Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 December 24

= December 24 =

Pantchova
What the proper name for a city, that a German Luftwaffe soldier would call Pantchova I can't find it!. Thanks. scope_creep (talk) 15:13, 24 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Pančevo 75.176.88.6 (talk) 15:21, 24 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks scope_creep (talk) 15:23, 24 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm not convinced; the German article says, "Pančevo (serbisch-kyrillisch Панчево, Aussprache: [ˈpâːntʃɛvɔ]; deutsch veraltet Pantschowa, ungarisch Pancsova)".


 * I wonder if you misunderstood the context and the soldier was talking about a person,not a city; the word stated in the question is a reasonably common surname. 86.20.193.222 (talk) 20:32, 26 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Your citation seems to support 75.176.88.6's point. הסרפד  (call me Hasirpad) 01:36, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Not really. "Pantchova" could potentially be a mis-spelling of Pančevo - or,for that matter, pantomime, Pantothenase, or Panphobia - but the limited context given suggested to me that the word is more likely referencing a person (Mr. Pantchova) than a similarly-sounding city. Knowing the context would help. 86.20.193.222 (talk) 03:19, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
 * More likely a Ms/Miss/Mrs Pantchova. In languages where such a name is likely, the male form would be Pantchov.  Sounds Bulgarian to me, but I can only find Pantchev, not Pantchov.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  03:34, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
 * The regular form, per phonetic rules, is indeed Panchev/Pancheva (masc./fem.), but Panchov/Panchova exists too as a less common variant. That's a patronymic surname derived from the given name Pancho. Here I'm using "ch", the standard transliteration for ч /tʃ/, but "tch" is seen as well, and German-style "tsch" might be employed in German texts. --Theurgist (talk) 13:36, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

The combination "tch" is unusual in German, and it looks like a mis-spelling of one of the variant spellings given in the German article, all of which are pronounced the same way.Ehrenkater (talk) 19:06, 27 December 2017 (UTC)