# Weinerstein **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098 "2011-06-02T16:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/1 "2011-06-02T16:46:55Z")
Why do people pronounce ‘weiner’ as ‘weener’? Since it has a German origin (and the sausage is from Vienna – Wien) it should be pronounced ‘wine-er’. It’s the same with ‘Stein’ (‘stone’). It should be pronounced ‘stine’, not ‘steen’. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/2 "2011-06-02T16:49:57Z")
I thought that a German ‘W’ was pronounced more like an English ‘V’. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/3 "2011-06-02T16:51:44Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Why do people pronounce ‘weiner’ as ‘weener’? Since it has a German origin (and the sausage is from Vienna – Wien) it should be pronounced ‘wine-er’. It’s the same with ‘Stein’ (‘stone’). It should be pronounced ‘stine’, not ‘steen’. Or, more accurately, “vine-er”. **jasg** : You’re correct. W is pronounced more like an English V. A German V is pronounced more like an English F. So VW would be more like “feh-veh” in German. ---
**Author:** ![Lubricious\_Integument](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lubricious\_Integument](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lubricious_Integument)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/4 "2011-06-02T16:52:19Z")
Because that’s how Rep. Weiner pronounces it? If you met a Weiner who pronounced his or her name as Whiner or Viner then you’d say it that way I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/5 "2011-06-02T16:53:49Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > I thought that a German ‘W’ was pronounced more like an English ‘V’. True. But I’m talking about the ‘ei’ vs. ‘ie’ vowel combination. The ‘v’/‘w’ pronunciation is more understandable. (e.g., nobody in the U.S. says ‘Folks-vahgen’.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/6 "2011-06-02T16:54:54Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > So VW would be more like “feh-veh” in German. Actually, more like ‘Fau-Veh’. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/7 "2011-06-02T17:00:38Z")
> [@Lubricious\_Integument](#): > > Because that’s how Rep. Weiner pronounces it? Perhaps the Senator’s being in the news affected my thought process. What I was really thinking of was that people spell wieners as ‘weiners’. (NB: My spell-check doesn’t like the latter.) And that got me to thinking of surnames that end in ‘-stein’, which many people pronounce as ‘steen’. I understand the ‘that’s the way my family has always said it’ argument (when it comes to names), but somewhere along the line the pronunciation changed from the way it’s pronounced in the family’s origin to the way it’s pronounced here. I guess the OP has two questions: Why to people consistently misspell ‘wiener’; and how did ‘Stein’ come to be pronounced ‘steen’ in the U.S.? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/8 "2011-06-02T17:03:08Z")
It’s “frahn-koon-steen” not “Frank-en-stine”! (My grandvadder’s work was doo-doo!) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/9 "2011-06-02T17:39:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > What I was really thinking of was that people spell wieners as ‘weiners’. Damn, I hate hate hate that. When people spell it that way, with the “ei,” I automatically **hear** it in my head that way (with the long I) and it takes me a second to figure out WTF they’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/10 "2011-06-02T17:56:37Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Actually, more like ‘Fau-Veh’. 😉 That’s what happens when I try to go all pedantic on yo’ ass. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/11 "2011-06-02T18:22:54Z")
Because no one wisher they were an Oscar Meyer Winer. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/12 "2011-06-02T19:12:52Z")
The popular German heavy metal band Helloween had a song called “Dr. Stein”, and the chorus actually pronounces the name “Steen”, which I found particularly jarring because I had just learned the proper German pronounciation for the “ie” and “ei” vowel combinations before hearing the song. It’s as if German speakers always reverse their pronounciations for these combinations when speaking in English. This may be the result of overcorrecting, like how Germans often pronounce English words with a “V” sound as “W”. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/13 "2011-06-02T19:25:36Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > True. But I’m talking about the ‘ei’ vs. ‘ie’ vowel combination. The ‘v’/‘w’ pronunciation is more understandable. (e.g., nobody in the U.S. says ‘Folks-vahgen’.) I do, but only sometimes 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/14 "2011-06-02T20:07:05Z")
There were two families at my old synagogue that had names of: Goldstein & Goldstien the first was ‘stine’ the second, ‘steen’ but of course, I see -stein pronounced as ‘stine’ all the time. My name is pronounced the English way because I’d probably feel like a jerk…even if a [famous person](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Ruscha) shares it. But I was told that he did it wrong, too, so who knows. Anglicized names are just how we roll here, I guess. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/15 "2011-06-03T01:56:27Z")
I’ll simply throw into the mix that many – not all – people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, hence from families speaking Yiddish at one time, use the -ee- pronunciation, e.g., Epstein, Goldstein. I do not know but would hazard a guess that the diphthongal shift is connected with the relationship between Low and High German, rather than being ethnic Jewish vs. ethnic German. Any dialectitians willing to weigh in on this? ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/16 "2011-06-03T02:19:06Z")
I’ll point out that the reason for the confusion on Wiener is because you misspelled it in the OP. It’s from Vienna, yes which is Wien…pronounced ‘Veen’ in German. Thus, a Viennese breaded veal cutlet is Wienerschnitzel. A Viennese sausage is a Wiener, not a weiner. Unless that’s your whole point, in which case your OP is confusing. Yes, Weiner (which ive only seen in English as a surname) should be whine-er (or vine-er if keeping the German W sound), but the English ‘wiener’ is with an ie, from Wien, as you note. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/17 "2011-06-03T02:25:45Z")
Nevermind…should read the whole thread first. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/18 "2011-06-03T02:26:57Z")
I’ve known a Weiner and a Wiener, and they were both weeners and whiners. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weinerstein/584098/19 "2011-06-03T03:46:13Z")
> [@Jman](#): > > Nevermind…should read the whole thread first. Yeah, I tried to clarify in post #7.