Talk:Thomas Wyatt

Pronunciation of name

Pronounced Watt, I think. Peter Jackson 11:17, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Assuming this to be a serious comment: it was sometimes transliterated by foreigners as Hoyet. The derivation of the name seems to be from Norman-French "Guy", so the present pronunciation of Wyatt (less frequently Whyatt or Wyett) is probably correct. --Martin Wyatt 19:02, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

A history teacher specializing in this period told me that Wyatt's rebellion is pronounced Watt's rebellion. If that's correct, one might expect the father's name to be pronounced the same as the son's. That's not always the case, though: E.H. Gombrich used the German pronunciation, but his son Richard uses the English. Peter Jackson 10:32, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

It would be interesting to know the evidence for that, because, as I say, the evidence I have points the other way. It might be some Kentish peculiarity. Or it might be confusion, deliberately derogatory, with Wat Tyler, who, if I remember rightly, was also from Kent. (As this exchange seems to be continuing, I have put a heading to it.) --Martin Wyatt 20:53, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

At [1], page 60, monosyllabic pronunciation seems to be metrically more natural.

Another example of names pronounced differently within a family is the Neubergers. Judge Newberger's sister-in-law is Rabbi Noiberger. Peter Jackson (talk) 09:32, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

I agree that although Wyatt's versification seems to follow natural speech patterns rather than being strictly metrical, Howard's was much more by the book, but I am still not convinced that it was a monosyllable. --Martin Wyatt (talk) 16:41, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

Just to complicate things, at the time in question, French oi/oy was pronounced /we/, and English long i/y was pronounced something like /ɪj/ or /əj/. Peter Jackson (talk) 15:06, 13 May 2019 (UTC)

And it was the French ambassador who called him "Hoyet". It still seems to me that it comes out as two syllables, though the pronunciation may have been quite different from ours, possibly not a diphthong. I have nowhere found any discussion of this. --Martin Wyatt (talk) 16:41, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

By the way, are you related? Peter Jackson (talk) 09:02, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Not that I know of. My cousin once traced an undistinguished line of grocers and brewers. There appear to be a great many American Wyatts who claim descent from his great-grandson Sir Francis who was governor of Virginia in the 17th century. --Martin Wyatt (talk) 19:28, 17 May 2019 (UTC)