Pedants' Paradise

[jean]

Because there are so many French words that begin with dé, and so few where it's really de but the de is not separate from what follows. If the painter's name were usually written de Gas I doubt if there'd be a problem.

(We're not alone in applying acute accents when they aren't wanted. A fashionable pizza topping when I lived in Italy was brié e rucola.)

[french frank]

...



Yes, if without his first name.[/url]

That's what I meant. People were calling him Meegeren, on its own.

[Roehre]

.

In Belgium, the convention is slightly different - Mr Van Rompuy is indexed as Van Rompuy, Eric; presumably because there are fewer 'Vans' in Belgium?.

In Flemish Dutch it's Eric Van Rompuy, in Dutch Dutch Eric van Rompuy, but AFAIK in both Flemish and Dutch indices it's Rompuy, Eric van(or Van).wikipaedia is not correct here, in Belgium Van Rompuy should only be found in the French/Walloon dictionaries, not in the Dutch/Flemish ones. That's a consequence of the Nederlandse Taalunie (the Union of the Dutch Language), unifying spelling and indexing in the Dutch speaking areas in Europe and the Dutch West Indies (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St,Maarten, Saba, St.Eustatius).

Han van Meegeren is to be found as "Meegeren, Han van" in Dutch language dictionaries/encyclopaedias etc
[The German indices follow this rule too: Beethoven, Ludwig van]

In colloquial spoken and written Dutch it is "van Meegeren."

[vinteuil]

In Flemish Dutch it's Eric Van Rompuy, in Dutch Dutch Eric van Rompuy, but AFAIK in both Flemish and Dutch indices it's Rompuy, Eric van(or Van).wikipaedia is not correct here, in Belgium Van Rompuy should only be found in the French/Walloon dictionaries, not in the Dutch/Flemish ones. That's a consequence of the Nederlandse Taalunie (the Union of the Dutch Language), unifying spelling and indexing in the Dutch speaking areas in Europa ...."

... many thanks for the corrigendum here, Roehre

[french frank]

In Flemish Dutch it's Eric Van Rompuy, in dutch Dutch Eric van Rompuy, but AFAIK in both Flemish and Dutch
indices it's Rompuy, Eric van(or Van).

Wiki was my sole authority In the list of Belgian politicians, all those with the particle appear under the letter V; but all the names with 'de' or 'De' appear under D, which seems very odd but does show a certain consistency in that particular list!

Han van Meegeren is to be found as "Meegeren, Han van" in Dutch language dictionaries/encyclopaedias etc
wikipaedia is not correct here, Van Rompuy will only be found in the French/Walloon dictionaries, not in the Dutch/Flemish ones.
[The German indices follow this rule too: Beethoven, Ludwig van]

Wiki does say that the usage in indexes [rather than indices?] is as you say - under 'M', but Meegeren doesn't stand alone without the 'van'.

In colloquial spoken and written Dutch it is "van Meegeren."

My experience of English, and my only book (on Vermeer) refers to him as van Meegeren (small v) regardless of whether his first name is included. Using a capital was said to be anglicisation (incl American usage).

[vinteuil]

Wiki was my sole authority In the list of Belgian politicians, all those with the particle appear under the letter V; but all the names with 'de' or 'De' appear under D, which seems very odd but does show a certain consistency in that particular list!
).

... well, wiki did say -

In Belgium, all prefixes are always included for sorting.

It certainly looks odd to those used to French sorting, where de is ignored but le / la is used for sorting - hence François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac goes under L...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

On Monday, on paying to leave a multi-storey car park, I noticed that the decimal point had been replaced by a decimal comma

£2,65

Have I missed something here, or is this now a widespread practice?

[jean]

I blame the EU.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I blame the EU.

Sorry, £2 13s 0d

[french frank]

I blame the EU.

Not exclusively. What are those two little blue smudges on their own, just above all that green?

[Roehre]

... well, wiki did say -

....may I point out that this is an English text and reference, not a Dutch/Flemish one

[Roehre]

Wiki was my sole authority In the list of Belgian politicians, all those with the particle appear under the letter V; but all the names with 'de' or 'De' appear under D, which seems very odd but does show a certain consistency in that particular list!

May I point out that this is an English list, not a Dutch/Flemish one

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

In Flemish Dutch it's Eric Van Rompuy, in Dutch Dutch Eric van Rompuy

So, not for the first time, I've been using double Dutch.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sorry, £2 13s 0d

- bravo, Alpie!

[french frank]

May I point out that this is an English list, not a Dutch/Flemish one

But professional indexing, I think, does have certain conventions which aim to respect the usage of the different countries, and of individuals who are of one nationality but have a 'foreign' name.

I know of exceptions. For example, de Gaulle, who routinely appears under G in French indexes (e.g. Larousse), can appear under D in English ones (the Cambridge Biographical Dictionary, for example), presumably because the 'de' is never dropped so the English automatically look for it under D. However that work is so riddled with errors there may have been no reason other than that the indexer did not know.