2.1 How do you pronounce "Isaac Asimov"?
Description
This article is from the Isaac Asimov FAQ, by Edward J. Seiler ejseiler@earthlink.net and John H. Jenkins jenkins@mac.com with numerous contributions by others.
2.1 How do you pronounce "Isaac Asimov"?
"EYE'zik AA'zi-mov". "AA'zi-mof" is also OK. The name is spelled with an
"s" and not a "z" because Asimov's father didn't understand the Latin
alphabet clearly when the family moved to the U.S. in 1923. One way to
remember this pronunciation is the pun from The Flying Sorcerers by
Larry Niven and David Gerrold: "As a color, shade of purple-grey", or "As
a mauve". Asimov wrote a poem ("The Prime of Life") in which he rhymes
his surname with "stars above"; someone else suggested amending the poem
to rhyme it with "mazel tov", which he thought an improvement.
Asimov's own suggestion, however, as to how to remember his name was to
say "Has Him Off" and leave out the H's.
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