We have had frequent occasion, on this blog, to make use of a fine and seasoned adjective, to wit:
Quinean; meaning, ‘of, like, relating to, scented with the essence of, or singing hymns of eulogy to,
Quine'. Now:
Quine rhymes with
spline, or
sine, or
affine; but
Quinean -- ahh, that is another case entirely. The vowel is, let us not be curt, and say “short”, but rather:
trim, and
crisp, with the stressed vowel of those splendid very syllables. To form the word, you pout the lips just slightly, as though sampling and evaluating a particularly fine dry sherry at a soirée of the Philosophy Department; you do not open your mouth wi-i-i-de the way they do over at Sociology or Athletic Medicine. It rhymes, thus, with
Augustinian, and with very little else; it is itself, in fact, an eminently Augustinian vocable, and ill-inclined to participate in any vulgar limericks or advertising jingles.
(And as for Quine -- who knows how they pronounce it, over in -- horresco referens -- Applied Mathematics; probably rhymes with "groin".)
~
Certain English suffixes shorten the quantity of the immediately preceding vowel. Thus: finite (long i) - infinity (short). bibliophile (long i) - bibliophilic (short).
Whether -ean be numbered among these, I have not bothered to investigate; but simply decree, ex cathedra, en tant que Editor of Pronunciation emeritus (thus with awe-inspiring authority), that it Shall Be Thus: KWINN-ee-an.
So there.
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