The pronuncation of "Tychonoff" and "Alaoglu"

Question

I am not quite sure this is the place to ask this sort of question, but I am gonna give a talk on Banach algebra in which I will use theorems named after these two mathematicians whose names I can not pronounce.

Anyone who provides the answer would save my life!

Thanks!

(By the way, is there a reference where we can look up all the pronunciations of names of mathematicians?)

Answer 1

As Gerry said, Alaoglu was Canadian of Greek descent, but his name has Turkish roots. To elaborate a bit, his name was probably originally typeset as Alaoğlu. The 'ğ' character is a yumuşak ge, literally "soft g", and is pronounced as if stopping just before pronouncing the hard 'g' in the word "cog." The resulting sound makes it sound almost like an English "w":

'Alaoğlu' would sound almost like 'Ala-ow-lu', or 'Ala-ough-lu', where 'ough' is pronounced as in the word 'though' or 'dough'.

The root '-oğlu' means 'son' in Turkish. So 'Alaoğlu' would mean "Son of Ala" -- possibly a shortening of another name beginning with 'Ala' (Alan? Aladdin? Ala is typically a feminine name in Turkish, though not exclusively), or possibly in reference to Allah; such direct references to Allah are not common in modern Turkish, however.

Answer 2

If you click here and on the bottom right button "Listen" you will hear how to pronounce "Tikhonov".

Answer 3

I think the g in Alaoglu is silent and the pronunciation is something like A-la-OL-you. He was of Greek descent, although the -oglu suffix seems to be Turkish.