-stein names: -stine, or -steen?

[Amy West]

My class in MHG was many, many years ago, and I wasn't a German major
but a Medieval Studies student with German as my major area...

The MHG word for "stone" is "stein" and as Fritz says the "standard"
dialect treatment of the diphthong is approximated by English -ai- or
-ay-. However, there were *lots* of dialects back then.

I recall discussion in class of the Swiss German dialect, and while
the NHG treatment of the diphthong now emphasizes the -i-, I believe
Swiss German emphasizes the -e-, and I believe that those students
who were familiar with SG were told they could use that as a basis
for their MHG pronunciations.

Yiddish has MHG as an ancestor, so the -ee- variant of -stein names
may have its stem there. However, as Fritz says, it's a good question
whether this is really an effect of Anglicization/Americanization.

I know zippo Yiddish.

I was once chewed out on the phone by a small-time classical radio
announcer for opting for the -steen pronunciation of Bernstein: she
proceeded to lecture me on the rules of German pronunciation. I used
some very good German once I hung up the phone.

---Amy West

>Date:    Wed, 11 Jan 2006 14:36:50 -0800
>From:    FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
>Subject: Re: -stein names: -stine, or -steen?
>
>This interchange has mystified me for years.  (BTW, Rodgers and
>Hammer__?  I've heard both pronunciations).
>The German word for 'stone' was not 'stin' (I think you want a long
>vowel), but 'stein', most likely pronounced something like English
>'stain.'  Maybe Yiddish developed from a German dialect that
>smoothed the diphthong.  But the diphthong was original in Germanic.
>Middle High German /ei/ remains in Yiddish, but spelled <ey>, so, we
>should expect 'shtine.' I don't know much about the history of
>Yiddish and nothing about its dialects, but I'd be curious to know
>whether '-steen' is found in European Yiddish or only American
>Yiddish.  Maybe '-steen' is some sort of American development, based
>on spelling pronunciation.  I think I may have come across
>mispronunciations of German names before.
>Fritz Juengling