It’s an honest question. Jean Cabanis’s forebears were French Huguenots, but I have assumed, lo these many, that by the time he was born, two hundred years ago this year, the family name had been teutonicized at least to the extent that the final consonant was pronounced.
I’m beginning to think I was wrong. Look what I found this afternoon:
These clunky Hildebrand long-lines were the work of Carl August Bolle, the Berlin naturalist and collector, on the occasion of Cabanis’s elevation to the rank of professor. In the second strophe, the name stands in end rhyme — with the word “sie.” For poetic purposes, at least, we are to pronounce the name as if it were still French, with the emphasis on the last syllable and the final consonant silent.
Was Bolle just being cute, pushing poetic license for the sake of an easy rhyme? Or is this genuine evidence of genuine usage?
Anybody know?
