Mosin or Moisin

I do believe Mosin as in Sergei Ivanovich Mosin, assuming you are talking about the popular bolt action soviet rifle.

"Moison" came from the pronunciation of the British actors portraying Russians in the movie "Enemy at the Gates" about the Battle of Stalingrad. Once an actor does something you can almost predict that a number of lemmings will follow......

Мосин, if you want to get into the Cyrillic. But the correct transliteration is Mosin.

And I believe the correct pronunciation is Moseen.

I doubt that anybody could come up with a better commercial for the Mosin than the movie "Enemy At The Gates". It made me want one!

Mosin is the correct transliteration of the Russian

The correct transliteration from the Russia is "Mosin" and thats what I stick with, but I recognize the alternate spellings have been used for a long time before Brit actors played in "Enemy at the Gates".

Some of the comments I have had to post on Wikipedia Talk:Mosin Nagant:

NRA Guide to Firearms Assembly "Mosin's name is also encountered in arms literature as Mossin, Mouzin, Moisin, Mossine. etc., depending on the nationality of the writer."

In Roy Dunlap's Ordnance Went Up Front (Samworth, 1948) he refers to the "Moisin-Nagant" consistently; Dunlap served the length of WWII in the field with US Army Ordnance from North Africa to the Pacific. Of course, the official translation is still Mosin-Nagant; just noting that alternate spellings or transliterations can be found.

W. H. B. Smith "Rifles" (NRA and the Military Service Publishing Co, 1948) also lists the Russian Model 1891-30 as the "Moisin" so this alternate spelling was commonly used in 1948, not just an error or mistake by Roy Dunlap.

Transliteration between Cyrillic and Latin alphabets can be fraught with peril, but Мосин to Mosin is so simple that I don't understand how things like "Moisin" got started. It's one for one! All of the transliteration systems spit out the same result. If the monument at his grave is any indication, there hasn't been a change in the way his name was spelled in the Cyrillic alphabet. Yet these errors were introduced and they persist.

By the way, I notice that every reference I've seen online gives his rank as colonel, but his grave proclaims him a major general.

Mosin

More sin.

mosin nagant. named for the two men that designed it... seriously, every company that imports and sells them lists them as MOSIN NAGANTS...

carbine85 said:

And I believe the correct pronunciation is Moseen.

Click to expand...

Yes tis.

Mosin Nagant. Pronounced Mo-Seen Nah-Gahn. However, I find you get less strange looks if you pronounce it Moe-zin.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

"Noisy Magnet"

ObsidianOne said:

Mosin Nagant. Pronounced Mo-Seen Nah-Gahn. However, I find you get less strange looks if you pronounce it Moe-zin.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

<pet-peeve rant>
A Nagant is a revolver. Nothing to do with a Mosin.
</pet-peeve rant>

IT was transliterated Moisin for all the gun magazines and books I read from the 50's and 60's. I never got into them, but I know what I read.

I do not believe anyone has refered to this particular family of guns as a Nagant in this thread... ranting aside you are off topic, sir!

I agree "Moisin" predates Enemy at the Gates. But "Mosin" is the proper one, used by Lapin and the other experts. Remember that until the 1990's, Mosin-Nagants were kind of mysterious beasts. We had the M91's from the Czar's cancelled order, and some bits and pieces from Finnish arsenals. But the Soviet and Chinese beasts were kind of rare birds. Reports of new models were something the spooky guys took note of and analyzed from B&W photos taken of Czech border posts. So the information was choppy. Now there are so many even people who don't know they have Mosin-Nagants are likely to find them lurking in closet corners. Crates of them could be found by the gun store cash register alongside the take-a-penny-leave-a-penny jar.

They almost left Nagant out of the Mosin, but agreed to hyphenate so he won't sue for patent infringement. True story.
The French pronounce Nah-GAHN, as do the Russians.
MO-sin Nah-GAHN.

I think the Spanish Mosins were the first to be imported in any significant quantities, this during the 1950s.

fofhornl said:

"Noisy Magnet"

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A buddy of mine insists on calling it a "moist maggot" and refuses to be corrected. He refers to the rifle as such to other as if they should know which rifle he's talking about.

It's "moist nugget".

I think this has cleared it up...it's neither since the alphabet used to spell the man's name (and his gun) doesn't have English counterparts. Lots of languages are like that. I guess we'll just have to stick to Мосин which is what it really is. Mosin seems an acceptable English spelling. I too used to do the "Moisin" thing, knowing no better. Мосин it is then!

<pet-peeve rant>
A Nagant is a revolver. Nothing to do with a Mosin.
</pet-peeve rant>

Click to expand...

The Mosin rifle borrowed some details from the competing Nagant design. There was a dispute over who designed the interruptor, Sergei Mosin or Leon Nagant. Since the result was something of a fusion, Mosin-Nagant is a reasonable name for the gun.