Talk:Stephano (moon)

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According to The Royal Shakespeare Company, this is pronounced [STEF-a-no]. According to the Stratford Festival of Canada, STEF-ano is more common, but stef-AH-no is preferred by some actors. The Shakespeare Recording Society CD of Tempest with Alec McCowan as Stephano has STEF-a-noh.

In geology, at least, the OED has the adjectival form as 'Stephanian' (sti-fay'-nee-un). Doubt it will ever be needed, but there it is. kwami 2005 June 30 07:37 (UTC)

Pronunciation

I disagree that the pronunciation is STEF-a-no. I believe it must be stef-AH-no, for two reasons. First, the moon is named after the Shakespearean character, and in my experience of attending productions of The Tempest, I have never heard his name pronounced any other way. (The only evidence to the contrary is the anonymous user who posted the above note; he/she is wrong to the best of my knowledge). Second, Stephano is an Italian name, and all Italian words are stressed on the penultimate syllable. I will thus change it shortly unless anyone disagrees. The Singing Badger 23:59, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I'm the anonymous poster. I contacted the Royal Shakespeare Company, and they said that for the meter to scan correctly, the accent had to be on the first syllable. Lots of cases where English shifts the accent when borrowing foreign names, and I thought this was just another. I'll contact them again; maybe a different person will have a different opinion. kwami 10:07, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

That's interesting - I must admit that this does often happen in Elizabethan drama, and Elizabethans frequently mispronounced foreign names, so you may be right after all (my comments above are a bit too strongly worded now I re-read them!). Having said that, I just looked at the play quickly and as far as I can tell Stephano's name is never used in verse passages, only in prose, so meter may not be an issue for his name.

By the way, I just wanted to say thanks for all your excellent work on pronunciation - it's really interesting and useful. The Singing Badger 13:34, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, this time the RSC referred me to the Shakespeare Institute in Birmingham, and they haven't gotten back to me. When I'd asked the first time, I'd asked about several moons, and the comment about fitting the meter may have been intended for Caleban or Setebos rather than Stephano. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes. I did hear back from the Old Globe theater in San Diego, CA, and they said it's STEF-a-no, but I'll wait until I speak to an actor or director before I change the pronunciation guide. kwami

I checked out a CD of Tempest put out by the Shakespeare Recording Society, CD201, 1964 (1996), directed by Peter Wood, with Michael Redgrave as Prospero and Vanessa Redgrave as Ariel. Alec McCowen played Stephano, and pronounced his own name STEF-a-noh, as did everyone else (well, with an occasional STEF-a-NOH). Setebos, however, was different from what I thought: Caliban pronounced it SE-te-bus, not -bos, but still with a full final vowel, like "omnibus". (Actually, none of its vowels were reduced to schwas. Caliban was another name where none of the vowels were reduced: KAL-i-ban.) My contact at the Old Globe had said that he'd only ever heard STEF-a-no as well, so I'll take that as confirmation and go ahead change the pronunciation guide back.

Well, there you go, I stand corrected. Sorry for sending you on a circular journey! The Singing Badger 12:58, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know you appreciate my contributions, Badge. I've been frustrated with what JPL/NASA puts out, and started all this a couple years ago for myself before discovering Wikipedia. I wasn't sure anyone else would care!

Hey no problem, it's very useful information. By the way if you go to your user page and write something (anything) there, your talk page will be activated and people will be able to leave messages for you directly; you may get more feedback on your work. Just thought I'd mention it in case you didn't know. The Singing Badger 18:14, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I went back and added both pronunciations. Here's what a director at the Stratford Festival of Canada had to say (not sure whether I should include his name or not, since this was by email and I don't know what the privacy etiquette is):

I believe both pronunciations are acceptable; however, in my experience STEF-ano ... is much the more common of the two. ... I don't think metrical considerations really apply. ... That said, I do find it marginally easier on the tongue to deliver a line like "O King Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano!" (Act IV, scene 1) with the stress on the first syllable ... [However,] I've been talking to a couple of actors here who favour "Stef-AH-no." Opinion seems to be ... divided.

Maybe some actors are motivated by being true to the Italian?

I've been neglecting a user page, but you've prodded me into making one. Lots of ideas for things I'd like to tackle, but not much that I've actually done, which is why I've been avoiding it!

Well, I guess the only problem with your quest to find the 'true' pronunciations of these names is that for many there may be no such thing, just different opinions. Still, at least we now have some authoritative opinions, which is very valuable. The Singing Badger 23:57, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Okay, 'true pronunciation' sounded pretty silly. (I didn't actually say that, did I?) I think 'correct' language is what people actually use: I love split infinitives, singular they, and ending clauses with prepositions, and use these regularly in my formal writing. And speakers of many languages, such as Spanish, make up spelling pronunciations of originally foreign names like Pinochet and Fujimori all the time, and it works just fine: with a regular orthography, you get a recognizable result. But we have a rather unique problem with spelling pronunciations in English. As a literate society, we read thousands of words we've never heard spoken. Presumably the people who coined these words, or who first wrote them down, had a particular pronunciation in mind, but we have so many contradictory standards for orthography that the reader often has no idea what was meant. So coin a name like Ijiraq, and you'll end up with multiple guesses as to the pronunciation, like NASA's ee-jee-rak', none of them common enough to be of much use, but together enough to drown out the intended ee'-ye-rahk. Or Titania, which I'm still pronouncing like a chemical element rather than a Shakespearean character after you pointed out my mistake. I hope that the info we're compiling can help reduce the confusion, and if people object and, say, want to pronounce Ijiraq with an English J, as ij'-a-rak (for one Wikipedian, that's the Inuit they're used to), fine. But let's get a discussion going so that people know what's going on, and can make an educated decision. That's why I've been adding the Arabic originals to the star names as well as I can too. If you're faced with a dozen variant spellings, many based on misreadings and some that are hardly recognizable as the same word, it's nice to at least know where they come from before choosing one and trying to pronounce it.

Absolutely - this is great work. (By the way, it might amuse you to learn that I pronounced the chemical element as ti-tah'-nyum until quite recently...!) The Singing Badger 15:35, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

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