Point of interest - Université Harvard or 'de Harvard' or 'd'Harvard' or some/all of the preceding ?

Question

The speaker clearly says "Université d'Harvard" but is this technically correct ? How would we know ?

Wikipedia refers to Université Harvard, and uses 'de Harvard' for lists of 'presidents of Harvard' etc.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A9_Harvard

Bab.la also shows 'de Harvard' for diplomas '(from )Harvard' etc and in a number of examples referring to Harvard University uses "Université de Harvard". https://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-french/harvard

Examples of all 3 are found on this page from linguee https://www.linguee.com/english-french/translation/harvard+university.html

The university is named after (Rev) John Harvard, so my first thought was that it would follow the same format as for instance "Institut Pasteur" and should just be Université Harvard, or at least be treated as h aspiré and be 'de Harvard'. Last on my list would have been d'Harvard. However it appears all are acceptable ?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Maarten,
In French, the 'h' of 'Harvard' is consistently considered as silent and therefore you will write it 'l'université d'Harvard'. And yet, French is nowadays a bit more influenced by the English pronunciation and you'll find that the 'h' found in English proper nouns (such as Harvard) can be pronounced. Therefore, you can find 'l'université de Harvard'. The same applies with the Jewish celebration 'Hanukkah' -> d'Hanoucca (silent 'h' in French) / de Hanoucca (Hebrew pronunciation).
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !