gentleman, Charles L. Teach, researching Teach and
Dyche lines that the German pronunciation of the letter "D" sounded like "T".

Is it possible, then, that a person immigrating to the U.S. with surname
DIESCH may have distorted it to "TEACH"?

Also, is it then possible that DYCHE could have been pronunced with a
soft "CH" rather than a hard "K" sound? Perhaps the "Y" was
pronounced like a long "E" rather than a long "I". My father and I have
always thought that DYCHE was pronounced as "D-longI-K", but it's hard to
tell how our early ancestors prounounced it.

What say you German surname and pronunciation experts?

Mark F. Young
E-MAIL: m...@psp.att.com
USMAIL: 2761 Greenfield Drive, Lisle, IL 60532
SEARCH: Dyche Craig Young Foutz Hunter Duckwall

[Fred Rump from home]

Mark Young <m...@PSP.ATT.COM> writes:

>Consider the surnames ...
> DIESCH
> TEACH
> DYCHE
>and say that DIESCH is a German Surname.

>I had been told by a gentleman, Charles L. Teach, researching Teach and
>Dyche lines that the German pronunciation of the letter "D" sounded like "T".

First of all the name could have several origins. The German/Dutch form of
dike is Deich/Dyke/Dyck. There are the Diekmanns, the Diekhofs, Deichs etc
(the ei, ie was often interchanged in the past) who are all related to living
near a dike of some kind. Origin is obviously from the northern Germany or
Holland. The name Dei(c)ke is among the most ancient of names in Frisia and
Lower Saxony where there were lots of dikes. Other popular forms are
Dei(c)ke(n), Deycks and Deierling. The name can be traced to the 10th century
in Westfalia as Deiko.

Then there is the Swabian Deisch(le) or Daisch which comes from the middle
high German word Teisch or Kiedaisch (Kuhmist) which translates for dung or
cowdung.

Another name origin is from Dietrich. Diesch is Alemannish for Dietsch which
in turn meant Dietrich or Dieter which in turn goes back to Theodoric, King of
the Goths (5th cent).

If the ancestry is not specifically proven to be of Northern German origin,
the Dietrich source is the most likely as Diede, Thiede, Thiel, Diel, Dirksen,
Tietze, Dietz, Tieck all have thier origin there.

>Is it possible, then, that a person immigrating to the U.S. with surname
>DIESCH may have distorted it to "TEACH"?

Of course. Spelling was never a strong point in the past. Could be that Teach
was Teach too. Only the genealogy can tell.

>Also, is it then possible that DYCHE could have been pronunced with a
>soft "CH" rather than a hard "K" sound? Perhaps the "Y" was
>pronounced like a long "E" rather than a long "I". My father and I have
>always thought that DYCHE was pronounced as "D-longI-K", but it's hard to
>tell how our early ancestors prounounced it.

See above explanation of Dyke etc.

Fred
--
W. Fred Rump office: fr...@COMPU.COM "Home to a boy is merely like
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