-stein names: -stine, or -steen?

[Mark Spahn]

An new episode of 'Law and Order' tonight included
a medical examiner technician who argued that she
could handle a handgun because of her training with
the U.S. Air Force in Ramstein, Germany.

Unfortunately, she pronounced "Ramstein" with neither
its German pronunciation "Rahm-shtine" nor its Anglicized 
pronunciation "Ram-stine", but with the pronunciation "Ram-steen".

There are two prominent persons in Western New York
named Weinstein.  One, a politician, pronounces his name
"Wine-steen".  The other, a former TV newsreader, pronounces
his name "Wine-stine".  The proper pronunciation of a German-
derived word ending in -stein is "-stine" (in German, "-shtine").
It has been explained to me (correct me if this understanding is wrong)
that both the Yiddish and the German word for "stone" was
originally "stin", but that in German there was a vowel shift
to the "stine" pronunciation, while the Yiddish pronunciation
remained "steen".  That is why a name like Bernstein is
pronounced sometimes German-style as "Bern-stine"
and sometimes Yiddish-style as "Bern-steen".

In any case, "Ram-steen" is an unambiguously wrong pronunciation
for the purely German word "Ramstein".  The TV cop show
'Law and Order' is set and filmed in New York City, which 
has a high Jewish population.  My guess is that the actress who was 
called upon to pronounce the word "Ramstein" pronouced it
following the pattern of Jewish surnames spelled "-stein" but 
pronounced "-steen".

-- Mark Spahn  (West Seneca, NY)