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How to trigger Blackhawk fans, purposely mispronounce toews.
Punching down, I see.
I'm married to a Toews and I can confirm that most of the country just sees 'toes'. Except Quebec where she is a 'taos', which is pronounced like cows.
So...why is it pronounced like that? He and Dustin By-foog-lin.
Toews is a Mennonite last name. In the German dialect that the Mennonites speak, the oe vowel combo is very common and makes a long a sound. Another typical Mennonite last name with the same combo and sound is Froese (pronounced like fraze).
The w->v thing is common to pretty much all Germanic languages.
Put the two together and you get "Taves". Tada.
Cool. Thanks!
Can confirm!
8 comments