How do you pronounce these people's names?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the pronunciation of various mathematicians' and physicists' names, including Ramanujan, Feynman, Germain, Brouwer, Lagrange, Lebesgue, Stieltjes, and Galois. Participants share their insights, experiences, and challenges regarding these pronunciations, reflecting a mix of linguistic backgrounds and familiarity with the names.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that Feynman is pronounced as "FINE mun," while others provide variations like "Feyyhnman."
  • One participant offers a pronunciation for Lagrange as "la-grant-ch," while another suggests "lah-grahnzh," indicating different interpretations.
  • Stieltjes is proposed to be pronounced as "steal tjus," with a note on the vowel sound.
  • Monique attempts to explain the pronunciation of Brouwer, suggesting it sounds like "flower" with a "Br" at the beginning.
  • Galois is discussed with varying pronunciations, including "gahl-wah" and "gahl-wah," with some uncertainty about the accentuation.
  • Participants express difficulty with names like Huygens and t'Hooft, with suggestions like "Hi-jens" and "HOY-(g)hunz" being offered.
  • Some participants correct each other on pronunciation details, such as the "zh" sound in Lagrange and the closed "e" sound in Germain.
  • Humorous anecdotes about mispronunciations and cultural references are shared, reflecting a light-hearted approach to the topic.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

There is no consensus on the correct pronunciations, as participants present multiple competing views and interpretations. The discussion remains unresolved with various suggestions and corrections being offered.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty about specific sounds and accents, indicating that some pronunciations may depend on regional accents or linguistic backgrounds. There are references to the challenges of translating sounds from one language to another, particularly with Dutch and French names.

  • #31
dextercioby said:
So he letter "g" is pronounced "g" and not "h"...?

Daniel.
Do you know how to gargle? *GGGGGGGGG* that's the sound you should use :approve:
 
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  • #32
For a while I pronounced Feynman's name as "Fenyman" or "Feniman." Now I pronounce it "Feyyhnman" with accents on the y.
 
  • #33
motai said:
For a while I pronounced Feynman's name as "Fenyman" or "Feniman." Now I pronounce it "Feyyhnman" with accents on the y.

Shouldn't it be "Fineman"?
 
  • #34
Moonbear said:
It's the redneck pronunciation guide (please, someone rescue me from OH! I'm turning into one of them). :biggrin: Sort of like going to Target and calling it Tar-zhay.

My ultimate moment would be to hear someone from Buffalo, NY, Embarrass, MN, or Papillon, NE do that.

Buffalo is the American butchering of the French phrase "Beautiful River".

Embarrass is the American butchering of a French phrase for "snake".

Folks in Papillon don't just pronounce the name of their town as "puh-PIL-yon", but will threaten you with violence if you dare to pronounce it "Pah-pee-YON".
 
  • #35
Oh, I'm used to that now. Both MI and OH are notorious for town names that look just like other words or city names in other countries, but are pronounced completely differently.

There's Milan, MI which is pronounced My'-lin (I wish I had a way to draw a schwa here...you know that upside down e...we really need those for pronunciation guides, or to put the hats and lines over vowels to indicate long or short vowel sounds).

Saline, MI is suh-leen' even if I did call it say' leen for a long time (then tried say-line, until finally being told the "proper" pronunciation).

Lima, OH is pronounced just like Lima bean, not Leema.

There's also a Versailles, OH, which I haven't heard anyone pronounce yet, but am betting on Ver-sailz. It's something I do to keep myself amused on long car trips through the state. When I come across a sign for a town that reads like it should have a French, Italian or Spanish pronunciation, I try to figure out what the most redneck pronunciation could be and then hunt for a local radio station to see if someone will say the town name to find out if I'm right (I'm usually pretty close). :smile:
 
  • #36
Mmmm, I worked in Penistone for a while..


Moonbear said:
Lima, OH is pronounced just like Lima bean, not Leema.
Am I missing something here?
 
  • #37
And Cairo, Illinois is pronounced Kay-row.
 
  • #38
Maybe someone already answered of how to pronounce Huygens but I hear it pronounced by professors as Hoy-gens where g is pronounced like the g in guitar. I'm terrible at pronounciations though :\. I'm surprised Americans haven't Americanized more names like Christopher Columbus who was actually called Cristobal Colon (accents over the i and last o)
 
  • #39
brewnog said:
Am I missing something here?

When I see a town named Lima, instead of a bean, I think of Lima, Peru, pronounced Leema.
 
  • #40
vsage said:
Maybe someone already answered of how to pronounce Huygens but I hear it pronounced by professors as Hoy-gens where g is pronounced like the g in guitar. I'm terrible at pronounciations though :\. I'm surprised Americans haven't Americanized more names like Christopher Columbus who was actually called Cristobal Colon (accents over the i and last o)

When we got to optics in my high-school physics class, the teacher pronounced it HOY kunz. That's not to say he necessarily knew the right way to say it. :smile:
 
  • #41
Moonbear said:
I wish I had a way to draw a schwa here.
Just copy off of Lebesgue in post #13. :biggrin:
 
  • #42
Moonbear said:
When I see a town named Lima, instead of a bean, I think of Lima, Peru, pronounced Leema.

When I see a bean named Lima, I think of Lima, Peru, pronounced Leema.





Edit: OHHH! 'LIME-A'! Getcha.
 
  • #43
When it comes to pronouncing town/state names in the US, there is no rule.

The state of Nevada is pronounced - neh VAH da

The town of Nevada (in Missouri) is pronounced - nah VAY da

The state of Missouri is pronounced throughout the US as - miz ZUR ee, except in the state of Missouri where they pronounce it - miz ZUR ah

The town of Olathe, Kansas is pronounced - oh LAY tha
 
  • #44
Evo said:
When it comes to pronouncing town/state names in the US, there is no rule.

The state of Nevada is pronounced - neh VAH da

The town of Nevada (in Missouri) is pronounced - nah VAY da

The state of Missouri is pronounced throughout the US as - miz ZUR ee, except in the state of Missouri where they pronounce it - miz ZUR ah

The town of Olathe, Kansas is pronounced - oh LAY tha
I thought you Americans fled England in order to escape their insane pronounciation rules in the first place.
Evidently, you failed.
 
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  • #45
brewnog said:
Edit: OHHH! 'LIME-A'! Getcha.

Yep, Lime-a. That's how we pronounce the name of the bean too. Lima, OH has a lima bean festival every year too.
 
  • #46
Evo said:
When it comes to pronouncing town/state names in the US, there is no rule.

The state of Nevada is pronounced - neh VAH da

The town of Nevada (in Missouri) is pronounced - nah VAY da

The state of Missouri is pronounced throughout the US as - miz ZUR ee, except in the state of Missouri where they pronounce it - miz ZUR ah

The town of Olathe, Kansas is pronounced - oh LAY tha
grew up in Nevada. it is only pronounced Neh Vah da outside of Nevada. Nuh vadd uh is correct
 
  • #47
vsage said:
Maybe someone already answered of how to pronounce Huygens but I hear it pronounced by professors as Hoy-gens where g is pronounced like the g in guitar. I'm terrible at pronounciations though :\. I'm surprised Americans haven't Americanized more names like Christopher Columbus who was actually called Cristobal Colon (accents over the i and last o)
It's the 'uy' in Huygens which is impossible to pronounce for someone who isn't dutch. It has no equivalent in english or any other language I know of (not that I know that many).
The link Monique gave links to a good mp3 for the pronunciation.
In one of the video lectures, Walter Lewin adresses this topic too. Don't know which one anymore though...
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/VideoLectures/

I used to wonder how to pronounce 'de Broglie'. I've heard professors say:
Bruye, Broi, Brleoeui etc. (Merriam Webster gives the wrong pronunciation) Feynman even pronounced it like 'Broccoli'. :rolleyes:

Ofcourse all my friends who study literacy stereotypically scoff at this unskill of many exact science practitioners.
(When I spelled the name, it turned out they didn't know how to pronounce it either. One them even studied French :-p )

I had a feeling it was pronounced as brô'yə (\mbox{br\^oy\ae}). Fortunately Humanino confirmed this for me. :biggrin:
 
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  • #48
Moonbear said:
It rhymes with a snooty, Frenchified pronunciation of orange (unless you're in CA, and you have to first learn that it's pronounce ahr-ahnj, not oar-inj) :-p That's the closest I can come up with anything in English that might help with that zh sound.

arh-ahnj? What's this about? I've been eating oar-inj-iz since I was a wee wittle boy, but I've never had an arh-ahnj! What strange language do you speak?! (And I always thought it was closer to oarn-j or however that'd be written out...)

--J
 

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