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Thanks. I changed computer and lost all my bookmarks.
Love it.
Oh, but it isn't na-BAH-kuf. According to the man himself. ...
...
As with Gogol and even James Agйe, there is
occasionally confusion about the pronunciation of your last
name. How does one pronounce it correctly?
"It is indeed a tricky name. It is often misspelt, because
the eye tends to regard the "a" of the first syllable as a
misprint and then tries to restore the symmetrical sequence by
triplicating the "o"-- filling up the row of circles, so to
speak, as in a game of crosses and naughts. No-bow-cough. How
ugly, how wrong. Every author whose name is fairly often
mentioned in periodicals develops a bird-watcher's or
caterpillar-picker's knack when scanning an article. But in my
case I always get caught by the word "nobody" when capitalized
at the beginning of a sentence. As to pronunciation, Frenchmen
of course say Nabokoff, with the accent on the last
syllable. Englishmen say Nabokov, accent on the first,
and Italians say Nabokov, accent in the middle, as Russians
also do. Na-bo-kov. A heavy open "o" as in
"Knickerbocker". My New England ear is not offended by the long
elegant middle "o" of Nabokov as delivered in American
academies. The awful "Na-bah-kov" is a despicable gutterism.
Well, you can make your choice now."
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