Re: Ridiculous argument over Stephen
in reply to a message by Azula
I would have argued and kept arguing until I had the last word.
To me, Stephen is pronounced with a V sound. In the course of my work, I take names and I have to be certain that I spell them correctly. Many times I have asked a man who has told me that his name is STEE-ven (note the V), "Do you spell that S-T-E-V-E-N?", and am answered, "No, S-T-E-P-H-E-N." I'd say it's about forty percent of the time that I hear STEE-ven. And they've all been American. I actually have been surprised because I thought the Steven spelling was a lot more common in the US than that.
To me, STEF-en is Stefan.
To me, Stephen is pronounced with a V sound. In the course of my work, I take names and I have to be certain that I spell them correctly. Many times I have asked a man who has told me that his name is STEE-ven (note the V), "Do you spell that S-T-E-V-E-N?", and am answered, "No, S-T-E-P-H-E-N." I'd say it's about forty percent of the time that I hear STEE-ven. And they've all been American. I actually have been surprised because I thought the Steven spelling was a lot more common in the US than that.
To me, STEF-en is Stefan.
This message was edited 7/3/2020, 10:13 AM
Replies
Where I live, Stephen is usually STEFF-en (very rarely STEE-ven), and Stefan is either ste-FAHN or STEF-ahn, but either way it has a very clear "AH" sound in the last syllable while Stephen with the F sound has a short, unnoticeable schwa at the end like Steven. You don't even really make the vowel, you almost go straight from the "ph" to the "n" (with maybe a little bit of "ih" like the word "in").