The mathematician's name, in standard Russian printed Cyrillic, would by Чебышев, which would be commonly transliterated as Chebyshev in English; the version Tchebycheff has been filtered through French, where "ch" is pronounced like English's "sh" (the same process explains why we don't spell the name of the great 19th century composer as Chaykovsky, but as Tchaikovsky or even Tschaikowsky). The -ev in the mathematician's name gives special problems because it is stressed, and stressing, combined with consonant-final devoicing, turns this syllable into -of when it is pronounced. Hence, you find spellings such as Tchebychoff. A transliteration that has over the past 20 years been gaining ground is to render this -ev as -yov or -ov, depending on the preceding letter: Hence you might even find today Chebyshov, which more accurately reflects the Russian pronunciation. In the 80s, when I was living in Canada, the newspapers had a different style with Russian names than the US papers did, so while the NY Times spelt the Russian leader's name as Gorbachev, the Toronto Globe and Mail spelt his name, more accurately in some respects, as Gorbachov. Khadafi/Gaddafi/Qaddafi is a nightmare in so many ways.
In graduate school, we struggled mightily with the multiple possible spellings of Chebyshev. Or Tchebycheff. And so forth.
But the worst nightmare is surely the name of a certain Libyan strongman. My sources say that MUAMMAR KHADAFI has 32 variants, according to the Library of Congress
The mathematician's name, in standard Russian printed Cyrillic, would by Чебышев, which would be commonly transliterated as Chebyshev in English; the version Tchebycheff has been filtered through French, where "ch" is pronounced like English's "sh" (the same process explains why we don't spell the name of the great 19th century composer as Chaykovsky, but as Tchaikovsky or even Tschaikowsky). The -ev in the mathematician's name gives special problems because it is stressed, and stressing, combined with consonant-final devoicing, turns this syllable into -of when it is pronounced. Hence, you find spellings such as Tchebychoff. A transliteration that has over the past 20 years been gaining ground is to render this -ev as -yov or -ov, depending on the preceding letter: Hence you might even find today Chebyshov, which more accurately reflects the Russian pronunciation.
In the 80s, when I was living in Canada, the newspapers had a different style with Russian names than the US papers did, so while the NY Times spelt the Russian leader's name as Gorbachev, the Toronto Globe and Mail spelt his name, more accurately in some respects, as Gorbachov.
Khadafi/Gaddafi/Qaddafi is a nightmare in so many ways.
In graduate school, we struggled mightily with the multiple possible spellings of Chebyshev. Or Tchebycheff. And so forth.
But the worst nightmare is surely the name of a certain Libyan strongman. My sources say that MUAMMAR KHADAFI has 32 variants, according to the Library of Congress