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This page was last updated Jan 19th, 2006

 

So what about those names?

Buschlen

From what I have been told, the name means "by the bush" or something similar to that. The word busch in German translates into shrub. This version of the Buschlen spelling is the way most of us are familiar with, and use. The proper spelling of the name should include "umlauts" over the letter U, and look like this "Büschlen".

Büschlen

This is the original and proper way our surname should appear, but since the English alphabet is not the same as the German alphabet, we do not see our name spelled like that here. The umlauts look like two dots or vertical dashes. They require the U to be pronounced as a U when you say the name. So Büschlen would not be pronounced - bush - len - as we do, but rather - buesh - len, similar to the way you would say the name "Buelah".

Bueschlen

The different spelling of Bueschlen is a result of the German alphabet not being the same as our English alphabet, the insertion of the 'e' after the 'u' is to replace the 'ü' and make proper pronounciation. The different spelling started with brothers Christian and Peter, sons of Christian Buschlen. They changed the spelling of their names to Bueschlen. Children of Christian and Peter moved to Michigan keeping this new name, however, some grandchildren of Christian and Peter have gone back to the original spelling. Peter, his father Christian, and his son Ezra, are buried side by side in Linglebach Cemetery, Ontario. Father Christian's stone is marked Buschlen, his son Peter is marked Bueschlen, his grandson Ezra marked Buschlen. Christian is buried in Sebewaing, Michigan. His stone is marked Bueschlen.
John Bueschlen, one of four sons of Gilgian Buschlen and Maria Schneider, also decided to change his name. Records show his birth as Buschlen, marriage as Buschlen, but his death as Bueschlen.
I have heard that some of the Bueschlen's in Michigan pronounce their name "Bishlen" or "Beeshlen". I am not sure how this started, and find it odd that the 'e' is being emphasized instead of the 'u'. See further explanation below.

Bushlen

This different spelling of Bushlen first shows up in Arpin, Wisconsin. Christian Buschlen's family adopted this anglicized spelling of Buschlen at the turn of the century. I have records showing their name as Buschlen and then Bushlen a few years later. I can only assume this was done to make themselves feel more 'American'.

Buschlin

No this is not how we spell our name!!! It is a common mispelling of our name. Probably due to lazy speach patterns and how we pronounce our name.

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Understanding the Umlaut and Bueschlen

Germanic umlaut

In linguistics, the process of umlaut (from German um- "around", "transformation" + Laut "sound") is a modification of a vowel which causes it to be pronounced more similarly to a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. This process is found in many languages.


Umlaut in English and German

Although umlaut itself has nothing to do with grammatical function, the resulting vowel changes often took on such a function. We can see this in the English word man; in ancient Germanic, the plural had the same vowel, but also a plural suffix -ir. The suffix caused fronting of the vowel, and when the suffix later disappeared, the mutated vowel remained as the only plural marker: men. In English, such umlaut-plurals are rare, but other examples are tooth/teeth and goose/geese; compare also long (adj)/length (n). Umlaut is conspicuous when it occurs in one of such a pair of forms, but it should be remembered that many English words contain a vowel which has been mutated in this way, but which does not now have a parallel unmutated form; umlaut need not carry a grammatical function.


History

Originally, umlaut was denoted in written German by adding an e to the affected vowel, either after the vowel or, in small form, above it. (In medieval German manuscripts, other digraphs could also be written using superscripts: in bluome ("flower"), for example, the <o> was frequently placed above the <u>.) In blackletter handwriting as used in German manuscripts of the later Middle Ages, and also in many printed texts of the early modern period, the superscript <e> still had a form which would be recognisable to us as an <e>. However, in the forms of handwriting which emerged in the early modern period (of which Sütterlin is the latest and best known example), the letter <e> had two strong vertical lines, and the superscript <e> looked like two tiny strokes. Gradually these strokes were reduced to dots, and as early as the 16th century we find this handwritten convention being transferred sporadically to printed texts too.


Printing conventions in German

When typing German, if umlaut letters are not available, the proper way is to replace them with the underlying vowel and a following <e>. So, for example, "Schröder" becomes "Schroeder". As the pronunciation differs greatly between the normal letter and the umlaut, simply omitting the dots is considered incorrect and irritates native speakers. The result might often be a different word, and in fact sentences can be constructed where the meaning would change, for example "Der Hauptmann gab den Soldaten Stützen/Stutzen", in English: "The captain gave the soldiers supports/short rifles.". Another example of incorrect practice is referring to Düsseldorf (named after the river Düssel, a tributary of the Rhine) as Dusseldorf, which literally means dimwit village.

Umlaut information taken from Wikipedia