Re: I18n issue: French family names with "de"

From: John Cowan (cowan@locke.ccil.org)
Date: Fri Oct 23 1998 - 09:33:04 EDT


Marion Gunn wrote:

> In Ireland we are beset by a habit
> foreign newspapers (unfortunately often copied by local) have, of
> wrongly writing names such as "de Bhaldraithe" and "de Valera" with a
> capital letter d (which they should only be given at the beginning of a
> sentence).

Yeah, but de Valera (at least the famous one) had a Spanish name,
not French. Doubtless the rules are quite different.

Alain LaBonté wrote:

>> De Gaulle is by no means monosyllabic in French (Gaulle it self is composed
>> of 2 syllables).

I meant, of course, the part of the name after the "de", and if
"Gaulle" has two syllables, we have different definitions of
"syllable".

>> "de Tocqueville", if of noble origin,

Indeed (at for least the author of _Democracy in America_).

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)



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