Talk:Charles-Michel de l'Épée

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How many accents in his suname? The Catholic Encyclopedia article uses only one (on the middle E in Epee), as does the inscription under his portrait included in this article. Also here: http://ufr6.univ-paris8.fr/desshandi/supl/projets/site_lsf/culture_histoire/histoire4.php However, this article: http://www.yanous.com/tribus/sourds/sourds011221.html does have also the accent on the first E in Epee. BillFlis 08:48, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well spotted with the inscription! I struggled with his name when writing the article, as there are a number of spelling/typographical variants; the hyphen is another. Regarding the accent on the initial E, I took my lead from the French Wikipedia article, titled Abbé de l'Épée. However, that article then begins by introducing Charles Michel Lespée, who was called l’Abbé de l’Épée. The link you provided (yanous.com) also states that his real name was Charles Michel Lespée, but was called l'abbé Charles Michel de l'Épée. Given the pronunciation of les, I guess his suname would bv https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particule_(onomastique)e É not E? Your question has also got me thinking about whether the de makes sense without the Abbé. My French is very sloppy. Maybe someone more familiar with the language can sort this out? ntennis 10:22, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I thought of what I should have done in the first place--consulted my (print) M-W Biog. Dict., which indeed verifies the two-accent spelling. BillFlis 15:19, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As a French person, I can answer this question. The name is Épée, not Epée, but it's tolerated in French to omit the accent on uppercases. But Wikipedia should write the non omitted with the uppercase É, it's the standard on Wikipedia, and the right spelling.

In French, when you say Lespée, it's pronounced like Léspée.

But the spelling rules, makes that then you have a "es" (not at the end of the word), it's already pronounced "é", so you don't need the accent, and if you don't need it, you must omit it.

Lespée could be prounounced the old way phonetically lépé (exactly the same as l'épée), but the moden way to pronounce it is lésspé. The moden way, of course, is not the right way, because this person don't live now, in 2018.

The "de" makes sense, but only before a title, like sir, etc. Monsieur de l'Epée, but when talking about him, without the title, it's simply L'Epée, and not only "Epée" (like this articles says, it's a mistake)

Sometimes, French people who ignore this rule, say "De l'Epée". The rules are here for instance: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particule_(onomastique)

Epee, without any accent, is not correct.

Truncated French name[edit]

Why do you name him “Épée” in the article? There’s a L’ in the name. Name him Father de l’Épée or abbot de l'Épée, if you want, but not Épée alone.

Jean de la Fontaine is never named *Fontaine*, but always *la Fontaine*. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particule_(onomastique)

I love when google features a person[edit]

I know this won't exactly help with the article, but I just have to say, I love when google features a person with a wikipedia page. It opens the page up to more edits, and makes it more detailed. Thanks google! Alex of Canada (talk) 23:12, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

yes! It brought me here. It says he died at the beginning of the French Revolution. Is this relevant, or a purely temporal marker? Was his death somehow related to the fact of the FR? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 23:23, 24 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]