Pronunciation of "De Vinne"

Craig Eliason
Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
in History of Typography
Theodore Low De Vinne. No less an expert than Matthew Carter once clued me in that "Low," a family name, is actually pronounced to rhyme with "cow" rather than "blow." Having certainty on that, I'm recently starting to doubt that I'm pronouncing the guy's last name correctly. Any authoritative opinions?

Comments

  • Adam Jagosz
    Adam Jagosz Posts: 689
    That's the funny thing about English, you can ask how to pronounce "De Vinne", and someone can answer "De Vinney" but in terms of English ortography the latter could be very well pronounced "De Vinnie", no? Would "De Vinnay" be less or more ambiguous?
    Sorry for the off-topic.
  • Christian Thalmann
    Christian Thalmann Posts: 1,988
    edited March 2017
    That's what IPA is for, people. :#   [də ˈvɪn], [də ˈvɪnə], [də ˈvɪneɪ], or [də ˈvɪni]?

  • Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian
    Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian Posts: 2,044
    Ain't nobody got time fo' dat.
  • Helmut Wollmersdorfer
    Helmut Wollmersdorfer Posts: 212
    edited June 2021
    Scott-Martin Kosofsky said:

    The surname is pronounced “de vinney.” My authority on this is second-hand, but closely so. The American printer T.J. Lyons (1892–1986), who was a friend and mentor of mine, was a friend of the person who had installed the first Linotype machines at De Vinne’s plant on Lafayette Street, in New York City. The building still stands today.

    Depends, if it's pronounced more French or Dutch. "de" means from in French. "Vinne" is still a location name in 

    Belgium, Flanders
    Flemish Brabant Province

    or 

    Belgium, Wallonia
    Luxembourg Province

    Flemish (a Dutch dialect) is besides French the second language in Belgium.

    Thus more French: [də ˈvɪn] or Dutch [ˈvɪnə], [ˈvinːɛ]
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,219
    While we’re at it: Wiebking anybody?
    I thought it might be “Webbing”, but knowing how Americans pronounce Wagner…
  • Stephen Coles
    Stephen Coles Posts: 1,008
    I don't know how it was pronounced in the US, but Germans would pronounce it "veeb-king".
  • Scott-Martin Kosofsky
    Scott-Martin Kosofsky Posts: 422
    The pronunciation of De Vinne is "devinnie." Theodore's father, Daniel De Vine, was born in 1793 in the north of Ireland, and brought as an infant to upstate New York. According to Theodore Low De Vinne, family legend held that they descended from Holland, where the name was "van der Vinne," but changed the name when they settled in Ireland as religious refugees (they were Roman Catholic) in the 17th century. This information is from Irene Tichenor's biography No Art Without Craft: The Life of Theodore Low De Vinne, Printer (Godine, 2005).
  • Daniel Calders
    Daniel Calders Posts: 16
    Flemish (a Dutch dialect) is besides French the second language in Belgium.
    Sorry for being off-topic, but as we deal with language here on a daily basis, I just wanted to set this straight (Belgians are very sensitive about these things):
    • Flemish is not a language, but an indication of the Dutch spoken in Belgium
    • Flemish is not a dialect
    • Dutch is the dominant language used in Belgium, but there are 3 official languages: Dutch, French and German.
    Carry on...
  • Craig Eliason
    Craig Eliason Posts: 1,440
    Scott-Martin Kosofsky said:
    The pronunciation of De Vinne is "devinnie." Theodore's father, Daniel De Vine, was born in 1793 in the north of Ireland, and brought as an infant to upstate New York. According to Theodore Low De Vinne, family legend held that they descended from Holland, where the name was "van der Vinne," but changed the name when they settled in Ireland as religious refugees (they were Roman Catholic) in the 17th century. This information is from Irene Tichenor's biography No Art Without Craft: The Life of Theodore Low De Vinne, Printer (Godine, 2005).
    I like the idea that every four years @Scott-Martin Kosofsky will come by this thread and contribute another authoritative insight. It’s like the Olympics! :-)
  • Yves Michel
    Yves Michel Posts: 185
    About pronunciation, I think one should ask the person concerned how his/her name is pronunciated. In absence of this person (the case here) the family's history explains the origin of the name, thus how to pronounce it.

    Concerning Belgium, may I be more specific and say that Dutch is not the "dominant" language in my country:
    • Dutch is the language of Flanders (the Flemish part of Belgium);
    • French is the language of Wallonia (the Walloon part);
    • German is the language of the German part;
    • There are bilingual towns or villages.
    And this is only a general explanation because there are "regional" differences in both Flanders and Wallonia. 

    This is part (and cause) of the surreallistic life we live in Belgium.

    May I add that we share the same alphabet, except for some letters like "german double s" or "ij", so, when we quarrel, we understand each other.  :'(

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