Talk:Houyhnhnm

Pronunciation

My understand was that this was generally pronounced When-em. Does someone have a reference? Seth Ilys 05:08, 18 Jan 2004 (UTC)

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors (7th Edition; ISBN 0-393-96150-8, ISBN 0-393-97619-X, ISBN 0-393-94751-3) says: "The final voyage sets Gulliver between a race of horses, Houyhnhnms (prounced [sic] Hwín-ims), who live entirely by reason except for a few well-controlled and muted social affections, and their slaves, the Yahoos, whose bodies are obscene caricatures of the human body and who have no glimmer of reason but are mere creatures of appetite and passion." (page 969)

I find it highly unusual that the extremely literate editors of the anthology didn't catch the misspelling of 'pronounced,' but that shouldn't change the fact of the proper pronunciation of 'Houyhnhnms.' One of my English-Lit professors says 'WhoWHÍN-in-ims' while another says 'WHÍN-ims,' so I don't know! I wish that we knew what Swift himself had intended... 152.163.101.8 11:50, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

One of my professors, who's a specialist in the period, pronounced it something like hWhin-ems, with the first h being sort of a silent exhalement. Then again, I had a visiting prof say pronounce the name "St. John" (as in Jane Eyre) "Saint John" rather than "Sinjin," but, on the other hand, she was incompetant.

Another funny thing that the first prof talked about was the idea that the Horses were just big comments on British aristocracy, both in their physical aspect (drawn out, long faces) and their manner of speech. But that's not my idea or observation, so I feel wrong parroting it into Wikipedia.

Does it even make sense to talk about a "correct" pronunciation for them, considering they only exist in writing? Nik42 18:39, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

I now inserted the IPA pronounciation as in David Jones' English Pronouncing Dictionary. If anyone prefers not to use IPA - here you go:

The name can be pronounced Whó-in-ems (BE) or HWÍN-ims/Who-ín-ems (AE), the second variant as if 'whin' were linked to the -nym element of, for example, 'synonym.'

Marosszék 01:00, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Yahoos humans?

I've removed the following:

(i.e. human skin)"

in the context of:

Gulliver himself, in their company, builds the sails of his skiff from "Yahoo skins" (i.e. human skin).

Yahoos aren't really humans. They're closer to humans (than Houyhnhnms) anotomically, and I suppose we could call them hominids, but they're not human. Maprovonsha172 23:33, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Weren't they said to have been descended from a wrecked ship? Nik42 18:39, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

During the council meeting, there was speculation to the effect that they were descended from a shipwrecked crew, but this was the Master speculating based on similarities between Gulliver and these creatures. --64.81.228.9 00:17, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Planet of the Apes

An editor apparently inserted a cryptic reference to the Planet of the Apes films at the end of the article without explanation or citation. I have removed it. If the editor cares to explain and cite, I invite him or her to restore and expand the remark. Robert K S 09:43, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Pun

Houyhnhnms have a stable, calm, and rational society.

Ha! BreathingMeat 23:53, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Name

Is their name a reference to the sound horses make? 76.126.29.36 (talk) 22:33, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Every word in their language is like that, because that's the only sound THESE horses can make as well. 64.233.227.21 (talk) 20:55, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Vulcans

Is it possible that the Houyhnhnms - despite their non-humanoid appearance - are related to the Vulcans from the Star Trek-universe? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.141.225.38 (talk) 20:15, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

You're kidding, right? 64.233.227.21 (talk) 20:55, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

No, I don't think he's kidding. The same thought occurred to me when I read the book. The reliance on reason and logic, with the loss of emotion could well have been part of the inspiration for the Vulcan race. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.92.142.202 (talk) 01:55, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Descriptions

The article distinguishes between the course and vulgar Yahoo, and the Houyhnhnm's, with their "stable, calm, reliable and rational society". It is implied, in my view, that the difference is between bad characteristics of humans, and the good. But actually the horses are not good. Quite the reverse. Their pursuit of reason results in evil. It is not more appropriate to say that the Yahoo represent the emotions and animals instincts of humans, and the Houyhnhnm's the rational - neither being necessary good or evil.203.184.41.226 (talk) 06:44, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Notability?

This article was flagged for non-notability, without explanation, in January this year. I've removed it because it is frankly ridiculous. A search for the term 'Houyhnhnm' returns over a million hits, the very first being an entry at the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Gulliver's Travels is widely studied in English, as are individual concepts within the book, so the charge at best reflects an unfamiliarity with English scholarship.
The tag for further references is fair enough, so I have left that; Google books has a stack of books, essays, articles and other mentions for anyone with access to a decent university library ( I don't). Moonraker12 (talk) 12:03, 28 August 2021 (UTC)