The antecedents of Donald Ervin Knuth---not 'Erwin', as in Erwin Rommel usw.---are Scandinavian, not German. Still, Gerhard got it right, voiced 'K', silent 'h', roughly 'Knoot' in Swedish and most other Scandinavian languages, Finnish of course excepted.
My own view is that a candidate having a putative computer science/mathematics background who is ignorant of Knuth should indeed be written off; but that others having different backgrounds should be judged differently. Pronunciation is, moreover, problematic. Kate and I have two very old friends as house guests at the moment. They are from different Hanseatic cities, but he and she both pronounce German in much the same way---e.g., Einstein instead of Einshtein---and very differently from the now obsolete 'hochwohlgeboren' Prussian way in which I was taught to pronounce and still speak it. We do nevertheless communicate effortlessly. Coherent adherence to some tradition is important, but it does not much matter which one. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA Avant d'imprimer cet e-mail, réfléchissons à l'impact sur l'environnement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
