Talk:Testimonial letter from Guivarc'h Marie-Cattherine

Some questions arise from the liberties the author of this letter has taken with some spellings. We cannot answer or even address all of them, but the spelling of her name deserves to be addressed. So ...

For non-French speakers, Guivarc'h is not only an odd name, even its form is odd. Moreover, the author has written it as Guivare'H. What are we to do with this? One way to go would be to leave it exactly as it is and move on, but that would be taking a position. She has "mis-written" a number of words and names in this letter, and there is no reason to suppose she could not have done so with her own name, perhaps even intentionally, as she is not a basket-case who cannot spell her way out of a paper bag. Nor is she hopelessly sloppy.

One prominent mis-spelling that supports a hypothesis of intentionality is her rendering of her alma mater as "Renee Descares University," in Paris. This can only be René Descartes University, which she should know.

Be that as it may, we then come to her name. Her version of her surname, Guivare'H, is very uncommon, though not unprecedented. Much more common is the version in the wiki's page title, so we have gone with that, while leaving her also unusual double-T "Cattherine" alone.

There are a few other mis-spellings in the letter, but not so many as to paint her as illiterate or even careless, thus, these apparent "errors" of proper names she should know raise one's eyebrows.

And FWIW, a "Marie-Catherine Guivarc'h" (one "T") WAS found, a doctor no less, practicing in the far northwest of France, in Bretagne actually, the ancestral home of all the Guivarc'h's and Guivare'H's and other variants. A GP, not a pediatric specialist. Could be her or a grand-daughter or unrelated ... whatever!

Suggestions welcome, if it matters. -- doofus-9 04:47, 14 September 2023 (UTC)