nightmare butchery of lastnames (was Re: Whiteness?)

In a message dated 2000:09:05 6:24:30 AM, yl112@CORNELL.EDU writes:

>ObConLang: Do y'all deal with butchered foreigners' names in your
>conlangs?  :-)  By some strange coincidence, my name is entirely
>pronounceable in Chevraqis.  My boyfriend's name is a nightmare (but
>then, his last name is Betzwieser, which is a nightmare in Korean, too).
LOL, to my English _Betzwieser_ looks if it would be easier to pronounce like
"Budwizer." See, butchery... It happened a lot to immigrants coming through
Ellis Island to America... In slow tourist-like talk, an Anglo-American clerk
would ask, "What's your father's sirname -er- last name?"
Our hypothetically immigrant proudly answers, "Me fathah name waz
Castigliano." {_Castigliano_ means Castilian}
    Anglo-clerkie has lightbulb go off (albeit a dim one due to
under-education & overwork) & says, "Ah, you are a Castleman!"

    Things like that happened a lot on Ellis Island (on the East Coast) &
similar things like that happened in the Bay Area (West Coast) on Treasure Isl
and & Angel Island (Angel Island was where the Asians were "processed" -
sometimes taking as long as 5 years!!!!).

    czHANg  <= my iconic Romanized butchery, hehe

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