poll: how do you pronounce Kirsten

A, which thanks to Kirsten Dunst (who is half Swedish), is how I've always thought that it was. It also sounds far more foreign than Kursten

This, however, may be the correct way, for the name "Kerstin," and the person later says "Kirsten" is a bit different, although they do say the "'E' is...never like the English 'UR,'" so it appears to not be choice B:

"Pronunciation is a little difficult to describe in English text, but something like 'chash-tinn' could perhaps do.

'K' is soft before an 'E', somewhat between English 'CH' and 'SH'.
'E' is pronounced '?' before an 'R' (never like the '?' in English 'UR'.
'R' and 'S' combines to a retroflex 'SH'.
'I' is always short.
Stress is on the first syllable."

Looks like Kirsten may be "Chershtin." I wish AG had a little forward in her books stating how it should be said, like they do for Kaya. I know Kirsten isn't exactly a foreign name here, but since it's probably not the Americanized version that they intended, it would be helpful. Guess we'll have to wait until the movie [img]wink.gif[/img] .

we used to say it like b) until we heard the American Girl cd's and they say it like a), so now it's always Keeersten for us!

Laurie (and Diana)

When I was little I pronounced it A. When I got older, and heard Kirsten Dunst's name pronounced "Kursten",(she said it in a interview) I changed it to B. I asked 2 different CS reps and one said A and the other said B. I guess its a mystery to never be solved!

Quote:

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When I got older, and heard Kirsten Dunst's name pronounced "Kursten",(she said it in a interview) I changed it to B.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">She pronounces it Keersten. I have heard her, as well as others in reference to her, say it many times.


Here, here, here, here, here, here(where Paula Deen says "?Well I didn?t have the opportunity to work with Kirsten?? She backtracks and says ?Keersten. She doesn?t like it when you call her Kerr-sten, she likes to be called Keer-sten. I heard she got on a reporter in Toronto that kept calling her kerr-sten. Yeah so call her Keer-sten.? *laughs*"), here, here and MANY others state it being "Keersten, not Kursten"

I pronounce it like A. "Keer-sten."

But I've heard that the correct Swedish pronunciation is neither A nor B... close to "Sher-sten."

But my Kirsten has been Keersten since I got her twenty years ago, so it ain't changing! [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've always heard Swedish people pronounce it "Keersten" and I had a Danish pen-pal who pronounced it "Keersturn".

Choice A for me, "Keersten." To me, it sounds better. [img]smile.gif[/img]

A - Kearstin for ours. Actually my daughter usually calls her Keary. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

I've always pronounced it like A, Keerstin. My one friend when I was younger pronounced it like B, Kursten, so that was how we'd tell our Kirstens apart. [img]wink.gif[/img] I do like Chersten, though, and that might provide a good reason for why my Kirsten shortened hers to Kira (hard 'k', not Chira) as it would sound more American when she moved here. Good question!

I asked a Swedish woman how it is supposed to be pronounced and she sais "Schursten" actually, without even the K sound . . .


I cand stand the sound of "A" so I always call her by choice "B" or "sh"

I didn't notice that someone else mentioned the same sort of Swedish pronunciation. I think it is really cute.

<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ May 22, 2006 03:50 PM: Message edited by: simplepretty ]</font>