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Chris -- 2018-04-11
I recently heard someone discussing the mediaeval windows of York Minster cathedral and they seemed to be referring to stay-in glass windows. This seemed unexpectedly eggcornish, as they are best experienced by staying in the cathedral rather than being viewed from outside. At night of course, provided the building is illuminated, the windows have more appeal when approaching the building and barely register at all once inside.
No stay-in examples unfortunately, but some ‘staying glass’ examples which equally unfortunately are probably no more than voice-recognition errors. ‘Stay glass’ suggests something worth keeping, but ‘stein glass’ sounds like the pronunciation of an elderly Londoner and since steins are made of earthenware it would be more of a mosaic perhaps?
... that the light is striking all the corners of these ancient stones and of course lighting up the staying glass windows but it catches on ..
The church has staying glass windows relatively modern and beautiful stonework when I Strolled by the front entrance the door was open.
Beautiful stay glass windows Inside Saint Chapelle, Paris, France …
Uh it has stay glass windows and things in it. And that facility is meant in my opinion.
The day we visited it was bright and sunny and the light reflecting from the gorgeous Stein glass windows onto the very colourful interior …
The wedding Chapel that is surrounded by stein glass windows, and gives you a spectacular view of Seven Seas Lagoon!
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Do those who write “stein glass” pronounce it “stane” or “stine”, I wonder? I pronounce the word the second way, but that makes the confusion/eggcorn a lot less probable, for me at least.
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I thought of stay-in glass windows in terms of longevity: some of those things have stayed in there for a thousand years, haven’t they?
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(Greetings from Guadalajara, where I happen to be at the moment. Gave a talk [with my daughter SuperHolly; it’ll be posted on her site ultimately] about translation, including un-translatable stuff, and was tempted to talk about eggcorns, but there wasn’t time to do the topic justice.)
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2023-04-14 09:08:24)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I’ve always assumed the US steen pronunciation began as a sort of affectation – an assumption aided perhaps by Frankenstein being pronounced Fronkensteen in that Mel Brooks film. And if ei can mutate to ee so easily, why aren’t there any Weenstines around?
Here’s William Safire’s take on it:I’ll watch out for the talk, but if was delivered in Spanish or Nahuatl don’t expect any intelligent response from me.
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Sorry, it was in Spanish.
English spelling is so confusing. I guess Safire was pronouncing Stein to rhyme with “stain” (IPA [ste?n]) and contrasting it with “steen” which is probably pronounced [stin]. I pronounce it [sta?n], to rhyme with “mine” ([ma?n]). Some other words, such as Philistine, are pronounced that way by some ([‘f?l?sta?n]) but that one I pronounce to rhyme with “screen” ([‘f?l?stin]). No wonder we’re all mixed up.
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(And this site turns IPA into garbage! The ?s after vowels are raised y’s (marking a y offglide in IPA.)
The other ?s (in Philistine) were spozed to be IPA’s version of the English “short i”, which looks like a small capital i but also got turned into a question mark.)
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2023-04-17 15:15:54)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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