twohats
New member
'Lewis' or 'Loo-ie', which is right?
Robert Louis Stevenson
- Thread starter twohats
- Start date
skipmac
Well-known member
Have always heard it pronounced LOO wis
Biggles Wader
Well-known member
Dunno.But I have visited his grave.About as far away from here as you can get without a rocket.
Seajet
...
I and everyone I can remember have always pronounced it ' Loowie ' as in the French.
Anyone who can give us ' National Talk like A Pirate Day ' is a hero in my book.
Anyone who can give us ' National Talk like A Pirate Day ' is a hero in my book.
sarabande
Well-known member
He was christened LEWIS, but changed it to LOUIS when he was 18.
chewi
Active member
The street in his name in Westbourne, Bournemouth ducks the issue by writing it as R.L Stevenson Avenue.
Seajet
...
So most of the youngsters in Westbourne probably think it's named after a local joker, ' Right Laugh Stevenson '...
johnalison
Well-known member
Anyone who can read the first page of Treasure Island and then put it down must have a will of iron. I was too young when I was young for Kidnapped but I read it a few years ago and was very impressed by the even-handedness of his treatment of the two sides of the question of Scottish patriotism. The Dynamiter is a very strange book which I think he wrote with his wife but which is worth reading by those interested in oddities.
Kukri
Well-known member
"The only uses for money are a schooner and a private string quartet".
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
As a distant relative of the man, I can say authoritatively that I haven't a clue.
Romeo
Well-known member
Personally always said Loo-ee, and the pronunciation on radio 4 is jarring with me a bit.... although the "S" at the end blends into the first S of Stevenson anyway, so perhaps not matter too much if you think of it as silent or not.
One of my boats is name after him: "Tusitala"
One of my boats is name after him: "Tusitala"
dunedin
Well-known member
Of course he was the sickly under-achiever in that amazing family ......
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stevenson_(civil_engineer)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stevenson_(civil_engineer)
macd
Active member
Whichever one the bearer preferred, which we may never know. But we might surmise that in deliberately changing it from the non-ambiguous to the ambiguous form, he was either being mischievous or preferred the French pronunciation. Altogether a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde problem.
Incidentally, in changing to 'Louis' he also dropped Balfour as his third forename. Both came from his maternal grandfather, Lewis Balfour, who was a minister in the Church of Scotland. Five years after changing his name(s), Stevenson announced to his parents that he no longer believed in God, adding "am I to live my whole life as one falsehood?”
So perhaps the change of name was some sort of religious statement?
Whichever is right, it's clearer than 'Menzies' and 'Dalziel'.
Romeo
Well-known member
I'll see you those to and raise you by "Colquhoun".
adwuk
Active member
Milngavie is a name that, in my experience, takes many by surprise.
macd
Active member
But not as much, I beg to suggest, as West Cornforth in Co. Durham: invariably pronounced "Doggie" by all who live in the area (or was a few decades ago).
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Both of these are perfectly clear as long as you don't make the mistake of thinking that the fourth character is a letter zed. It's a yogh.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Also clear if you remember that Scots used "qu" where English uses "w". I'm not sure quhen Scots got the letter w, but I suspect it's relatively recent.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
"Pronounced as it's written" is the normal advice ...
