Rachmaninov or Rachmaninoff?

[karlhenning]

Today, no one who isn't dyslexic spells his name randomly.

Shakespeare spelt his name in various ways, but never randomly.  He never signed his name Luxury-Yacht, for instance.

[Gurn Blanston]

...My name is fairly rare and I have never met anyone outside my family who had the same name (although it's not that extremely rare),

But there are a limited number of way to spell "M". I suppose you could write it as "Em"...

But in any case, all kidding aside, I agree with your argument. My own last name is accompanied by at least 3 different spellings also, the 2 incorrect ones have haunted me for a lifetime. Although they aren't wrong at all, merely not the way my particular ancestors chose to spell it.

[Gurn Blanston]

Shakespeare spelt his name in various ways, but never randomly.  He never signed his name Luxury-Yacht, for instance.

No, but he did use Throat-Warbler Mangrove once...

[karlhenning]

But there are a limited number of way to spell "M". I suppose you could write it as "Em"...

Or Emm, or even (with just a slight stretch of the vowel) Æm(m) . . . .

[mn dave]

It's not "AheM?" 

[karlhenning]

It's not "AheM?" 

In which case, it might also be AcheM, or even AkheM . . . .

[(poco) Sforzando]

I've never seen the latter;  only speaking for my own eyes, you understand.

Plenty of examples if you Google this spelling.

[karlhenning]

Plenty of examples if you Google this spelling.

Oh, tush! Plenty examples of anything on the Internet, accuracy be damned.

You need better filters, man! 

[karlhenning]

In a frank and unapologetic tangent . . . Washington Irving preferred the spelling Don Quijote (for "Quixote," I mean — not for Washington Irving).  And Walt Whitman enjoyed an exotic diacritical mark in spelling the geographical formation cañon.

[Gurn Blanston]

In a frank and unapologetic tangent . . . Washington Irving preferred the spelling Don Quijote (for "Quixote," I mean — not for Washington Irving).  And Walt Whitman enjoyed an exotic diacritical mark in spelling the geographical formation cañon.

The exotic diacritical mark in no more than a tilde, placed over the "n" in canyon. Cañon is a Spanish word meaning canyon. A tilde in Spanish makes the letter "n" pronounce as the English dipthong "ny". Thus, there is no difference in pronunciation, and Whitman's preference here is to merely spell the word in its native language. Rather like Rakh.... oh, never mind.  

[karlhenning]

The exotic diacritical mark in no more than a tilde, placed over the "n" in canyon. Cañon is a Spanish word meaning canyon. A tilde in Spanish makes the letter "n" pronounce as the English dipthong "ny". Thus, there is no difference in pronunciation, and Whitman's preference here is to merely spell the word in its native language. Rather like Rakh.... oh, never mind.  

To be sure, here was one of those instances where there was no English word for a thing, and we just borrowed from a language which did.

Same as with Detroit 

[Gurn Blanston]

To be sure, here was one of those instances where there was no English word for a thing, and we just borrowed from a language which did.

Same as with Detroit 

There's no English word for Detroit? Yet there are so very many that would apply, how could we have missed the opportunity?   

[karlhenning]

As Churchill once neglected to say, I don't have to be able to spell something, to know to avoid it.

[scarpia]

The issue may be that Russian documents used to have the french transliteration of Cyrillic, which can employ f or ff to translate the last character of Rachmaninoff's name.  Non-french transliteration schemes seem to use 'v' without exception.  What is proper is interesting.  If the work was published with Roman characters then you have to use what Rach used.   But if something was published in Russian with Cyrillic characters, you could argue for using the standard transliteration of the name in its native Cyrillic form.

[jochanaan]

Well, we could always do as a rural friend of mine and call him Rock-Knock'emoff.

[MDL]

You looking in a mirror, fellow?  My posts have been entirely about clarity and what is the case.  Seems fairly obvious to me, but feel free to carry on your hissy-fit.

And, by the way, you are welcome (viz. Musorgsky).

Sorry, I didn't realise that you were a troll.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

Jeez, almost 10,000 posts on this forum? Get out and get some fresh air! Seriously.

[Brian]

I may decide I want everyone to call me "QUDSIYA ZAHER",

Please do. That sounds like a truly awesome name. 

[Maciek]

Hmmm...





Will think about it.

[Brian]

Hmmm...





Will think about it.

[Maciek]

Wheeeee! This is fun! I have to do this sort of thing more often! It's like I'm getting to know GMG for the first time all over again!