"Pierce" or purse

[nimsooze]

You know that there was an american scientist a century ago or so named "Charles Sanders Pierce " . how is the underlined part pronounced?

[BobK]

In England (the standard English accent) that name is pronounced /piːəs/. As he was American, there should probably be a hint of /r/ after the vowel.

b

[nimsooze]

Is it not pronounced as "purse"?

[Anglika]

No. It's pronounced in the same way as the verb "to pierce".

[nimsooze]

But I , surprisedly, read an article about that man, whose native english writer believed it is pronounced like "purse".

[Casiopea]

Are there two? Charles Peirce: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

I found this:

"Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse)"
Source: Charles Peirce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Semiotics is the study of signs. The American logician Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced
\purse") introduced this term and many of its basic ideas"

[nimsooze]

Thanks Casiopea.
There are some things that are not as simple as we think!

[Casiopea]

Meaning?

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

...
"Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse)"
Source: Charles Peirce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...

b

[Anglika]

Seems to be a local pronunciation:
In the old pronunciation of the name, according to the tradition prevalent in several
branches of the family of John of Watertown [John Pers, a weaver from Norwich who
emigrated in 1637], the vowel-sound was the same that we now hear in the words "pear,"
"heir" and "their"; and this pronunciation is remembered by living persons as having been
sometimes used by old-fashioned people. This was probably quite independent of the
spelling. The same sound was, according to A. J. Ellis, used in the verb to pierce, in the 17th
century, and by some in the 18th century. On the other hand, the verb may be occasionally
heard with the pronunciation "perce" (or "purse"), which is now the prevalent pronunciation of
all forms of the surname in the neighborhood of Boston