More Spellings

Interesting ways that people in the Netherlands have spelled my last name:

Wijse
Wijsse
Weijze

My name is actually spelled Wyse. So in America, the most popular misspelling is, of course, Wise.

Why do people spell my name in these creative ways here in the NL? My theory ... in Dutch, when the two letters ij appear side-by-side, they only constitute one sound. We don't really have this sound in English. It's a sound that, from my perspective, is somewhat stuck between the ai in brain and the ee in spleen. It's sort of an ay-eeeeee sound. Well, now come to think of it, that's similar to the way I pronounce the i/y in Wise/Wyse -- when I really give that midwestern dipthong a go of it, anyway! Thus, many Dutch people assume my name is spelled with the letter combination of ij.

Another note: in the Dutch language, there are no silent e's. And s's are always pronounced like s's, never like z's. Two more reasons why my name is a complicated one to spell here, since it features both the silent e and the s-masqerading-as-z phenomenon.

Originally -- hundreds of years ago when my forefolks were still in Germany -- my name was probably spelled Weiss, meaning White. Kind of like Gandalf the White. At least that's what I like to think.

A note to the Schoch's: Here in the Netherlands, your name would be pronounced with both of the ch's as gutterals! (Like in the Scottish Loch or the German Bach.) And the first ch would be prounounced separately from the initial s; thus, your name would begin with an s-sound rather than an sh-sound. Plus, the o would be longer ... Try pronouncing that one!

S - gutteral ch - long o sound - gutteral ch

Cool!