13

There's a very famous story about how in the middle of the sixteenth century the Sorbonne University filed a legal claim to the Parlement de Paris re: the correct pronunciation of qu- in Latin, viz. in the words quisquis and quamquam (e.g. Waquet 2001: 166 Latin or the empire of a sign, English translation by John Howt, the original book in French Waquet 1998). Voltaire even called one of his essays "Du mot quisquis de Ramus, ou de la Ramee", published in 1772.

The traditional practice at the Sorbonne at the time was to pronounce such words as [kiskis] and [kankan], whereas Petrus Ramus defiantly taught his students to "heretically" pronounce these words with [kw]. The Parlement de Paris famously ruled that anyone was allowed to pronounce qu- in Latin as they pleased.

My question is, are there any extant documents from the hearing? It would be quite interesting to read the primary sources.

Alex B.
  • 11,667
  • 1
  • 29
  • 55
  • 5
    This seems like an interesting and on-topic question to me. (It's borderline, but I think the connection to Latin is strong enough.) – Draconis Sep 27 '21 at 03:39
  • 3
    Yeah, this is fine. I think you're more likely to get someone who knows this story from French.SE, but I'd say it's on topic here, too (and not just because it's interesting!). – cmw Sep 27 '21 at 03:47

0 Answers0