Talk:Charles-Michel de l'Épée

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How many accents in his surname? The Catholic Encyclopedia article uses only one (on the middle E in Epee), as does the inscription under his portrait included in this article. Also here: http://ufr6.univ-paris8.fr/desshandi/supl/projets/site_lsf/culture_histoire/histoire4.php However, this article: http://www.yanous.com/tribus/sourds/sourds011221.html does have also the accent on the first E in Epee. BillFlis 08:48, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Well spotted with the inscription! I struggled with his name when writing the article, as there are a number of spelling/typographical variants; the hyphen is another. Regarding the accent on the initial E, I took my lead from the French Wikipedia article, titled Abbé de l'Épée. However, that article then begins by introducing Charles Michel Lespée, who was called l’Abbé de l’Épée. The link you provided (yanous.com) also states that his real name was Charles Michel Lespée, but was called l'abbé Charles Michel de l'Épée. Given the pronunciation of les, I guess his surname would be É not E? Your question has also got me thinking about whether the de makes sense without the Abbé. My French is very sloppy. Maybe someone more familiar with the language can sort this out? ntennis 10:22, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
I thought of what I should have done in the first place--consulted my (print) M-W Biog. Dict., which indeed verifies the two-accent spelling. BillFlis 15:19, 20 February 2006 (UTC)