Does anyone know the correct pronunciation of Hanna Schygulla's last name? No guesses please!
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cmp_gr — 16 years ago(December 21, 2009 11:29 PM)
No, that's wrong. BlueGreen is right. In German you are pronouncing what you are reading.
I have another question about this name. It doesnt sound very German, does it? What sort of name is that please?
It goes without saying that my question is mainly addressed to German friends. Thank you. -
logan03 — 16 years ago(December 22, 2009 01:05 AM)
NO, it is not wrong! I'm right also.
She as in She
Gu as in GUda cheese
la as in do re mi la
Repeat after me: She gu la
one more timeshe gu laShegula
I see no difference in my pronounciation than in BluGreen's other than the SHE was capitalized.
PS I am German, but thanks for making assumptioms and being condescending and patronising. -
logan03 — 16 years ago(December 22, 2009 04:44 PM)
If I sounded somewhat harsh earlier, I apologizeit wasn't meant that way.
Re Hanna's name, I can't be of more help because being German is no guarantee that every name origin will be instantly recognizable. It states in her bio that she was born to German parents in the area known as Upper Silesia.
It was Germany at the time, but now belongs to Poland since the end of WWII and has had a name change to reflect that. I did find this website of registered names in Poland and it lists two variations on the name: Schygulla and Schygula (with only one "L").
http://www.feefhs.org/links/Poland/wischnitz/surnames.html
However, I'd like to add my personal thought to this. The area of Upper Silesia, which is actually in the lower area of Poland, was once shared with Czchekoslovakia, which leads me to believe her name could also have strong Czchek influence, though primarily Polish. Actually the "Sch" part of the name is very German isn't it; I lived in a small town name Scharnhausen for a while.
Last, but not least: My family name is "Boortz" but is a highly uncommon name in Germany;16d0 I never met anyone with that name except for my grandparents. My mother's situation was similar to Hanna's - she was born in the eastern part of Germany, near the Baltic coast, but that area is now part of Poland since after WWII. I was born in Bavaria and spent most of my life there & identify with that area. I moved to the U.S. many years later and never met anyone with my last name, except for one - there is a well-known radio personality here named Neal Boortz and I've seen a few articles about others asking what it meant. There is no definite answer about it either. I've searched Google many times and have found very little.
So, the point I'm trying to make again is that just because we are German doesn't mean we always know the roots of our last name. Often we don't think of such things until many years later when we start wondering about our family background/heritage. -
cmp_gr — 16 years ago(December 22, 2009 11:36 PM)
Many thanks for your so informative reply.
First of all you dont need to apologize for anything. I didnt notice any harshness in your previous reply. I know that there are many names in Germany that sound Polish (-in, sky etc.), or even Russian (-ow, -ovsky ) and so on.
That gulla struck me, because it sound rather Turkish, or something and I know that Hanna is not of Turkish origin.
Thanks any way for your help. I wish you Frohe Weihnachten und ein glckliches Neues Jahr. -
chlodny — 9 years ago(April 13, 2016 11:23 AM)
I know this thread is old and I'm commenting something written 7 years ago but let me explain a few things here since I'm from Upper Silesia. Greetings for you, dear reader in 2023.
Schygulla is just German spelling of the name Szygua. It is pronounced as Shigoowah and it's not uncommon in Upper Silesia. You can see the concentration of people of that name in the region on this map:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/szygu%25C5%2582a.html
Also, there's some persons who use the German spelling:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/schygulla.html
And mixed:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/szygula.html
Let's also bear in mind that the pronunciation of a name depends solely on the preferences of the owner, so it might be possible that in that particular case it's pronounced "Shigoolah" as German language doesn't have the sound "w".
The whole confusion comes from the fact that the region of Upper Silesia had been quite Slavic despite being a part of Prussia and later Germany.
Logan03, your guesses made me smile when I read that Upper Silesia is in the lower area of Poland. The adjective doesn't come from the point you see it on a map. There's Upper Silesia, which we might call Highlands, and Lower Silesia, which we could name Lowlands. It was never shared by Poland and Czechoslovakia as well.
Thanks for reading.
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logan03 — 9 years ago(April 13, 2016 12:49 PM)
In this link to a You Tube interview with Hannah, the host pronounces her last name exactly as I was trying to spell it out phonetically in my earlier posting/response to the original query. It is enough to confirm that I was pronouncing it correctly all along:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjDhR8AqCzg
I'm not sure why my "guesses" about Upper Silesia made you "smile": "Logan03, your guesses made me smile when I read that Upper Silesia is in the lower area of Poland":
First of all, none were "guesses" - all were researched very carefully. Every search I did on Hanna states that she was born in Knigshtte/ Upper Silesia/ Germany [now Chorzw/ Slaskie/ Poland]. Every search I did on Chorzw/ Slaskie/ Poland state that it is in the area of Upper Silesia - some sites say Southern Poland, others state Southeastern Poland and most state it is part of the Silesia Highlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorzów
Further, when I commented on the shared history with Czechoslovakia, I got my info from sites such as this, where they discuss the once-shared borders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Silesia
Perhaps in my earlier posting, some of my wording or the way I expressed it may not have been as clear as I would have liked. But, I stand by it anyway - as the song says "you say POtatO, I say PotAto"
Thanks for taking time to respond, giving your viewpoints
You've done some bad things, sweetie.