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I was wondering how to pronounce the, assumingly French, last name Mignotte. For a polynomial p(x) with integer coefficients, there is a bound on how big the coefficients can be on any proper factor of p(x). This is called the Landau-Mignotte bound.

  • Maurice Mignotte is, I believe, a French mathematician who works or has worked as professor in Strasbourg, the well-known city on the border of France and Germany. This might have an effect on how the last name is to be pronounced.

Apologies if the question is elementary, I have no real experience with the French language. From a specific text-to-speech online software, the pronunciation appears to be, loosely speaking, minjot, ending with a strong, solid 't'. This is also the aspect I am most curious about, as the ending in pronunciation influences how "Mignotte" is to be manipulated in grammar in my native language.

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I do not expect any other pronunciation than /miɲɔt/ by a French person. It is close to (UK) English "min1 yacht", the middle "gn" is pronounced like the Spanish ñ, close to "canyon", the name rhymes with "pot".

Mignotte is not just a proper name but also a noun/adjective in French. Despite being relatively outdated and replaced by mignonne, it is still sometimes used and always pronounced /miɲɔt/:

TLFi (archive)

MIGNOT, -OTTE, subst. Synon. vieilli ou région. de mignon (dont il est la forme anc.). Viens ça, mignot, dit le poète, à qui sa chaire en vieux chêne donnait parfois des velléités de «vieil langaige» (A. Daudet, Jack, t.1, 1876, p. 282). Ô ma belle mignotte, mon rêve adoré (Huysmans, Le Drageoir aux épices, p.22 ds Cressot, Phrase et vocab. Huysmans, 1938, p. 511).
...
Prononc.: [miɳ ο], fém. [-ɔt].

Note: The TLFi seems to confuse /ɳ/ and /ɲ/, the former being unused in French (of France).

This last name origin is reported to be Burgundy (archive):

D'où vient ce nom ?
Mignot
Nom très courant dans toute la France, notamment en Normandie et en Auvergne. C'est un adjectif qui signifie en ancien français joli, gracieux, aimable. Matronyme : Mignotte (Bourgogne).

1 The vowel is closer to the one in mean, but is short

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  • I'd say mean yacht; min yacht would have /ɪ/ and not /i/ in the first syllable.
    – Peter Shor
    Nov 27, 2020 at 13:19
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    @PeterShor I though about it but ruled it out because "mean" has a long /i:/ and is (more) stressed.
    – jlliagre
    Nov 27, 2020 at 13:24
  • @jlliagre Thank you for the answer. I assume your expectation stems from personal experience, being fluent in French? Is there some semi-verified source wherein I could look up the pronunciation of less common names in the future?
    – Linear Christmas
    Nov 27, 2020 at 15:48
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    Agreed with this pronunciation guide; as an Anglophone I don't think you'll get a closer approximation. Note that the vowel in "yacht" is close enough to work in US English too.
    – Luke Sawczak ♦
    Nov 27, 2020 at 22:45
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    @jiliagre Apparently you're right on this one, I mispronounced the spanish ñ. So yes "mignotte" have to be pronounced like "miñotte" but not like "miniotte". My bad.
    – Loïc Di Benedetto
    Dec 2, 2020 at 11:02

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