Why is Samuel Pepys's last name pronounced "Peeps"?
Question #59897. Asked by the_peacemaker.
Last updated Jul 12 2021.
robboy
Answer has 1 vote
robboy 21 year member
941 replies
Answer has 1 vote.
I guess that's has to come under the category of, 'That's Just The Way Of It'. Like why Green Bay's Brett Fahvre's last name is pronounced 'Farv'.
Oct 10 2005, 7:50 PM
peasypod
Answer has 2 votes
peasypod 21 year member
3273 replies
Answer has 2 votes.
Found this:
"The most probable explanation is that the name in the seventeenth century
was either pronounced 'Pips' or 'Papes'; for both the forms 'ea' and 'ey'
would represent the latter pronunciation. The general change in the
pronunciation of the spelling 'ea' from 'ai' to 'ee' took place in a large
number of words at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the
eighteenth-century."
Response last updated by CmdrK on Jul 12 2021.
Oct 10 2005, 10:21 PM
peasypod
Answer has 3 votes
Currently Best Answer
peasypod 21 year member
3273 replies
Answer has 3 votes.
Currently voted the best answer.
Lets try that link again...
Response last updated by Shadowmyst2004 on Aug 31 2016.
Oct 10 2005, 10:22 PM
ing
Answer has 1 vote
ing 20 year member
42 replies
Answer has 1 vote.
Thanks peasy, I read a really good explanation along those lines somewhere some time back but I couldn't find it. Horror of horrors, it's in a real ink and paper book!
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/01/22/
