KOCH and KOCK in old Mecklenburg-Schwerin

mecklenburg-l
1

KOCK and KOCH are different names and differently prounounced.
KOCH is the german word for cook, but the ending is not spoken as a "k". The
single "o" in both names is a short sound. When you are surprised or
something unexpected happens you sometimes say "Oh". That's how it sounds,
if you speek it shorter or faster (what would be the right word??).
The "CK" in KOCK is spoken as a "K" like in Cook ore Coke.

This is really interesting to me. Our pastor's last name is Koch and he makes sure everyone pronounces it as "Coke." Now I'm wondering what the name was back in Germany. I done his genealogy back a few generations to the immigrant and it's consistently "Koch."

Cheryl

2

Hello Cheryl

<< he makes sure everyone pronounces it as "Coke." >>

Sure he does, for native English usually are not able to pronounce the
German "ch" correctly, for "Koch" they use the "k" sound instead.

Following behind an "a", an "o" or a "u" vowel, the German "ch" sounds
hard, like the gaelic "gh" / "ch" (ir. "lough" / scott. "loch" = engl.
"lake") or like the Spanisch "j", e.g. in "ojo" = engl. "eye".

Following behind an "e" or an "i" and the German umlauts "ä", "ö" and
"ü", the German "ch" sounds softer, like the Spanish "j" in "Mejico"
(Mexico).

Best regards.

Juergen