Re: OT: Another French name pronunciation question

After some research, I came to the conclusion that the
patronym formerly was "La Niepce" and that it probably
came from the late (popular) Latin word "neptia",
meaning "niece".

Looks like the family came from Normandy ; later we
find it in Lorraine and Burgundy.

The acute accent may have been a fantasy from the
priest registering the birth, or from a fly wandering
through the fresh ink on the page :-)

Interesting, the following extract of 1635 (parish
register; I dropped the accents, but there was none on
"niepce"):
"il a donne son ame à Dieu [...] et a donne apres son
decez à Michelle, fille de Michel Gallot, sa niepce et
filleule la somme de vingt livres "

Thanks to Google for everything (and also to Larousse
etymological dictionnary).

--- Remi Villatel <maxilys@...> wrote:
> Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
> > Indeed, "Niepce" could be an archaic spelling due
> to its use as last
> > name (in which case I'd expect it to be pronounced
> [njEs]). But I'd
> > still expect it to be written "Niepce" or
> "Nièpce". The acute accent
> > doesn't belong there.
>
> Sorry to prove you wrong... I opened my dictionary
> and I found:
>
> Niépce (Nicéphore) 1765-1833 French physicist,
> inventor of the photography.
>
> So it's an acute accent but AFAIK I've never heard
> his name pronounced an
> other way than [njEps]. Unfortunately, the
> dictionary doesn't provide an IPA
> pronounciation.
>
> See ya,
>
> =====================
> Remi Villatel

=====
Philippe Caquant

"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

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