Erwin Schrödinger

[KlondikeGeoff]

@samclem

A “w” is pronounced like a “v.”

In upstate New York, around Albany, there is a state road designated 9W.

Those rascals at the state DOT came up with what may well be the only joke about a road:

Engineer: "Herr Wagner, do you spell your name with a “V?”

Wagner: “Nein. W.”

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@fachverwirrt

I usually just hear it as /shroh-ding-er/, but if you want to be strictly correct, the ö is pronounced as a sort of mixture of /eh/ and /oh/, like the French “dieu”.

Of course, if you’re going to be that precise, you need to pronounce his first name /Er-vin/.

(Is there an easy way to do IPA here?)

More precisely, “ö” in German is quite close to the “eu” in French dieu.

Although I can be a bit fussy when it comes to matters of language and pronunciation, I wouldn’t call anyone out for saying “Shrow-dinger” when discussing the man in English. After all, the “ö” sound doesn’t exist in English, and most English speakers don’t know how to pronounce it, so why should I expect them to pronounce it as if they lived in Berlin? “Shrow-din-jer” would be a little more dubious, but not enough raise my hackles.