In Chicagoland “stine” seems more common, as the German pronounciation. Or more Germans settled here; I’ve lived most of my life in “German” towns. When calling the New York area I default to “steen,” which seems the locally-preferred way. Even Allan Sherman* (Chicago) joked about it, with "stein with an ‘E’ and stein with an ‘I’. Then there’s Reinstein, which in NY reverses the pronounciation in mid-word.
Give a goy** a break with any suggestions.
Friend, who is a cousin of his, assumes that he killed himself because “nobody on that side of the family ever dies of natural causes.”
** - She also considers me a Jew, citing Nuremburg rules. “Good enough for Tel Aviv, good enough for me.”
In German, the letters "ei"always take a sound like the English “i”, and ie always like the English “e”. So, for instance, you have
Wein (wine) vs Wien (Vienna). So as long as you’re speaking German, there’s the answer. When you’re talking American pronunciations, though, it’s a different story, and here’s an article from William Safire from 1983 considering it:
There’s no rule that will tell you any particular person pronounces their name. Try to remember it once you hear it. Everyone one of them will hear their name pronounced differently from their preference once in a while and they’re being jerks if that upsets them unless you’ve been corrected a bunch of times and seem to be doing it on purpose. I think most of them don’t care and will accept either pronunciation.
My wife’s grandmother was a Klein, but switched the spelling to Kline (no diff in pronunciation; it was something to do with one of the World Wars. If you think I’ll ever get the complete story, dream on!)
Saw a Jewish guy on a talk show years ago (don’t remember which) who was asked this question, and his response was to ask the host whether he’d ever heard anyone make reference to Albert Eeensteen. I’ve pronounced it “stein” and not “steen” ever since.
Safire was wrong there regarding Leonard Bernstein (who was bern-STINE), as pointed out by a friend (of his, whose name I forget) in the next week’s mailbag.
If only he had watched Sesame Street. When Lenny made a guest appearance there, Kermit introduced him as “Leonard BernSTEEN.” Lenny immediately corrected him: “BernSTINE.”
Lenny, of course, was “The East Coat Bernstein.” There was also The West Coast Bernstein: Elmer Bernstein, the film composer, who wrote dozens of movie scores, including The Ten Commandments and The Magnificent Seven. And, amusingly, Robot Monster. Elmer pronounced his name Bern-STEEN. Elmer and Leonard weren’t related, although they were friends.
The other thread mentions Oscar Hammerstein (of Rodgers and…). Although a lot of people seemed to pronounce it Hammer-STEEN, he himself pronounced it -STINE.