Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

Hi Mac!
 
I feel I have to contact you about what I just found on your amazing website!

Admiral Donitz sometimes spelled his name "Doenitz", but I have chosen to use the form Donitz, essentially, because this is how the U-Boat Commander spells his name in his own book, "Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days."

As you probably know, the Admiral's name in German is spelt Dönitz ... with an 'Umlaut' ... those two little dots ... on the 'o' ... making it an 'ö' ... no longer just an 'o' ... and more importantly, making it sound more like 'Dernitz'

In the German language, one always has the option to write it with the 'e' added to it ... instead of using the 'o' with the umlaut ... or in my case, if one hasn't got an umlaut on one's keyboard!

In the case of an 'a' or a 'u', as in the Hilfskreuzer captains, we find Otto Kähler, or Kaehler... pronounced Kayler ... and Ernst Felix Krüder, or Krueder ... pronounced Kreeder ... not Kahler ... and not Kruder!

In Dönitz' book you will clearly see that little umlaut!

His name is not ... and never was ... Donitz!

You really should change that.

By the way ,on the top line of the piece, there's a lovely typo on the word ... Gremany!

Keep the faith!

Jonathan Ryan.

Irish Actor & Voice Over Artist
www.jonathanryan.com

Hello Jonathan,

Thank you for your message and your trouble to write, of course you are quite right, and I was, and am, aware of an umlaut and its significance, guess I was lazy, and hoped any one whose first language was English, and happened to chance on Underwater Warfare, would not be aware of an umblat.

But of course not so, your keen IRISH EYES found it all, and you do know what it is all about.
 
I have asked Terry, my web master in Atlanta, Georgia how we might tackle the problem, as the names of Donitz, Kahler and Kruder will all appear many times in the overall text on AHOY.

Thank you also for your offer to edit and polish my Marauders WW1 and WW2, but with the proviso of an umlaut missing on any names, I am happy to leave what I produced, as it appears on my web site.

I have enjoyed looking at your site, and hearing you in your many guises, all very clever and versatile.

My wife Denise ( who was an O'Brien ) and I have both visited and enjoyed Ireland many times.

Best wishes from OZ.

Mac Gregory.

Oops, we've finally been caught, bound to happen sooner or later. Right now, with over a million words on Ahoy, I'm intimidated by the thought of changing our spelling or even finding them all. That's in addition to correcting spelling errors that we find ourselves and our visitors are kind enough to point out to us.  Maybe we should include a disclaimer or a glossary of actual spellings as we find them. This sent me searching in MicroSoft Word to find out how to make an "umlaut" (It's Ctrl-Shift : (colon) and then the letter, I learn something every day.)

Terry

P.S. I have finally gotten used to English spellings "harbour" for US "harbor" and many others.

back to letters index