A Nashville woman realized she didn’t know how to pronounce her incredibly rare Croatian last name and turned to the Internet for help.
Katie Garapic-York, 27, was watching the Serbian women’s basketball game at the Olympics when she noticed that the ending of her Garapic surname, the -ic, was shared by most of the team.
But he became curious when he noticed that those last names had a “hyphen” above the c.
Garapic said in a tiktok video, posted on August 27, that his family had always pronounced his last name as GAIR-uh-pick, but with the inclusion of the hyphen, his last name would actually make a -ch sound.
Katie Garapic-York, 27, was watching the Serbian women’s basketball game at the Olympics when she realized that the ending of her Garapic surname, the -ic, was shared by most of the team.
Garapic was confused when he noticed that those last names had a ‘hyphen’ above the c.
Discovered by TikTok users that the dash over the c in -ic is actually the grapheme Ć
The 27-year-old made the video to ask the Internet what her last name would sound like from a Croatian perspective.
One user wrote: ‘Gah-tongue roll R almost like a soft “d”-ah tone. Gotta-pitch is the most American way I can describe it.
Another wrote: “There are also Croatians here with the surname ić. The G is pronounced like the g on the guitar. All the vowels in your name are short. The accent is on the first syllable. Coiled r. Gara-prea.’
But in the comments, Garapic was still confused about which syllable the verbal emphasis was on.
He discovered that the hyphen over -ic is actually the grapheme Ć that was adopted by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj into Serbo-Croatian in the 19th century.
It is the fifth letter of the Latin alphabet in the Serbo-Croatian language.
Garapic (right) told People magazine that his last name is an important part of his identity. After marrying his wife Bailey (left) on September 21, the couple decided to hyphenate their last names.
GAH-rah-PITCH was how the native Croatians said it was pronounced. Garapic revealed in an update video posted on Friday.
Garapic said People Magazine that your last name is an important part of your identity. After marrying his wife Bailey on September 21, the couple decided to hyphenate both their last names.
The 27-year-old’s family tradition surrounding her last name originates when her great-grandfather came to Ellis Island to immigrate to the United States.
Supposedly there was no exact English letter that adequately conveyed what the surname should sound like, so it was changed.
The mystery would come to an end on Friday when Garapic published another tiktok video with the news that she finally figured out how to pronounce her last name, when an acquaintance who knew Croatian locals approached her.
GAH-rah-PITCH was how the native Croatians said it was pronounced.
