> Does anybody really say molaskeena? Just curious. I've never heard it
> myself.
From what I've heard, no. I've been looking around town for a pocket plain (or four), and I've been pronouncing it and hearing it pronounced quite a bit. Seems that in both northern California and central Pennsylvania at least, it's pronounced as in "animal epidermis".
I have a few spare pocket sketches but I like the page count of the plain.
It seems that there are plenty of stores with lots of lined and quad pocket and plain full sized, but none with pocket plain. Tiny green! Tiny green!
I try to buy from local business before going online, but...
> On Monday 21 November 2005 8:41, argonic wrote:
> > Does anybody really say molaskeena? Just curious. I've never heard it
> > myself.
> From what I've heard, no. I've been looking around town for a pocket
> plain (or four), and I've been pronouncing it and hearing it pronounced quite
> a bit. Seems that in both northern California and central Pennsylvania at
> least, it's pronounced as in "animal epidermis".
> I have a few spare pocket sketches but I like the page count of the plain.
> It seems that there are plenty of stores with lots of lined and quad pocket
> and plain full sized, but none with pocket plain. Tiny green! Tiny green!
> I try to buy from local business before going online, but...
I've always pronounced it mo-LES-kin... guess that ain't even nearly right. But how exactly do you pronounce 'molaskeena' anyway? 'Mol-A-skeena'? 'Mol-A-skeen-A'? 'Molaskeen-A'? Can you hear the last 'a' (like in 'china') or is it somehow swallowed? English isn't my mother's tongue, so I find it rather hard to imagine how a word in a foreign language would be pronounced with another foreign language's accent. And Evan, how do you pronounce 'moleskine' like 'animal epidermis'???
> I've always pronounced it mo-LES-kin... guess that ain't even nearly
> right. But how exactly do you pronounce 'molaskeena' anyway?
> 'Mol-A-skeena'? 'Mol-A-skeen-A'? 'Molaskeen-A'? Can you hear the last
> 'a' (like in 'china') or is it somehow swallowed? English isn't my
> mother's tongue, so I find it rather hard to imagine how a word in a
> foreign language would be pronounced with another foreign language's
> accent.
> And Evan, how do you pronounce 'moleskine' like 'animal epidermis'???
On Tuesday 22 November 2005 10:53, Phil Ulrich wrote:
> On 11/22/05, antigone <n...@planet-eco.de> wrote:
> > I've always pronounced it mo-LES-kin... guess that ain't even nearly
> > right. But how exactly do you pronounce 'molaskeena' anyway?
> > 'Mol-A-skeena'? 'Mol-A-skeen-A'? 'Molaskeen-A'? Can you hear the last
> > 'a' (like in 'china') or is it somehow swallowed? English isn't my
> > mother's tongue, so I find it rather hard to imagine how a word in a
> > foreign language would be pronounced with another foreign language's
> > accent.
> > And Evan, how do you pronounce 'moleskine' like 'animal epidermis'???
> "Animal epidermis" = "mole skin." (I'm assuming.)
Exactly.
For a bit I pronounced it "Mol-eh-s'kine" (sort of rhyming with 'time' but with an 'n'), but everybody seems to call it "mole-skin" at various art and book stores. I know there's a difference between the origin of the word and what is said, but in matters of borrowed language I tend to accept the most common form pronounced in the country or region I am in.
In the end, I don't think it really matters so long as the people talking know what they are each referring to. About the only problem I've ever had was when somebody thought I meant the bandages.
For what it's worth, my fiance and I pronounce 'cahier' in what I think is the correct way ("kah-yay"). Volant I pronounced as 'Vole-aunt', rhyming with 'font'... or should I say 'as in "animal relative"'?
I go with Mole-skine, unless I think too long about it. I usually just call it "mi JURN-ul." Unless I'm in my Porsche, or on my porch. Where are those recordings of Van Gohn, Hemingway and Picasso walking into a store and buying them when we need them?
argonic wrote: > Similar to the moleskin or molaskeena choice, I mostly hear porsh > rather than the native porsha.
As I mostly hear "Sigmund Freud" rather than "Zigmundt Freudt." Fowler's English Usage, under "foreign phrases," I believe, offers some useful, typically terse, and wholly appropriate advice on such pronunciations.
Since the word is ultimately derived from the English word 'moleskin' I think it makes the most sense to pronounce it 'mole skin'. The French took the word over and added an 'e' to make it sound French, hence 'mole skeen'. And Italians pronounce the sequence of letters 'moleskine' as 'mol ah skeen a'. But both Italians and French are deviations from the original English word.
