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Pronunciation of De Moivre

  • 22-02-2010 8:34pm
    #1
    Reillyman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 834 ✭✭✭


    Thought this was the best place to post this question, so I'm sorry if there's no actual maths in it.

    My teacher constantly tells us that this is pronounced "De Muh-vare"

    Whereas other teachers pronounce it "De Moy-vreh"

    Does anyone know which is correct?


Comments

  • #2
    Doyler92
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,664 ✭✭✭Doyler92


    I'm nearly sure it's 'De Mwa-vreh'


  • #3
    MathsManiac
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,595 ✭✭✭MathsManiac


    It's French. Sounds like "Steak au poivre"

    More or less:
    duh 'mwah vruh

    ...but preferably with a French-style throaty "r"!


  • #4
    LeixlipRed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,081 ✭✭✭LeixlipRed


    Da Mooovveesss down on Moore Street.


  • #5
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,076 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    If you can say "Pretentious? Moi?" then you're halfway there. :cool:

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



  • #6
    hivizman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,163 ✭✭✭hivizman


    MathsManiac wrote: »
    It's French. Sounds like "Steak au poivre"

    More or less:
    duh 'mwah vruh

    ...but preferably with a French-style throaty "r"!

    This is it in the International Phonetic Alphabet [də mwavʁ] - the upside-down "R" is exactly what MathsManiac calls the "French-style throaty 'r'", known in phonetics as a "voiced uvular fricative".

    That said, my maths teacher at school always said "De Moyver"


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  • #7
    stesh
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 297 ✭✭stesh


    hivizman wrote: »
    This is it in the International Phonetic Alphabet [də mwavʁ] - the upside-down "R" is exactly what MathsManiac calls the "French-style throaty 'r'", known in phonetics as a "voiced uvular fricative".

    That said, my maths teacher at school always said "De Moyver"

    would have said [ɑ] instead of [a].


  • #8
    hivizman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,163 ✭✭✭hivizman


    stesh wrote: »
    would have said [ɑ] instead of [a].

    Yes, when I say it, the vowel doesn't feel as far forward as [a] would imply. In some on-line dictionaries, they give [ä] as the vowel in "poivre", implying a more central vowel sound, but does De Moivre necessarily rhyme precisely with poivre? Is there a phonetics forum that we could check with?

    I'll still stick with "De Moyver", though. :)


  • #9
    sponsoredwalk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,038 ✭✭✭sponsoredwalk


    I'd go with Deh-Moi-vreh with a quick Deh, drawn out Moi, almost mwoi-ish, then a vreh like an exhalation of air...

    Here's another good one, L'Hopital. It is pronounced Hospital due to the accent on the "o" & the old French pronounciation, go to the chapter on L'Hopital in this free online book http://www.lightandmatter.com/calc/ if you don't believe me.

    It does come as a shock & becomes quite addictive saying Hospital in both a straight out Irish way & then pseudo-French pronounciation afterwards...


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