This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

More mis-understood German

Mom and dad were both second generation German-speakers.  They learned to speak English in school.  (Mom often told about how the nuns expected them to play ball in English, and how HARD that was...lol)
By the time we came along, German was only used for conversation we "didn't need to know about", and for teasing or admonishing us.  
For instance, if we asked why kids couldn't drive cars, or why we couldn't have only ice cream for every meal, one of them would laugh and say what sounded like "Du bist fer-icht!", meaning "you are crazy" or "you are goofy".  Now, the only way I can find out if 'frricht' is an actual word is with Google Translate...and nope, it isn't.  So, what's a word for 'crazy' in German?  Ahh...verrückt.  It's pronounced "ferr-oo-cht".  (See the comment from Lois, below.  Thanks, Cookie!)  They knew what they meant, and we understood....gut genug.


'Course, there were some words Google doesn't know, like "schluparsch", meaning a...well,  a willfully messy, dirty person.  We understood it like "slop ass"...lol  Heaven forbid you should be called that!
One of my clients is the age my parents would be now, and she grew up with German at home too.  I was applying lotion to her back after her shower and it was a little cold--we were both laughing, and she called me something in German that I hadn't been called in 50 years.  
'Course, I didn't write it down, and now neither of us can remember what it was...lol  I'll add it here if it comes back to me.  But if YOU have a suggestion, add it in a comment, ok?

1 comment:

  1. verrückt - the u with an umlaut over it (two dots) basicly DOES have an "I" sound not an ooo sound. Our parents were correct. Lois

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