Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
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In reply to:
Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
Gary Totten 6/22/09
Gary, it is difficult for me to know how to pronounce "Why-th" since "th" is pronounced two different ways, deriving from two now obsolete English letters."Th" can be pronounced softly (not voiced), as in "with", or hard (voiced), as in "the".It would be great to learn how your wife pronounces her given last name.
Wytheville, VA, however, was not named for your wife's family, so the people who live there are not mispronouncing their town's name.Wytheville was named for the Signer of the Declaration (and important Virginia politician, judge, and law professor) George Wythe, as was Wythe County of which it is the county seat.I am descended from his sister, Anne Wythe, and since George Wythe had no children who survived him, the name has been memorialized by carrying it down in our family as a frequent middle or first name.So far as WE today know, our family has always pronounced the name as though it were the preposition "with."
I would be delighted to see your tree or lineage.I am certain that these names are all the same -- Wythe, Wyeth, With, and Withe -- and so I suppose we (your spouse and I) must be related.
So far as I can determine, "wythe" is a Middle English word meaning "limb of a birch or willow tree"; "switch".It survives in the common British English term for saplings or thin stalks of wood, "witheys."The word "wythe" appears as a noun, with the above meaning, in Chaucer.
More Replies:
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Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
Sue Mergler 7/24/09
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Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
Gary Totten 6/22/09
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Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
John Wythe 2/22/11
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Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
Gary Totten 2/22/11
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Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?
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Re: How is WYTHE pronounced?