In the UK all the men called Mark I came across so far (including my husband ;-)) are spelled with a "k" at the end. Sprinkled in are a few called Marcus - usually then spelled with a "c" in the middle.
In Germany it is the complete other way round (would explain why the majority of mails or invitations we get from Germans are still adressed to a non-existent "Marc" in my life). Here Marcs are usually belonging to the "c" fraction while the, more common, Markus has a "k". Of course there are exceptions to the rule but I found this interesting...If there are any linguists reading this who might have an explanation for this, please let me know.
I had never noticed. interesting little quirk!
ReplyDeleteHmm ich bin kein Linguist, aber ich kann mir vorstellen, dass man den Namen Marc in Deutschland nur ungern mit K schreibt, weil die Schreibweise dann genauso ist wie bei deutsche Mark und durch Mark und Bein gehen.
ReplyDeleteIch bin grad sehr beeindruckt von der Überlegung im Comment über mir!
ReplyDeleteI am not a linguist, I am afraid. However, I vividly remember a German boy from my childhood days who used to introduce himself as "Marc-mit-C". This became his nickname and even today our circle of friends refers to him as Marc-mit-C ;)
ReplyDelete@Miss W: Ich habe aus der Schulzeit auch noch die Katarina "ohne H" und die Katharina "mit H" übernommen ;-)
ReplyDeletei am not quite sure about these one´s...
ReplyDeletefor the german versions: marc/kus was introduced as a typical christian name (e.g. the evangelist marcus) into the language way before marc/k and the germans tended to change all foreign names to match their alphabet and name system - so c is usually exchanged with a k. they also had other means of making them sound more german which is why some names are considered being german while they are actually hebrew or greek. there are usually numerous variations of one name which are still preserved in family names (think of marx e.g.)
marc on the other hand is first of all something "new" that came to germany in the 20th century - to distinguish it from the nomen proprium (as mentioned above) and to keep the well liked "foreign" touch it is spelled with a c. the popularity of marcel that came into fashion at about the same time helped in the process of preferring the c over the k (and finally it also increased choosing marCus over marKus).
the english marcus does not have a k as it was simply taken over from the latin form unchanged which happened to a lot of the names with some christian origin. i am not quite sure about the k in mark, though... if u have a look at other "short" versions of longer latin names you find that a k is preferred for the shorter ones (lucas/luke, michael/mike) but i am not sure about the historical facts there (i didn´t dive to much into english linguistics... sorry!)
arf... nicht nomen proprium.... nomen appellativum! wenn man einmal nicht aufpasst :D
ReplyDeletejooaaaa... aber es ist einfacher auf konkrete fragen zu antworten, als mit einer serie von posts zu diesem thema loszulegen... ich will ja auch keine vorlesungen schreiben... ich finde einfach nicht den richtigen anfang o.O
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting!
ReplyDelete