MSGID: 1:153/716.0 703439c0   
   REPLY: 2:5023/24.4222 66ff89e4   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Gleb!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   AH>  I guess if I'd never seen your name written down &/or you   
   AH>  asked me to approximate it phonetically I might spell it   
   AH>  "A leg ZAN der".   
      
   GH>  There's only a slight difference. I believe this is because   
   GH>  "Alexander" is a Greek originated name   
      
              Quite possibly.  The earliest occurrence of this name I know of,   
   i.e. "Alexander the Great", dates back about 2400 years.   
      
      
   GH>  which came into English via French,   
      
              As a proper noun, maybe.  OTOH it is also used as a botanical   
   name... which my OXFORD CANADIAN DICTIONARY tells me comes from medieval Latin.   
      
              IMHO the history of the English language tends to reflect who   
   invaded the Island of Great Britain at what time & the ancient Romans did it   
   long before "William the Conqueror" did.  We'll adopt a good word from   
   anywhere.  :-)   
      
      
   GH>  and the French tend to pronounce "x" consonants mostly as   
   GH>  [gz].   
      
              As we do in this case.  I've seen it spelled "Alexandre" In   
   French...   
      
      
   GH>  Russian inherited it directly from Greek so we pronounce it   
   GH>  the Greek way as [ks].   
      
              ... and I've also seen it spelled "Aleksandr" by Russian   
   Fidonetters. While I can understand that, there are details which continue to   
   puzzle me.   
      
              I think what Alexander most needs to know is that when we shorten   
   his name to "Alex" in English we use the /ks/ as he would.  But meanwhile   
   Dallas & I had a wonderful time researching the topic, for which we thank   
   you... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
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