304 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIs “ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
while the illustrious and erudite Spallanzani regularly dubbed 
him ‘‘ Levenoecchio’”’. ‘To Buonanni he was just “ Lauenoch”’. 
Foreigners generally find great difficulty not only in 
spelling Leeuwenhoek’s name but also in pronouncing it. 
On the assumption, apparently, that it issome kind of tongue- 
twister in an unknown and barbarous lingo, they invent and 
emit noises unintelligible to any Hollander. Some of the 
more confident commentators, however, tell us how to pro- 
nounce the name properly. For example, Richardson (1885) 
informs us that it should be “pronounced in English fashion 
Leuvenhock”. J do not know why it should ever be pro- 
nounced English-fashion—rather than Dutch-fashion: nor 
can I imagine any reason for so singularly mispronouncing a 
plain Dutch word. Certainly no native of Holland would 
recognize ‘‘ Leuvenhock’”—pronounced English-fashion—if 
he were to hear it. But I can assure my fellow-country- 
men that the name ‘“‘ Leeuwenhoek” is pure Dutch, and 
not so difficult to pronounce as it looks; and that no 
Hollander will misunderstand if it be spoken as though 
written in English “‘ Laywenhook”. This does not—as I am 
well aware—represent modern Dutch pronunciation exactly ; 
but it is phonetically far better than the common English 
mispronunciations resembling ‘“‘ Lervenherk ” or “ Loivenherk ” 
or “ Luvenhock”. The Dutch diphthong eeu(w) is closely 
similar in sound to ay-oo (said quickly) in English: and there 
is surely no conceivable reason why the Dutch oe (exactly 
equivalent to oo in English, and to our own oe in the words 
“shoe” and “canoe”) should be pronounced as though it 
were German, French, Italian, or Latin. 
The reader will no doubt recall (see p. 43 supra) that 
Constantijn Huygens—who knew English well—said that 
Leeuwenhoek’s name would be written “according to our 
orthography ” as “ Leawenhook”. But the phonetic value of 
ea in English is not now constant: it differs widely in 
different words. Huygens evidently had in mind the modern 
sound of these vowels in words such as “ great” or “ break ”"— 
not in “real”, ‘seal’, ‘‘Chelsea”, or “bread”. (For some 
judicious comments on this subject see Wheatley’s edition of 
Pepys: preliminary “Particulars”, ad finem.) In Huygens’s 
time ea in most English words “sounded as it still does in 
‘oreat’” (Bense, 1925; p. 205). He therefore meant that 
‘““Tieeuwenhoek”’ should be pronounced as ‘‘ Laywenhook ” in 
English—as I have already said. 
