When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
i say it “Porsche”. Just as all the Germans do. Ferdi was ethnic German and would have pronounced it just the same, despite being born in the Austin-Hungarian empire. He was German (by ethnicity and language).
Ferdinand was more Czechoslovakian than German really. Their family last name got germanized from prochazka to Porsche when they immigrated.
Hard to find sources on this.
Well, if we are going to get technical: Czechoslovakia (a country i.e. political state) didn't exist until after F.Porsche was born. The Czech people certainly existed and his birthplace was in Bohemia, a Czech part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czech refers both to the Slavic people who are Czechs and also anyone who was born in a Czech area whether they were German or Czech speaking and of Slavic (true Czech) or non-Slavic (German) ancestry. Of course things are fluid as families intermarry and move around the region.
The village he was born into was next to (and is now part of) a city that was more German than Czech. It had two names, and went under the German name Reichenberg during the pre-WWI period. You can see it NNE of Prague in this picture showing language usage as late as 1937. Germany annexed the Sudetenland, including Porsche's birthplace, with the argument that these were German people. I'm not a fan of this, Germany was marching the world to war.
Porsche became a Czechoslovakian citizen after that country was formed and then in the 1930's took German citizenship, prior to the annexation, because of the ****'s distrust of Slavs (and therefore Czechoslovakia) as sub-human.
We digress. German people were not confined to the borders of modern day Germany, and were in fact all over the region.
Obviously its just a car, I'm asking because it is said both ways and I was wondering the correct way. If I heard people call Chevy either Cheveee or Chevay I would ask the same.
Good point. However, mispronouncing Porsche would be similar to mispronouncing Chevrolet since it is also a family name. "Chevy" is colloquial as in a nickname. Calling a Corvette just a "vette", is different since the word "Corvette" did not originate from a family name.
But who really cares. People come up to me all the time and say, "Wow, that's a nice Porsch!" I don't go etymology-ninja on them. I just say thank you and get to know them a little.
In Europe, everyone says "PORSHHHH" according to German pronunciation. But I don't really care as long as we are talking about the same fabulous car...
In Europe, everyone says "PORSHHHH" according to German pronunciation. But I don't really care as long as we are talking about the same fabulous car...
As I was born/lived but in another part of Europe, I can assure you that they don't. Western Europe is not ALL of Europe.
Are you talking about theTrabant? (/ˈtræbænt, -ənt/; German: [tʁaˈbant]) is an automobile which was produced from 1957 to 1990 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau.
04-02-2019, 10:52 AM
PORSHHHH
