How should an English speaker pronounce “Dirichlet”, as in the Dirichlet problem concerning harmonic functions satisfying a boundary condition?
I have found some web references claiming “Dirishlett” would have been how Dirichlet himself pronounced it himself in his hometown, but most references say “Dirishlay” without explanation.
How is it pronounced in mathematics and physics lectures?
I’ve always heard it pronounced “di-ri-SHLAY”, which looks to this non-French=speaker as if it might be the correct French pronunciation.
Maybe only a subtle difference, but I would have pronounced it “dir ee SHLAY”.
It’s pronounced “mangrove throatwarbler.”
This old thread was one of the things that came up when I Googled “Dirichlet pronunciation,” after listening to a Teaching Company lecture in which the lecturer, Edward Burger, pronounced it “Diriklay” and thinking “That doesn’t sound right!”
Unless I’m remembering wrong, I’d only ever heard it pronounced “Dirishlay” in lectures (the way people have suggested here), including by the professor I had for analytic number theory in grad school. But when I tried to check online, different sources give me different answers:
The pronunciation guides here and here give the “-KLAY” pronunciation; the one here gives the “-SHLAY” pronunciation; and Wikipedia gives both alternatives.
Dirichlet was German, but the name comes from French, which suggests but does not prove that Dirichlet himself would have pronounced the “CH” in the French manner.
I don’t suppose anyone here knows anything more definitive?
Aside from the ones who spoke French, all the other mathematicians I’ve known have pronounced it as something like /"diɹɪʃ 'leɪ/, which is a decent approximation to the French pronunciation.
Oops, double post. Would a mod mind deleting this one?
Cool! I’ve never written a zombie thread before. It’s easy!