Pronunciation Guide to Mathematicians

These are mathematicians frequently encountered by undergraduate students. For a more complete listing, A History of Mathematics: An Introduction , by Victor Katz (Harper Collins) has a wonderful pronunciation guide as part of the index. Interested persons are urged to consult this text.

Note on Pronunciation

Not all of the phonetic pronunciation symbols can be used in HTML (for example the schwa sound symbol and long vowel symbols) so this guide uses some nonstandard symbolism. Not all Web browsers, for example, Lynx, recognize some of the special characters used in this document.

The accented syllable is capitalized.

Most of the links are to MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive and can be quite slow.

Abel, Niels Henrik (1802-1829) (Ä bul)
Agnesi, Maria Gaetana (1718-1799) (an YAY zee)

Banach, Stefan (1892-1945) (BÄ näkh)
Berkeley, George (1685-1753) (BÄRK lee)
Bernoulli, Jakob/Jacques/James (1654-1705)(ber NOO lee)
Bernoulli, Johann/Jean/John (1667-1748) (ber NOO lee)
Bolzano, Bernhard (1781-1848) (bolt SÄ no)
Bolyai, János (1802-1860) (BALL yoi)

Cauchy, Augustin-Louis (1789-1857) (ko SHE)
Cavalieri, Bonaventura (1598-1647) (kä val YAY ree)
Clairaut, Alexis-Claude (1713-1765) (kla ROW, as in row your boat)

d'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1717-1783) (DÄ lam bâr)
Dedekind, Richard (1831-1916) (DA de kint)
Desargues, Girard (1591-1661) (day ZÄRG)
Descartes, Rene (1596-1650) (day CÄRT)
Dirichlet, Peter Lejune (1805-1859) (dee ree KLAY)

Euclid (YOU klid)
Eudoxus (408-355 B. C.) (you DOK sis)
Euler, Leonhard (1707-1783) (OI ler)

Fermat, Pierre de (1601-1655) (fer MÄ)
Fourier, Jean Baptiste Joseph (1768-1830) (foo RYAY)

Galois, Evariste (1811-1832) (gal WÄ)

Heine, Eduard (1821-1881) (HI na, not a long a)
Hermite, Charles (1822-1901) (er MEET)

Jordan, Camille (1838-1922) (abstract algebra) (zhâr DÄN)
Jordan, Wilhelm (1842-1899) (Gauss-Jordan Elimination) (your DÄN)

Kovalevskaya, Sofia (1850-1891) (kov a LEF skä yä)
Kronecker, Leopold (1823-1891) (KROW nek er)
Kummer, Ernst (1810-1893) (KUM er)

Lagrange, Joseph Louis (1736-1813) (la GRÄNZH)
Laplace, Pierre-Simon de (1749-1827) (la PLAS)
Lebesgue, Henri (1875-1941) (la BEG)
Legendre, Adrien-Marie (1752-1833) (la ZHÄN dra)
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716) (LIP nits, long i)
l'Hospital, Guillaume Francois (1661-1704) (lô pee TAL)

Monge, Gaspard (1746-1818) (MÔNZH)

Napier, John1550-1617) (NAY pee air)
Noether, Emmy (1882-1935) (NOI ter)

Peano, Guiseppe (1858-1932) (pay Ä no)
Poincaré, Henri (1854-1912) (pwan ka RAY)
Another Poincaré link

Riemann, Bernhard (1826-1866) (REE män)

Thales (THAY leez)
Torricelli, Evangelista (1608-1647) (tor ree CHEL lee)

Weierstrass, Karl (1815-1897) (vi er shträs, long i)

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