Jaënsson

[David]

Hej! Ive had a burning question for a couple of years now. My great great grandfathers name appears to have been recorded as Fredrik Jaënsson (see GID 365.23.37700 and 365.20.65500), yet ë is obviously not a vowel in the Swedish language. Was it at some time? Future records (see GID 365.24.58900) do not seem to include the double dots over the e. Does anyone have any insight into this?

[Chris Bingefors]

David The wovels ae together usually ended up in the same sound as ä (compare to Danish/Norwegian which still spells ä as ae). The two dots orginally mean that the a and the e should be pronounced separately (aah-eh). Later the a in aë became a long a. This reflects the earlier use of diphthongs in the language. It still exists in the name Claës, which nowadays is pronounced only Klaas, not Kläs or Klaaees. Jaënsson became Jaanson, with a long dark a, not Jannson with a short a. Spelling was not standardized earlier, and some of the names also reflect the local dialectal variations which could be very strong. Swedish is said to be one of the most vowel-rich languages if you consider all pronounciation variants (long-short, dark-light etc).

[Christina Backman]

Jansson is an extremely common name so people have chosen alternative spellings in order to stand out from all the other Janssons (Jeansson, Jaensson, Jahnsson, Janson, Jahansson...)in the phone book etc. The two dots are purely cosmetic.

[David]

Thank you both for your responses. Youve been a huge help to me lately Chris. Thank you for that! )))) This is helpful on my Danish research as well. My paternal grandfather was born in Vornæs, Tåsinge (Fyn). It confirms my assumption about how to pronounce æ at least.