Talk:Thomas à Kempis
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Contents |
[edit] à
I guess that à is French. Could you explain why, how and where else it is used? --Error 4 July 2005 23:17 (UTC)
[edit] Requested move
- It is a fairly common misspelling of his name. Because it is a misspelling, I have requested that this article be moved to Thomas a Kempis, which is currently a redirect to Thomas à Kempis. Normally, I would have immediately moved this article to the proper name, but since the misspelling is quite common and seems to be entrenched in many minds, I believe this is not a straight-forward move. À is indeed a French form, while his name is a Latin name, meaning Thomas of Kempen. This means that there should be a plain a between Thomas and Kempis. Aecis praatpaal 17:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
- Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation, then sign your vote with ~~~~
[edit] Support
- Support as the nominator. Aecis praatpaal 17:36, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
- Support --Francis Schonken 19:12, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
- Support the correct form of his name.
ナイトスタリオン ✉ 11:17, 21 December 2005 (UTC) - Support User:Onderwijsgek. I live in Zwolle near the place where Thomas a Kempis lived. His correct name is Thomas a Kempis. This is our chance to beat Encyclopedia Brittanica by spelling his name the right way.
Also see:
By the way: His real name is Thomas van Kempen! See photo in article.
- Support Would it not be prudent to move and leave a redirect link? Gerhardp 16:03, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Oppose
- Oppose. Name with accent is more common. And it is not the French preposition "à"; the Latin preposition "a" (the short form of "ab") was written with an accent too, in certain periods (see eg. [1], page 11). This older notation seems to have survived only in the name Thomas à Kempis. Eugene van der Pijll 23:06, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
-
- See also the illustration at http://www.nndb.com/people/824/000094542/, which has a latin caption, with the accent. Eugene van der Pijll 23:10, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
- Oppose. The version with accent is more common. Whether it's French or medieval Latin isn't very relevant. —Wahoofive (talk) 03:00, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
- Oppose. Same reasons as above. I always see it written with the accent. FearÉIREANN
\(caint) 23:50, 14 December 2005 (UTC) - Oppose. Interesting discussion. I'm going to throw in that this is also one of those cases where in English, the accent seems to be necessary for pronunciation. And since Jtdirl and I seem to be agreeing, which doesn't happen often, I might just be right. ℬastique▼parℓer♥voir♑ 13:38, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Discussion
- Add any additional comments
- I have seen Thomas à Kempis as the most usual form. I would think that a Google test would produce misleading statistics, as ASCII preferrence in computing would inflate the proportion of spellings without the accent. THe spelling with the accent is traditional, no matter how illogical it might seem. --Gareth Hughes 17:38, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
- I don't know if "traditional" is the right word, but the version with the accent is indeed quite common. That's why I think the accent shouldn't be deleted from Wikipedia altogether. I believe the name with the accent should be a redirect to the name without the accent, as opposed to the other way around. Or, to put it differently: I believe the common, incorrect name should be a redirect to the common, correct name. Aecis praatpaal 15:50, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
- The Catholic Encyclopedia: Thomas à Kempis [2]
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Thomas à Kempis [3]
- MSN Encarta: Thomas à Kempis [4]
- The Columbia Encyclopedia: Thomas à Kempis [5]
I don't know how this accent came about but it seems likely that it is more than a simple mistake. - Haukur Þorgeirsson 20:54, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
- Interestingly enough, most other language Wikipedias have Thomas a Kempis, except for Greek, which uses "à", and Finnish, which doesn't have either of Thomas a Kempis or Thomas à Kempis. That "à" is not French can be seen from the French Wikipedia article fr:Thomas a Kempis, which uses "a". The "a" seems to me to be Latin (same as "ab"), Thomas of Kempen, so "à" is most probably a misspelling, perpetuated be belief in other encyclopedias. I don't really care either way, but I think more research is necessary than pointing at other English-language encyclopedias to really find out how the "à" came to be used so widely in his name. No matter how the move dispute ends, a remark about the spelling of his name in the article would be a good thing. Kusma (討論) 19:51, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
- "à" is not a misspelling. See above. Eugene van der Pijll 20:25, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
Seems to be popular among medievel Tommys. See Thomas à Beckett. ℬastique▼parℓer♥voir♑ 13:48, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
- Ooops! Sir Thomas à Beckett was an Australian judge around the turn of the 20th Century! Who knew the à was around in English that late in history. But I meant to say Thomas à Becket!! He had a brother, The Hon Sir William à Beckett --B
- Here's another fellow: William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury, Conservative politician and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. I think we're establishing precedence here... --B
[edit] Result
It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it to be moved. WhiteNight T | @ | C 22:21, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Buried Alive?
Is this a Internet rummor or is there any truth to this at all? "And the 13th-century Thomas a Kempis, the reputed author of the great devotional work The Imitation of Christ, was never made a saint because, it was said, when they dug up his body for the ossuary they found scratch marks on the lid of his coffin and concluded that he was not reconciled to his fate."
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/buried.asp
Bobmutch 03:06, February 24 2007 (UTC)
- I heard the same story many years ago. But the Catholic Encyclopædia makes no mention of it, nor does any other reputable source I've been able to check, so I suspect it's a myth. The fact that he was never canonised is probably due to the fact that for a long time there was considerable doubt as to the authorship of the Imitation. Vilĉjo 15:37, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
-
- I couldn't find any repurable source either and I know there is doubt as to the authorship so that makes more sense why he has not be canonised. I love the book and read it over and over and over! I have it as an audio book also. Bobmutch 10:21, May 27 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Pictures
This article seems to have more pictures than it needs. Either more text should be added, or some pictures should be removed. Any thoughts? --Entoaggie09 01:43, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Plagarism?
this page seems to have been largely copied from: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc06/Page_309.html
[edit] Date of death - 25 July or 8 August?
25 July [6] and 8 August [7] seem to be the favourite death dates. Anyone know which is correct, and why? -- JackofOz (talk) 08:57, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
