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Hess: Pronunciation

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Anders D. Nygaard

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Sep 21, 2018, 2:19:45 PM9/21/18
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Is anyone here familiar with the Swiss-Russian chemist
Germain Henri Hess (Russian: Герман Иванович Гесс German Ivanovich Gess)?

If so, how is his last name conventionally pronounced?

/Anders, Denmark

Anders D. Nygaard

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Sep 21, 2018, 3:32:51 PM9/21/18
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Den 21-09-2018 kl. 20:38 skrev Stefan Ram:
> The German and English pronunciation of "Hess" usually is /hɛs/.
> Russian would be something like /gjɛs/, but maybe this is
> better transcribed as /gɛʲs/ or /gʲɛs/ or /gʲɛʲs/?

Thx.

/Anders, Denmark.

Lewis

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Sep 21, 2018, 7:21:27 PM9/21/18
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Depends on where you are, I'd guess. In the US I would be surprised if
it wasn't just HESS with an aspirated h, as in Herman.

(I am not sure if he came up in my Chemistry classes, it's too long ago
for me to remember and I wasn't much interested in the subject, which at
High School level was mostly very simple math.

--
Secret to a happy relationship: when you're wrong, admit it. When you're
right, shut up.

Jerry Friedman

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Sep 22, 2018, 2:13:12 PM9/22/18
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On 9/21/18 5:21 PM, Lewis wrote:
> In message <po3cnv$21u$1...@dont-email.me> Anders D. Nygaard <news2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Is anyone here familiar with the Swiss-Russian chemist
>> Germain Henri Hess (Russian: Герман Иванович Гесс German Ivanovich Gess)?
>
>> If so, how is his last name conventionally pronounced?
>
> Depends on where you are, I'd guess. In the US I would be surprised if
> it wasn't just HESS with an aspirated h, as in Herman.
...

I'd go along with that. The law he discovered is normally referred to
in English as Hess's Law, it seems, and I very strongly doubt any
English speaker would Russianize that.

At the Russian Wikipedia, the names Germain Gess and Hermannn Hesse
differ by only that final e (and Germain gets a patronymic).

--
Jerry Friedman

Jerry Friedman

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Sep 22, 2018, 2:15:18 PM9/22/18
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On 9/22/18 12:13 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
> On 9/21/18 5:21 PM, Lewis wrote:
>> In message <po3cnv$21u$1...@dont-email.me> Anders D. Nygaard
>> <news2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Is anyone here familiar with the Swiss-Russian chemist
>>> Germain Henri Hess (Russian: Герман Иванович Гесс German Ivanovich
>>> Gess)?
>>
>>> If so, how is his last name conventionally pronounced?
>>
>> Depends on where you are, I'd guess. In the US I would be surprised if
>> it wasn't just HESS with an aspirated h, as in Herman.
> ...
>
> I'd go along with that.  The law he discovered is normally referred to
> in English as Hess's Law, it seems, and I very strongly doubt any
> English speaker would Russianize that.

Or Gallicize it.

> At the Russian Wikipedia, the names Germain Gess and Hermannn Hesse
> differ by only that final e (and Germain gets a patronymic).

I mean their names in Cyrillic, of course.

--
Jerry Friedman

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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Sep 22, 2018, 2:55:31 PM9/22/18
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On 2018-09-22 18:15:14 +0000, Jerry Friedman said:

> On 9/22/18 12:13 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>> On 9/21/18 5:21 PM, Lewis wrote:
>>> In message <po3cnv$21u$1...@dont-email.me> Anders D. Nygaard
>>> <news2...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Is anyone here familiar with the Swiss-Russian chemist
>>>> Germain Henri Hess (Russian: Герман Иванович Гесс German Ivanovich Gess)?
>>>
>>>> If so, how is his last name conventionally pronounced?
>>>
>>> Depends on where you are, I'd guess. In the US I would be surprised if
>>> it wasn't just HESS with an aspirated h, as in Herman.
>> ...
>>
>> I'd go along with that.  The law he discovered is normally referred to
>> in English as Hess's Law, it seems, and I very strongly doubt any
>> English speaker would Russianize that.
>
> Or Gallicize it.

That can be a problem. There is a chemist very well known in Russia for
a lot of things, but known elsewhere for one thing, the discovery of
the fomose reaction. In English he is always called Butlerov, but the
only paper people quote was in French, in which he is called Boutlerow.
It doesn't really matter if you give his first name as Aleksandr,
Alexander or
Alexandre, because those are all obviously the same.
>
>> At the Russian Wikipedia, the names Germain Gess and Hermannn Hesse
>> differ by only that final e (and Germain gets a patronymic).
>
> I mean their names in Cyrillic, of course.


--
athel

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