This is in fact not at all easy - no recordings from those days, and my
own (patent?!!) research method of looking for MIS-spellings in
manuscript accounts - has not come up with anything peculiar referring to
Louis Aggassiz.  (I once proved that Agassiz's close associate in the
promotion of the glacial theory, William Buckland, had a strong
Devonshire accent from mis-spellings of scientific and place names in
preserved lecture notebooks of students.  Similarly the early 19th cent.
American geologist Featherstonhaugh was several times noted as "Me
Featherstone" showing that the present-day family's pronunciation of
"Fanshaw" was not being used in the 1820s - 1830s.)  There is a more
general lesson here though: do not automatically assume that a
mis-spelling of an unusual word is necessarily all about bad spelling.

Anyone come across any other possible examples of mis-spellings giving
clues to pronunciations or national/regional accents?

All this being said, I have never heard anyone use anything other than
"LOU-ee Ah-GASS-ee" for Agassiz (who was of course Swiss by birth - from
the French speaking region of Neuchatel) - though what happened to him
when he finally settled in the USA is any guess.  (He certainly began to
promote some very objectionable views on human origins and races.)

Patrick Boylan

===============================================

On Wed, 13 Mar 1996, Terry_McClafferty wrote:

> I have been requested to find out the correct phonetic pronunciation for
> the famous US natural scientist Louis Agassiz frpm the 19 century .
>
> Could the replies show Agassiz in  phonetic spelling:
>
> Thanks ,
>
> Terry McClafferty
>
> (Tear-ry   Mac-Claff-fer-ty)
>
> ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
> TERRY McCLAFFERTY (escapee from Darwin, Northern Territory..Outback Australia)
> Doctoral Research Fellow
> National Key Centre for Science and Mathematics Education
> Curtin University of Technology
> GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia   6001
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> FAX:   +61  9  351 2503
> PHONE: +61  9  351 2989         HOME PHONE: +61  9  313 1819
> ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
>