# How does one pronounce "Nijenhuis"?

1. Jul 26, 2014

### strangerep

(The title says it all.)

BTW, this question arose because I'm studying almost-complex structures on manifolds, and the "Nijenhuis tensor" figures prominently therein.

2. Jul 26, 2014

### MathematicalPhysicist

Which book are you using?

I took once a course on Symplectic Geometry and we discussed on this a little, there's the book by Dusa Mcduff which seems to be a standard on this topic.

3. Jul 26, 2014

### Monique

Staff Emeritus
That's a hard question to explain in words, I can't think of the same sounds in English. But I found a website with sound fragments, so here it is.

You pronounce the name as Nei un huis:

Nei, how to pronounce the ei: http://www.heardutchhere.net/dufoodwords/ei.MP3
un, remove the "d" from this word: http://www.heardutchhere.net/quiz2/dun.MP3
huis: http://www.heardutchhere.net/everydaywords/huis.MP3

This is even better: http://www.forvo.com/word/nijenhuis/

Last edited: Jul 26, 2014
4. Jul 26, 2014

### StatGuy2000

Hi Monique. When I clicked on the link for the pronunciation of the name, I thought I heard the final "s" sound like a "sh" (e.g. as in the English word "shout" or "short"). Is this how Dutch people usually pronounce the letter "s"? Or are there specific rules on how and when the letter "s" sounds like "sh"?

In German, if I'm not mistaken, the "sh" sound is usually formed with the spelling "sch".

5. Jul 26, 2014

### Monique

Staff Emeritus
No, it ends with a normal "s". It might be more pronounced or elongated than you are used to? When Dutch speak English they use too much the S sound. Like the word "think" a Dutch would likely say "sink", because too much air is used.

6. Jul 26, 2014

Staff Emeritus
There is a wonderful Berlitz ad that makes much the same point about German.

7. Jul 26, 2014

### Monique

Staff Emeritus
hahaha, brilliant :rofl:

8. Jul 26, 2014

### strangerep

Thanks, Monique. I had a feeling the pronunciation would be something unintuitive.

Hah! Well,... er,...

I'm actually trying to research possible Finslerian extensions of GR (i.e., generalization of Riemannian geometry where the fundamental metric tensor depends also on direction in the tangent bundle, not just position on the base manifold). So I'm really studying Finsler geometry, and also the associated concept of "Spray Spaces". There's a couple of books by Shen (and colleagues), also Xiaohuan & Mo. Then there's Finsler & Lagrange spaces by Bucatari & Miron. Also Sprays and Finsler material by Antonelli et al.

I must say that I'm not doing very well. Working with quantities on $T(TM)$ can be rather confusing. I haven't yet tried to ask questions over in the DG forum, since past (rare) Finsler questions over there tend not to get much response.

But the Nijenhuis stuff came up because of some (unpublished?) notes: "A Brief Introduction to Finsler Geometry" by Dahl (found via Google Scholar). He works through the usual horizontal--vertical decomposition of $T(TM)$, and then uses this decomposition to define an almost--complex structure on $T(TM)$. But I guess this will be gobbledegook to most people.

So far I haven't approached my interest via symplectic spaces, since they seemed to be an afterthought here. But now I'm thinking I should try coming at it from that direction as well. I haven't looked at Mcduff before, but I'll take a look soon.

Cheers.