Re: OT: Chat/OT: Pronunciation in Helloween's "Dr. Stein"

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From: "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 7:41 PM
To: <CONLANG@...>
Subject: Chat/OT: Pronunciation in Helloween's "Dr. Stein"

> Hey all,
>
> This is just something that's been bugging for a little while.
> There's a power metal band from the late 80's/early 90's
> called Helloween from Germany.  All the band member are
> from Germany, were born there, presumably speak German
> as an L1, etc., but due to the ways of the music world, all their
> songs are in English.  (What's the deal with that, anyway?
> The same goes for all these Finnish metal bands.)  They have
> one song in particular called "Dr. Stein" about a doctor like
> Victor Frankenstein where they pronounce his name as
> follows:
>
> [sti:n]
>
> This confuses me to no end.  If it were in actual German (which,
> of course, was what Frankenstein was supposed to be speaking
> in the original [I think he was from Switzerland in the book]) it
> should be:
>
> [Stajn]
>
> At the very least, I might expect:
>
> [Sti:n]
>
> But you get a full-on English-like pronunciation, even though
> in English we pronounce it:
>
> [stajn]
>
> The only place I'd ever heard or seen the first pronunciation is
> in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.
>
> Anyway, if anyone can shed any light on this, I'd be most
> appreciative.
>
> -David
> *******************************************************************
You often hear [sti:n] as the Americanised prnounciation, especially in
names - and I expect the musicians are trying to sound American (or, they
simply learnt English from American sources perhaps).  Perhaps the
angliscism [stajn] is limited to BE?

What I struggle with, is how the Leftponders can pronounce weinstein as
winesteen...

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