How do you pronounce these people's names?

[DeadWolfe]

Ramanujan
Feynman
Germain
Brouwer
Lagrange
Lebesgue
Stieltjes

..thank you.

I have only read about them, and was curious about the correct pronoucniation of their names.

EDIT - I was also wondering about Galois.

 

[Janitor]

I've heard Feynman pronounced as FINE mun.

Not sure about the others.

The word "spinor," by the way, is pronounced like "spinner," not "spine ur."

How about Gell-Mann? Is it a hard 'G' like in "golf"? Which half of the name gets the accent?

 

[Kelvin]

Lagrange: la - grant - ch
this is how my professors pronounce

 

[honestrosewater]

answers.com has entries with pronunciation key for all but Stieltjes.

 

[Monique]

Stieltjes: steal tjus (u as in truck)

 

[dextercioby]

Monique,are u Dutch speaking native...?

Daniel.

 

[dextercioby]

Galileo should help us.He's a student at Leiden,where there's this College of Mathematics bearing Stieltjes' name...

Daniel.

 

[Monique]

Monique,are u Dutch speaking native...?

Daniel.

Yup.

I'm trying to think of a way to explain the pronounciation of Brouwer.. but that is really a hard one

 

[Monique]

Ah! Easy: flower, brouwer. Just replace the F with Br.

 

[JasonRox]

I'm french, so when it comes to saying the name of a mathematician it comes out right. :)

 

[dextercioby]

I've had a lotta trouble with Huygens...Or t'Hooft...How are they spelled ?

Daniel.

 

[polyb]

There was one prof I had from India and when he was covering quantum physics (which he pronounced phyg-uks) in a graduate class my friend was taking he would make references to using the Hartree-Fock method. Of course he would say something like: 'Theese is whare you need the Hearty-F**k' or at least it sounded that way to the amusement of the class.

 

[Gokul43201]

Feynman : fine(like the word)-muhn(rhymes with 'bun')

Brouwer : brow(as in 'eyebrow', rhymes roughly with 'how', but closer to the German 'frau')-uhr(like the ends of 'fur' and 'her') - edit : use Monique's pronunciation.

Lagrange : lah('ah' as in 'hard')-grahnzh (the 'zh' as in 'pleasure' , 'pressure' , 'leisure' - courtesy dexter)

Germain : zhuhr(rhymes with 'fur' and 'her')-man(like the word, closer to the è sound in French)

Lebesgue : lə('luh', rhymes roughly with 'the')-beg(like the word)

Galois : gahl(rhymes with the Dutch 'vaal'; 'ah' as in 'hard')-wah(same 'ah' sound)

Ramanujan : rah('ah' as in 'hard')-mah-nu('u' as in 'put')-juhn(rhymes with bun)

I've heard Gell-Mann pronounced with a hard 'g' (by some old physicist on Discovery Channel - he sounded like he was a contemporary). He (and others I've heard) pronounced the name gell-muhn (to rhyme with 'sell bun'), but I recall one time when I heard it pronounced gell-mahn.

Incidentally, Gell-Mann was a dabbler in linguistics and often corrected other peoples' pronunciations of their own names !

la-grant-ch is hardly acceptable

 

[Gokul43201]

'Theese is whare you need the Hearty-F**k'

When little perturbations don't do it for you, you do need a hearty f**k !

 

[recon]

What an embarrassment - the only thing I pronounced right prior to reading this was Feynman.

 

[dextercioby]

That "e" without any accent is a closed "e" and is approximately French "eu" or German "ö".

Gokul,about that "zh",i think in English u have the words:"pleisure" and "leisure".It's almost the same sound.

Daniel.

EDIT:You might add:"treasure" and "seizure".

 

[Gokul43201]

That "e" without any accent is a closed "e" and is approximately French "eu" or German "ö".

Gokul,about that "zh",i think in English u have the words:"pleisure" and "leisure".It's almost the same sound.

Daniel.

Ouch ! Guess that completely skipped my head. Hope you don't mind if I go back and put in a correction.

 

[Moonbear]

Lagrange : lah('ah' as in 'hard')-grahnzh (the 'zh' sound has no English usage that I can think of, but is the French pronunciation for the letters 'j' and 'g'-soft)

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) That's the closest I can come up with anything in English that might help with that zh sound.

 

[Gokul43201]

It rhymes with a snooty, Frenchified pronunciation of orange

Snooty, frenchified ! That explains the weird looks I got at the grocery store.

Isn't "snooty, Frenchified" just short for 'French' ?

 

[polyb]

When little perturbations don't do it for you, you do need a hearty f**k !

I guess that's what you need when a simple iteration by hand won't work!

 

[Moonbear]

Snooty, frenchified ! That explains the weird looks I got at the grocery store.

Isn't "snooty, Frenchified" just short for 'French' ?

It's the redneck pronunciation guide (please, someone rescue me from OH! I'm turning into one of them). Sort of like going to Target and calling it Tar-zhay.

 

[Gokul43201]

Sort of like going to Target and calling it Tar-zhay.

You say that too ? Phew ! I got the feeling Billy Bob and Billy Ray didn't get what I was trying to say to them when I was giving them directions to the State Fair Rodeo event ("pass Target and keep driving till you see the red chateau; then turn left into the cul-de-sac").

 

[Moonbear]

You say that too ? Phew !

Yep, though have also been known to take the joke too far and insist on going to the local Kro-zhair (not sure how to show the pronunciation of the -er) for my groceries.

 

[Gokul43201]

Ooh, Tribby should make a table for thread hijackers next. Kro-zhair, I have been taught, is wrong Apparently it's supposed to be pronounced with a hard 'g'...the imbeciles !

 

[brewnog]

Huygens - "Hi-jens", or so I've heard.


And please, don't talk to me about the French today... Grrr!

 

[Moonbear]

Ooh, Tribby should make a table for thread hijackers next. Kro-zhair, I have been taught, is wrong Apparently it's supposed to be pronounced with a hard 'g'...the imbeciles !

He'd top that list too. I don't call it thread hijacking, I call it free association. Besides, original question asked and answered; not much room for debate on that.

So, it's Kro-gair? I can still say it all nasally, right?

 

[Moonbear]

And please, don't talk to me about the French today... Grrr!

Fine, we're not talking to you. Actually, we're not really talking about anything French at this point either, but American mutilation of store names to make discount stores sound like they're fancy boutiques. This is what we call fun out here in these parts.

 

[Monique]

Huygens - "Hi-jens", or so I've heard.

Huygens is impossible to explain, I don't think there is an equivalent for "uy" or the "ui" sound that occurs in dutch.

HOY-(g)hunz would be close, with a long "g"
found this http://frank.harvard.edu/~paulh/misc/huygens.htm

listen to the mp3!

 

[dextercioby]

So he letter "g" is pronounced "g" and not "h"...?

Daniel.

 

[brewnog]

Fine, we're not talking to you.

Yeah, but it never stopped me before, did it?

Actually, we're not really talking about anything French at this point either, but American mutilation of store names to make discount stores sound like they're fancy boutiques.

Oooo, "boutique", get you, Mme Cultured...

 

[Monique]

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

 

[motai]

For a while I pronounced Feynman's name as "Fenyman" or "Feniman." Now I pronounce it "Feyyhnman" with accents on the y.

 

[franznietzsche]

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"?

 

[BobG]

It's the redneck pronunciation guide (please, someone rescue me from OH! I'm turning into one of them). 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".

 

[Moonbear]

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).

 

[brewnog]

Mmmm, I worked in Penistone for a while..

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

Am I missing something here?

 

[selfAdjoint]

And Cairo, Illinois is pronounced Kay-row.

 

[vsage]

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)

 

[Moonbear]

Am I missing something here?

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

 

[Janitor]

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.

 

[Gokul43201]

I wish I had a way to draw a schwa here.

Just copy off of Lebesgue in post #13.

 

[brewnog]

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.

 

[Evo]

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

 

[arildno]

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.

 

[Moonbear]

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.

 

[tribdog]

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

 

[Galileo]

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'.

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 )

I had a feeling it was pronounced as brô'yə (\mbox{br\^oy\ae}). Fortunately Humanino confirmed this for me.

 

[Justin Lazear]

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) 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