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ArchivesRe: Pronunciation becoming more prevalent
in reply to a message by Stephen
I think if you're in the US and someone reads Stephen as STEF-ən, it's just because they have no idea how to pronounce Stephen. It's surprising at how some people don't know how to spell or pronounce common names. I live in the US and have never heard Stephen pronounced any way but STEEV-ən.
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I agree
The only people I have heard say "Stef-en" were foreigners. Along the same lines, I recently heard someone say "Theresa" with a "TH" sound. She was very surprised when I told her it should be the same as "Teresa." It's just ignorance.
The only people I have heard say "Stef-en" were foreigners. Along the same lines, I recently heard someone say "Theresa" with a "TH" sound. She was very surprised when I told her it should be the same as "Teresa." It's just ignorance.
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It probably gets pronounced this way by people who are from rural, lack of education or foreigners or those that just don't come across the name often.
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Could it be that phonics would have ph make the f sound and not v sound.
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That wouldn't account for changing the long "e" sound to short. The "ph" and "v" sounds are actually kind of close in sound when saying Stephen and Steven (I mean when pronouncing "proper" "ph" & "v"), but I've never heard Steven said with a short "e". I've always heard Stephen and Steven pronounced the same way, and I knew some of both in school.
This message was edited 2/10/2012, 1:12 PM
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