Linguistics 101

All right, class, let's get out your textbooks, turn to page 28, and get this name thing straight. I keep hearing people say Lohse pronounces his name strangely. He doesn't. The name Lohse is German - from Lower Saxony to be precise. The name can be traced back to the late thirteenth century when surnames became common in the Holy Roman Empire, not that that has anything to do with anything.

In German, the name is pronounced "Lohsha," as the "e" at the end of German words is pronounced as another short syllable (and is the reason for spelling mutations like Roma => Rome). As the "s" is a regular "s" and not "ß," the combination of the "s" and the "e" produces a "sh" sound. When you say Lohse that sounds like "loshe," you are not pronouncing the "hs" as the "sh" sound. Instead, the "h" sound is pronounced with the "o," as in "oh" with a little extra breath at the end of the vowel sound. It's L-oh-se, with the "se" pronounced as "sh" for reasons previously mentioned.

While we English speaking folk do cut the short syllable "e" even shorter, if you slowly say Lohse Lohse Lohse a few times, you'll notice that you do say the extra syllable. Try it.

Go Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse Lohse!!!!!11!1!

If you say it even slooower, you will hear that it really sounds like Loooohsepleasewin.

One of the very few, perhaps the only bright spot in yesterday's shelling is the fact that Lohse can pitch this weekend, so we don't need to go Sunny D and T.B.D. Suck back to back, assuming Kremchek got it wrong again and Milton's arm falls off in the first inning on Sunday. Marty says Lohse might go Saturday. No way he can have as bad an outing as yesterday, is there?


Hat tip to Jacci and Red Hot Mama for the inspiration.