Phonetic order
The phonetic order describes a phonetic alphabet with an order of the letters according to their sound sequence, which is used in particular in the order of family names .
Since there used to be no spelling in today's sense, and certainly not for family names, from the 16th to the 19th century there were often twenty or thirty different spellings for some names. Not only did the spelling in the church registers change frequently from pastor to pastor and from parish to parish , but sometimes even differences within a document can be documented. Knowledge of this changeability of names is therefore a necessary basic knowledge of every genealogist . Often times it can be a dead pointonly overcome in genealogical research by knowing or being able to guess how the name was written. For example, from 1715 a Friedrich Jentzsch lived as a landlord in Ortmannsdorf near Zwickau , but he was born in 1679 in nearby Wildenfels as Friedrich Gentsch .
It is therefore advisable to arrange the files and registers of historical persons according to the phonetic order and to also apply this order in ancestral lists and local family books and other works. It should be noted that the phonetic order not only applies to the initial letter, but must also be strictly adhered to within the name, i.e. a Tränckmann is classified as a Drenkman, a Böhme as a Beme and so on. Since every researcher is a beginner and is only gradually getting to know the variety of name forms in a certain area, it would be difficult to use registers and so on if this phonetic order is taken too far (e.g. all vowels are omitted, which is because of the frequent change of vowels would be reasons). It is advisable to include references in the card indexes and publications in order to enable and facilitate the finding of persons and contexts for those less familiar with a phonetic alphabet.
Because of the dialect differences, only general rules can be drawn up, which have to be changed or supplemented depending on the local peculiarities, whereby the basic rule is that names that have a less common spelling, that is, appear less often, generally to names that sound the same or similar be arranged with common notation.
| A. | A. |
| B, P (not Pf, Ph) | B. |
| D, T, Th (not Tz) | D. |
| E, Ä, Ae, Oe, Ö | E. |
| Ei, Ai, Ay, Eu, Äu, Oi | Ai |
| F, Pf, Ph, V | F. |
| H | H |
| I, J, Ü, Ue, Y | I. |
| K, C (hard), G | K |
| Qu | Kw |
| L. | L. |
| M. | M. |
| N | N |
| O | O |
| R. | R. |
| S. | S. |
| U | U |
| W, V | W. |
| X | Ks |
| Z, Tz, C (soft), Tsch | Z |
There is no need to take into account any stretching or sharpening within the names. Double self-voices and double voices are treated like simple ones, non-spoken letters are ignored. Otherwise, proceed within the name as with the first letters.
| aa, ah | a |
| ä, ae, uh, aeh, ee, ö, öh | e |
| ie, ih, j, ü, ue, üh, ueh, ui, uy, oy | i |
| bb, pp | b |
| ck, kk | k |
| ss, ß | s |
Identical names with or without an e in the middle or at the end are filed with those without an e:
| Arend, Arnd | Arnd |
| Long, long | Long |
Identical names with an h in the middle are merged with those without an h.
| Berthold, Bertold | Berdold |
literature
- General guidelines for an order according to the sound sequence (phonetic order). Beuth-Verlag, Berlin 1933. (= AWv leaflet 3)
- K. Themel: How do I map church records? The structure of an alphabetical church register card index. Publishing house for registry offices, Berlin 1936.