Are there other common pronunciations of the name "Stalin"?

December 4, 2019 9:21 AM

I'm listening to the audio version of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made, and the narrator pronounces "Stalin" like "stah-lean" without emphasis on either syllable, and both syllables rather drawn out. Is this indicative of any common historical and/or regional pronunciation, or is it just wrong?
posted by bangitliketmac to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

I haven't listened to the book, but your description sounds like the correct way to pronounce the name in Russian.
posted by alex1965 at 9:33 AM on December 4, 2019 [4 favorites]

Yes: I think that's just the right pronunciation.
posted by howfar at 9:37 AM on December 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Roosevelt pronounces it this way in his famous "They're Going to Get It" speech.
posted by vogon_poet at 10:17 AM on December 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I just spoke with a Russian speaker, who says the correct way is with an emphasis on the first syllable, and the second syllable is short, almost clipped, with the "i" sounding more like an "eh" sound than an long "eee" as in "lean", though the latter isn't wrong...maybe regional variation. In American English the second syllable is typically a short "i" like "lin" or almost missing like "ln".

The IPA format from Wiktionary is ˈstalɪn, which supports the argument in the paragraph above.

Here is the clip from Roosevelt's speech, which does indeed sound like the narrator's version in the audiobook, as vogon_poet pointed out: https://youtu.be/u_V6tL6QRQs?t=44 .
posted by bangitliketmac at 11:02 AM on December 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

I just spoke with a Russian speaker

You might take that with a grain of salt, as there are many if not more regional Russian accents than there are English accents.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:24 PM on December 4, 2019

Best answer: Wiktionary has [ˈstalʲɪn] for the Russian Сталин. The stress is on the first syllable, and don't omit the [ʲ] which means that the L is palatalized, like Italian -gl-. It sounds more like "stallion" than "stalling".

Stalin was Georgian and is said to have had a strong accent, for what that's worth.

In English, the American Heritage Dictionary has [ˈstalɪn]— STAH-lin, definitely not stah-LEEN.
posted by zompist at 5:03 PM on December 4, 2019

If this were a Romanian pronunciation you'd hear it like STAH-leen. I think it's wrong for the context in which you are hearing it, but it's an accent I'd recognize.
posted by jessamyn at 6:46 PM on December 4, 2019

Response by poster: If this were a Romanian pronunciation

The narrator's accent sounds like an older American Midwestern man.
posted by bangitliketmac at 8:50 PM on December 4, 2019 [1 favorite]