[lit-ideas] Re: Donnellaniana
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2015 12:17:37 -0500
We are considering the proper pronunciation of "Donnellan".
Rumour has it that Black (who did not know) mispronounced the name of his
student (Donnellan).
The student (Donnellan) failed to correct him, and we see his point. There
are different scenarios.
"Professor Black, you are mispronouncing my surname."
has a rude ring to it.
Perhaps something like:
"Professor Black: I won't be able to attend the seminar next Friday: my
father, John Sedgwick Donnellan [properly pronounced] is in the area, and I
am planning to go and see him."
Donnellan taught philosophy at the Air Force Academy after getting his
doctorate from Cornell. (His seminars were mainly a philosophical analysis of
the phrase 'air force', with a consideration of the occasional implicature
contingently attached to the phrase).
After his time at the Air Force Academy, Donnellan returned to Cornell,
and Black kept mispronouncing his surname. He (Donnellan) wasn't sure what to
do. The bad thing is that everybody was following Black's mispronunciation,
including Donnellan!
In a message dated 2/24/2015 11:11:09 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
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."
And in fact cognate with the case in point, "Donnellan", where "-an" is a
mininutive (Literally, "Little Donald").
McEvoy goes on:
"Two culprits among the "many" were my ... tutors at Oxford, who kept
insisting on calling me 'Don-nell' - as opposed to 'Doh-nal'"
Black's vowels weren't strictly _clear_ and Donnellan was never sure
whether Black meant "DonnellAn" or "DonnellEn", since Black used what linguists
called a 'schwa'. (This infuriated Donnellan).
McEvoy goes on:
"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?"
It is also possible that he had met a Donnellan at Baku. Apparently, his
father was connected with the diplomatic circles there. In any case, by 1912,
he (Black's father) and his family (which included his son, Max Black) had
moved to London, where Black continued to grow up.
McEvoy: "Of course, all this tramples over the issue of "should" - but,
like Mike, why should I care?"
Well, it is noticeable that when Donnellan moved to UCLA (and left Cornell
for good) HE was able to start pronouncing his surname correctly -- since
Black was 'left' back in Sage, Cornell).
Even in Maryland, where Donnellan studied philosophy before getting
accepted at Cornell, they pronounced Donnellan correctly.
It was, in brief, one of those mannerisms by Max ("Now, repeat after me")
Black that stuck.
When Donnellan moved from southern California to northern California (where
he lived among good horses and fine wine) he kept pronouncing his surname
correctly, as he should -- (which, to echo McEvoy, surely tramples over the
issue of 'should'?).
Cheers,
Speranza
* In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (sometimes
spelled shwa) refers to the mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in
the middle of the vowel chart, denoted by the IPA symbol ə, or another
vowel sound close to that position. An example in English is the vowel sound
in the 'a' of the word 'about'. Schwa in English is mainly found in
unstressed positions, but in some other languages it occurs more frequently as
a
stressed vowel. In relation to certain languages, the name "schwa" and the
symbol ə may be used for some other unstressed and toneless neutral vowel,
not necessarily mid-central.
--
re: R. P.'s scepticism that Donnellan
"pronounced his name 'D'nell-n, because it (somehow) pleased Max Black. ...
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."
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