In article <BAY103-DAV7B21226F96028059675C5BAC80@...>,
robert roudman <rcroudman@...> wrote:

Russian/ English pronunciation?
Hello, My grandfather listed Sedilka, with an "e" on his social security
application as his birthplace.(1882) I know that the family home was in
Volhynia (Ukraine). Since a search did not locate a Sedilka in Volhnia, I
used the Morse site for EIDB and entered Sedil.. as the town and turned up a
few names very close, such as Sedilkow, located in Wolyn, Volyn, which is an
area in the north west of Volynia. With the knowledge that Sedilka was very
likely in Volhynia I searched a 1914 military map of the area and located a
town with the name Sudilkow, with a "u". Could this be the Sedilka that I am
looking for. Would the "u" sound as an "e" when when voiced by a Russian to
an English speaker? The map have been produced by the Polish army, they
referred to Russian territory as Russland.

There was no Polish army in 1914. "Russland" is German for Russia.
Wolyn and Volyn, by the way, are the Polish and Russian/Ukrainian
names for Volhynia. The current Ukrainian oblast (province) named
Volyn is only a part of what used to be Volhynia.

As for your question, it's quite possible for vowels to be changed
in the transition >from one language to another (and one that you
didn't mention is Yiddish, which would be quite likely to be your
grandfather's mother tongue if he was a Jew >from Volhynia born in
1882).

Robert Israel
israel@...
Vancouver, BC, Canada