Why -stein ending is pronounced -steen in English?

[Dowly]

Something got me curious about this, I hear a lot of native english speakers (I hear this a lot from North Americans) pronounce for example Goldstein as Goldsteen, but on the other hand Einstein is pronounced correctly with the -stein like in "beer stein".

Where and when did this change occur, and why? Any ideas?

[Jimbuna]

Dependant on how many steins you have consumed prior usually dictates when you will begin pronouncing the word as steen

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Dependant on how many steins you have consumed prior usually dictates when you will begin pronouncing the word as steen

Perfect.

[Buddahaid]

American English is full of those oddities and I blame Texans.

[Jeff-Groves]

It's obvious you never visited the U.S.A.
'Car' where I live is pronounced Kar.
Go to Boston? It's Ca 'Ka'.
"I stapped the Ka at Da Ba!"


Surprised you didn't bring up Frankenstein
That's pronounced correctly all over the U.S.A.

[Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Surprised you didn't bring up Frankenstein
That's pronounced correctly all over the U.S.A.

No it's not!

[Skybird]

A guessing game.

Guess a Roman city in Germania that English people adress by using a French name.

[Catfish]

something something .. with C ?

[vienna]

The general rule has been any word with the vowel compound "ei" is pronounced as an "eye" sound, and the vowel compound "ie" is pronounced as a long "ee" sound...


As for the 'car/ka' situation, that is a Massachusetts, specifically Boston sound, and I really wouldn't put much stock in the pronunciation abilities of a state whose citizens insist upon pronouncing the name of one of their cities, spelled "Worcester", as "Wooster"...






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[vienna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

A guessing game.

Guess a Roman city in Germania that English people adress by using a French name.

Not too sure, but sounds like it might raise a stink...




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[Catfish]

Originally Posted by vienna

[...] whose citizens insist upon pronouncing the name of one of their cities, spelled "Worcester", as "Wooster"...
<O>

This is english pronounciation Wooster instead of War-cestah, and even worse when it is Worcestershire sauce, and no it is not Wooster shyre (like tyre) sauce.. but the idea of it is indeed roman, let fish rot in the sun, catch the dripping oozing liquid and add a few spices ..

[August]

Originally Posted by Rhodes

No it's not!

There's a few lines from that movie that completely sums up this thread:
(phonetic name spelling so it makes sense)


"Well "Froadrick" my name is "Eye-gore".


"Eye-gore? They told me it was E-gore"


"Well they were wrong, weren't they?"

[Platapus]

When two vowels go walking
The first one does the talking


One of the inconsistent rules about English is that sometimes when two vowels are together, we pronounce the first one. We do that in all cases except when we don't.

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Platapus

When two vowels go walking
The first one does the talking


One of the inconsistent rules about English is that sometimes when two vowels are together, we pronounce the first one. We do that in all cases except when we don't.

The rules of English must have originated from lawyers: the arbitrary manner in which they are observed reeks of the taint of legalese; its not enough to simply say ""i" before "e"< someone ( a damnable lawyer, I tells ya) made a 'loophole' with "except after"c"", and, not content to leave it there the scoundrel(s) added an amendment "except in words sounding like 'neighbor' and weigh'"...

Scratch a rule for English spelling/pronunciation and you'll very often find an "except"; one of my exes majored in linguistics in university and speaks several languages; she learned to speak, read, and write Japanese; I once asked her which was more difficult to learn, English or Japanese; she said compared to Japanese, a highly structured, consistent language, English was a mish-mosh of exceptions, variants, and arbitrary inconsistencies...

I blame the Germanic influence; I am no great shakes when it comes to learning languages, but I once made an effort to start learning German at a local adult school; on the first day, the instructor who was a rather strict and pompous German-born fellow, started the class by extolling the 'grand virtues' of the German language and its "precision"; he declared we would find the language easy to learn since there were so few irregularities, particularly in the verbs; he asked the class members to call out English verbs and he would demonstrate how, in German, they were entirely regular; one by one, the students called out simple English verbs, which were met by the instructor saying, "No, in German that verb is irregular"; after about the sixth or seventh consecutive 'irregular verb', the class devolved into fits of laughter at the situation; the instructor then gave a vivid demonstration of the oft-reputed German lack of a sense of humor...




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[Sean C]

It's because American English is crazy.