Re: Knop to Knip
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In reply to:
Knop to Knip
3/29/00
The "umlaut o" (an "o" with two dots over it, is difficult to pronounce in English, but is somewhat like the letter "o" pronounced with the lips pursed as in whistling. There German alphabet has three letters more than the 26 in the English alphabet: I think they are umlaut o, umlaut a, and umlaut u (each written with two dots over them). I last lived in Germany in 1969, so my German is not very good. I do remember (from 1946-48) that, for an English speaker, pronouncing these is difficult. Since so many people couldn't read or write in Varner's time those listening put down what they thought. I could well be Knipp is a believed spelling of Knop (with an umlaut). Note that in Germany, a common given name is Werner, with the "W" pronounced as a "V". I suspect that Varner's given name was really Werner.