En réponse à Muke Tever :
>michael poxon <m.poxon@...> wrote (re "Niépce")
>>To me the name looks vaguely Slavonic. Maybe an emigre from the East?
>
>Odd, from here it looks pretty clearly like a Romance word for "niece" (L
>neptia), tho I'm not sure that'd see much use as a surname.
In French it's "nièce" (where do you think you got the word from? :)) ).
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.
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.