cellar2007a
The Cellar: a friendly neighborhood coffee shop, with no coffee and no shop. Established 1990.

You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?

7/18/2025 10:20 pm  #1


Epsteen or Epstine

And why?

 

7/19/2025 8:58 am  #2


Re: Epsteen or Epstine

NYT:

A pattern is seen by John Algeo, professor of English at the University of Georgia. ''The German names are usually pronounced with an eye sound. Most of the Jewish names have had the American influence of the ee sound, as in the words weird or receive , particularly that ei after the letter c .'' Professor Algeo notes that, in Yiddish, a sound change occurred, with the ei pronounced as a long a , as in stain , but changed in American-influenced Yiddish to ee . ''The ending of stein , pronounced steen ,'' he concludes, ''reflects an American influence.''From this, we can formulate Stein's Rule: Although names ending in stein can be pronounced either stein or steen , names consisting exclusively of Stein are pronounced stine . (In the rare case of a person named Stein refusing to go along with the crowd, this is changed to ''Steen's Rule.'')

 

7/19/2025 6:25 pm  #3


Re: Epsteen or Epstine

Albert Einstein (Inestine)
Harvey Weinstein (Winesteen)
Jeffery Epstein (Epstine sometimes, Epsteen sometimes)
 

     Thread Starter
 

7/19/2025 7:48 pm  #4


Re: Epsteen or Epstine

Diaphone Jim wrote:

…Jeffery Epstein (Epstine sometimes, Epsteen sometimes)

Not accurately. The Wikipedia article on him spells out the pronunciation “EP-steen” and has a recording  you can play that sounds it out.. The section titled Early life states that his parents were Jewish which would affect the family’s surname pronunciation. Many won’t care which may account for what you hear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein
 

 

7/23/2025 11:26 am  #5


Re: Epsteen or Epstine

Can you find a recording of Epstein saying his name? Or Trump? 

     Thread Starter
 

7/23/2025 9:52 pm  #6


Re: Epsteen or Epstine

Trump pronounces the surname as EP-steen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUmdFmAmHoM

 

Board footera