Most Commonly Mispronounced Mathematicians

[Andre]

Some Dutch math guys

Kuiper -- http://translate.google.com/#nl/en/Nico Kuiper
Christiaan Huygens -- http://translate.google.com/#nl/en/christiaan huygens
Barendregt -- http://translate.google.com/#nl/en/barendregt

 

[strangerep]

Since this thread is expanding from maths to physics guys, let's not forget famous computer scientists...

I've thinking in particular of "Bjarne Stroustrup" (creator of C++). Even after I heard him pronounce it for me several times, I still couldn't quite make my non-Danish speech organs reproduce it accurately...

 

[Fredrik]

That one needs a link: http://www.stroustrup.com/pronounciation.wav

I think an English speaker who just says "Byarna Strostrup" is getting close enough. It's not a complete butchering of the the name. So it's hardly worth the effort to try to get it right. I know that I'd rather have English speakers say "Frederick" than try to say http://translate.google.se/#sv/en/Fredrik and have it come out "Fyee-jerk" or something like that.

Danish is a fun language for us Swedes. The words are pretty much the same, but it's very hard to understand what they're saying because of the pronunciation. It's like a maximally distorted version of Swedish. Norwegian on the other hand, is more like a humorous interpretation of Swedish, it's like listening to Indians speaking English. They probably feel that way about us too.

A couple of weeks ago I saw Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Danish) talking to a Swedish and a Norwegian guy on TV. They all spoke in their native languages, and they all seemed to understand each other. When NCW spoke, I wasn't able to understand enough that I would have been able to answer his questions, but then I'm one of those people who sometimes have difficulties understanding Skånska, the dialect spoken in the south of Sweden.

 

[reenmachine]

Descartes is pronounced Day-ca-rrrrrr-t.

The ''r'' seems to be the toughest sound for english speakers.

 

[WannabeNewton]

Your name sounds like a character from Final Fantasy xD. But me being Indian, I have it really bad. I had to go through 18 years of school with people pronouncing my name in every possible wrong way and I would be too embarrassed to actually correct them lol. Thankfully in college, professors don't really make it their duty to learn names :). Honestly I've heard my name mispronounced so much that I don't even know myself what it should sound like anymore. So the pronunciation here: http://translate.google.com/#de/fr/Venkatesh I don't even know if its right or wrong anymore after 18 years of this :[

 

[reenmachine]

Venkatesh? Why is that hard to pronounce?

 

[WannabeNewton]

Venkatesh? Why is that hard to pronounce?

Idk go ask my secondary education teachers

 

[Fredrik]

So the pronunciation here: http://translate.google.com/#de/fr/Venkatesh

Did you try a few different languages and found that the German one pronounced your name the best? The French one is hilarious, Vinka-yeutsh.

 

[reenmachine]

Did you try a few different languages and found that the German one pronounced your name the best? The French one is hilarious, Vinka-yeutsh.

I'm a french speaker and without ever hearing that name I would pronounce it

Venn - ka - tesh

I see no reason to change venn for vinn and tesh for yeutsh.This is confusing , why a y here instead of t? Makes no sense to change a t into a y in french unless its the real pronunciation in the foreign language.

 

[reenmachine]

WBN: Don't feel bad , I'm pretty sure 80-90% of english speakers wouldn't be able to pronounce my name neither.

The ''r'' sound is pretty much a deal breaker.

 

[L4xord]

Is that like in the Indiana Jones and the last crusade movie, where Indy falls through the tiled walkway cause he forgot that Jehovah starts with an I?

Indeed it is. The Latin translation is IEHOVA

 

[dx]

Honestly I've heard my name mispronounced so much that I don't even know myself what it should sound like anymore. So the pronunciation here: http://translate.google.com/#de/fr/Venkatesh I don't even know if its right or wrong anymore after 18 years of this :[

Did you try a few different languages and found that the German one pronounced your name the best? The French one is hilarious, Vinka-yeutsh.

This one is closer to the correct pronunciation:

http://translate.google.com/#de/fr/venkataysh

 

[ImATrackMan]

Any non-Europeans here know how to pronounce "Wouthuysen"?
(As in the Foldy–Wouthuysen transformation)

Wah-toy-sen (or wo-toy-sen?)

 

[Borek]

So how do you pronounce Banach?

 

[humanino]

I think it's between banana and Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

[micromass]

So how do you pronounce Banach?

Is google translate accurate here: http://translate.google.com/#pl/nl/Banach
In that case, it's how I usually pronounce it.

 

[gmax137]

...

I have a hard time with the "Ct..." starting when I first read H P Lovecraft stories. So, how do you pronounce Cthugha?

 

[Cthugha]

I have a hard time with the "Ct..." starting when I first read H P Lovecraft stories. So, how do you pronounce Cthugha?

Actually using a lot of sneezing powder helps. Use a lot of it and listen to the sound that accompanies the sneezing: voila, this will be about the right pronounciation. ;)

Showing some more nerd credibility, I once read an annotated version of one of Lovecraft's books (annotated versions of pulp horror stories - welcome to modern literature research) claiming that in one of his letters Lovecraft stated "Cthulhu" should be pronounced "Khlûl'-hloo". I suppose Cthugha should be somewhat similar. On the other hand, nobody pronounces it like that, so I do not really know to pronounce all that stuff correctly.

If we have some biologist from California present in these forums, he might be able to help. Their job might force them to say these words sometimes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimoa_cthulhu

 

[Borek]

Is google translate accurate here: http://translate.google.com/#pl/nl/Banach
In that case, it's how I usually pronounce it.

Reasonably correct.

 

[Dembadon]

Poisson is not a name I've heard pronounced correctly very often.

 

[hsetennis]

Poisson is not a name I've heard pronounced correctly very often.

is Pwa-soh(n) correct?

 

[Dembadon]

is Pwa-soh(n) correct?

Yep! It makes me think of the crazy chef in Disney's The Little Mermaid.

 

[mathwonk]

Endre Szemerédi