Orthographic Confusion in The Jungle
In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair sought to capture the lives of Lithuanian immigrants with a level of cultural detail rare for his time. However, when transcribing Lithuanian names, he often relied on Americanized or Polish-influenced spellings that do not reflect standard Lithuanian orthography. For instance, Polish letter combinations like “cz” and “sz”—which represent the sounds č (like “ch” in church) and š (like “sh” in shoe) respectively appear in place of their proper Lithuanian equivalents. This was a common confusion in early 20th-century representations of Eastern European names, as many immigrants passed through Polish territories or had their names recorded by clerks unfamiliar with Lithuanian spelling. Correcting these names helps to more accurately reflect Lithuanian phonetics and cultural identity, as well as providing clarity for English-speaking readers trying to pronounce them properly. Below, the names are in their corrected Lithuanian spelling.
Names
- Jurgis Rudkus
Phonetic: YUR-gis ROOD-koos - Ona Lukošaitė
Phonetic: OH-nah loo-koh-SHAY-teh - Elzbieta Lukošaitė (Teta Elzbieta)
Phonetic: elzh-BYEH-tah loo-koh-SHAY-teh
(Teta = “Aunt”) - Marija Berčinskaitė
Phonetic: MAH-ree-yah behr-CHIN-skah-teh - Jonas
Phonetic: YOH-nahs - Antanas Rudkus (Dėdė Antanas)
Phonetic: ahn-TAH-nahs ROOD-koos
(Dėdė = “Uncle”) - Stanislovas
Phonetic: stah-NEES-loh-vahs - Kotrina
Phonetic: koh-TREE-nah - Vilimas
Phonetic: VEE-lee-mahs - Nikalojus
Phonetic: nee-kah-LOY-oos - Juozapas
Phonetic: YWOH-zah-pahs - Kristoforas
Phonetic: kris-toh-FOH-rahs - Antanas Rudkus (Little Antanas)
Phonetic: ahn-TAH-nahs ROOD-koos