[lit-ideas] Re: Donnellaniana
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:11:03 +0000 (UTC)
>Black was born in Baku, in what became Azerbaijan; he grew up in London.
>Surely, a man with such a linguistic inheritance should not be an arbiter of
>the pronunciation of Irish surnames.>
I don't know. I've met many an English person who insists on a pronunciation of
my forename different from my pronunciation - even though it is an Irish name
and my pronunciation is the Irish version. Two culprits among the "many" were
my law tutors at Oxford, who kept insisting on calling me 'Don-nell' - as
opposed to 'Doh-nal' - all the time I was there (none of the students persisted
in this, but then they didn't have tenure). [My later efforts to correct Irish
people in line with the superior intellect of my tutors failed btw - Irish
people couldn't give a fig for English pronunciation of Irish names and
eventually I desisted having had my head kicked in].
Perhaps Black, while in London, picked up some of the natives' obtuseness and
arrogance about pronunciation issues?
Of course, all this tramples over the issue of "should" - but, like Mike, why
should I care?
Dnl
On Monday, 23 February 2015, 20:40, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
JL writes of various people and various things, among them, 'Sage, Cornell.'
Cornell's philosophy department is named, the 'Susan Linn Sage School of
Philosophy.' The Cornell philosophy department isidentical with the Susan Linn
Sage School of Philosophy. I have no idea what JL means by 'Sage, Cornel.'
These three passages from Wikipedia, explain how the Cornell philosophy
department became the Susan Linn Sage School of Philosophy.
'Henry Williams Sage (January 31, 1814 – September 18, 1897) was a wealthy New
York State businessman, philanthropist, and early benefactor and trustee of
Cornell University.
------'In 1870 Sage was elected to the Board of Trustees of Cornell University,
and elected president of the Board in 1875.
-------'He endowed the Susan Linn Sage School of Philosophy in the College of
Arts and Sciences, named after his wife.'
------------------------Keith Donnellan was a graduate student at Cornell, and
later taught there; there's no reason to believe that he pronounced his name
'D'nell-n, because it (somehow) pleased Max Black. (Black: 'Now, repeat after
me...')Black was born in Baku, in what became Azerbaijan; he grew up in London.
Surely, a man with such a linguistic inheritance should not be an arbiter of
the pronunciation of Irish surnames.
—Robert Paul
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