# "Eugene Onegin" - howzit properly pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911 "2002-06-13T19:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/1 "2002-06-13T19:33:24Z")
Well, I think I know how to pronounce the “Eugene” part, but “Onegin”? I’ve read this name (title) over the years, but never heard it pronounced. (Obviously I’ve never been to a performance, either.) And because it’s a proper name/title, it’s not in the dictionary to look up the pronunciation. Just hoping someong will clue me in so that I can put this to rest and worry about the other significant issues on my list - like where to go for dinner tonight, or should I paint my toenails red next time instead of pink. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/2 "2002-06-13T20:22:36Z")
In Russian (Moscow regional variant), proper pronunciation is : YevGEHnii ahNYEHgin. If you want to call him Eugene, that’s your business, but the last name is the same. ---
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/3 "2002-06-13T21:44:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > \*\*In Russian (Moscow regional variant), proper pronunciation is : > > YevGEHnii ahNYEHgin. > > If you want to call him Eugene, that’s your business, but the last name is the same. \*\* Thanks so much, **Eva**. Especially for the info on the Eugene part. But let me ask a clarifying question (I’m probably just being thick here, so please bear with me…) - Is the name of the opera pronounced that way when being discussed by English speakers as well as that being the correct pronunciation for those names in Russian? For example, we (mostly) say “Parissss” not “Paree”, or “Romeo AND Juliet” not using the French pronunciation, or “The Marriage of Figaro” not “Le Nozze di Figaro” or “The Barber of Seville” when discussing a work or performance. Although “Cossi fan tutte” and “La Traviata” and “Der Rosenkavalier” are also the “standard” english pronounciations. No-one said these things had to be consistent. It just leaves the question open in my mind. Thanks for your patience! P.S. As a hikack of my own thread, I had a friend in college whose parents were both russians who had emigrated to mexico where he was born. And thus, being Mexican-born, he used the convention of hyphenating/concatenating his parents’ last names, so his last name was… Olegnowicz-Anchipolofsky (or something like that). He had a hell of a time making reservations in the US - usually just said his last name was Oleg. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/4 "2002-06-13T22:02:09Z")
As far as I know, in English it’s almost the same: oh-NE-gin. As for your friend, yeah, Latin American is a wacky place; my personal favorite Latin American name is a political scientist who teaches at Notre Dame; he’s Dr. Guillermo O’Donnell. Don’t know what his mother’s last name was… ---
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/5 "2002-06-13T23:14:19Z")
Thanks again, **Eva**. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/6 "2002-06-14T00:59:17Z")
**Eva** -look up Benardo O’Higgins. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/7 "2002-06-14T02:26:17Z")
For a second I thought this thread was going to be about Eugene, Oregon. ---
**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/8 "2002-06-14T02:44:14Z")
By the way, what is the correct pronunciation of “Vladimir Nabokov”? ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/9 "2002-06-14T05:39:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wireless \* > **- Is the name of the opera pronounced that way when being discussed by English speakers as well as that being the correct pronunciation for those names in Russian?** It varies. As you’ve already noticed, there is no consistency in whether the pronunciations are Anglicized or the titles translated. In the specific case of _Eugene Onegin_, most frequently I’ve heard it pronounced Eugene (the English way) Oh-NYEH-gn (rhymes with Reagan), and infrequently Evgeny… The same goes with the composer – most often it’s Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky, but some folks will say Piotr. I’m not going to get into a discussion of which is “right.” As for Nabokov, my pronouncing guide for the arts\* says: vlud-EE-mir na-BAW-cawv - _Klee as in clay_ by Wilfred J. McConkey – I think it’s out of print, though. ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/10 "2002-06-14T06:21:42Z")
I have a few relatives named Vladimir, and it’s not really “vlud” but “vlahd”. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/11 "2002-06-14T10:47:00Z")
The first name is almost right, but the last name is corectly pronounced na-BOH-koff. Not at all like in “Roxanne.” ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2002, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eugene-onegin-howzit-properly-pronounced/113911/12 "2002-06-14T10:57:34Z")
> [@](#): > > [Spain 1849-1898](http://www.stabi.hs-bremerhaven.de/gbs2/whkmla/region/spain/spain184998.html) > Elections were held, won by the progressives, a new constitution passed (1855). Governments were short-lived, as the monarchy interfered and frequent popular unrest also had it’s influence on the formation of government. In 1858 a more stable government was established by General O’DONNELL - after massively rigging the elections;