Monday, May 4, 2009

euler and the pitfalls of foreign surname pronunciation

When I first came across the name Euler, I pronounced it as it would be pronounced in English from its spelling: /ˈjuːlər/ or EW-lər. I was quickly corrected and told that it was actually pronounced /ˈɔɪlər/ or OY-lər. This led me to crack stupid nerd jokes about how the mathematical value known as 'e' which I believe is named after the mathematician/physicist L. Euler, shouldn't be pronounced /ii/ as the alphabetic letter is pronounced, but instead should be pronounced /ɔɔ/ (the vowel sound in 'fought or cough' which is the sound Euler's name begins with). To this day, when I have to use 'e' in some equation I think of it as /ɔɔ/. HYUDG NURD ALLURT!

2 comments:

Gabe said...

Wow. I am in awe.

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