Pronunciation of my name?

Question

My name is Kristin, my mom named me this obviously but believes that Kristin and Kristen are pronounced different. How can I convince her tin and ten are pronounced the same? She doesn't believe me and tells me I don't pronounce tin and ten right. I'm so frustrated with her! She does this all the time over words and thinks I need to take a dialect class.

Answer 1

"Tin" and "ten" are pronounced differently, but when they're in the name "Kristen/Kristin", it's the same.

Tell her to get over it.

Answer 2

its really not a big deal, she's overreacting... there are a lot of words that should sound like what they are or look like, but they dont..  its just in how you say it. is someone who speaks with an accent saying it wrong because they cant pronounce a syllable, no. its just different people talking different ways. but im afraid your mom is too absorbed with that to understand

Answer 3

I say them the same......I'm thinking maybe a person with a southern accent might pronounce them differently, but I don't think there's a difference in General American English...

Answer 4

haha tin and ten around pronounced differently. you betta lasten to yo mamma :]]

Answer 5

tin and ten?

definitely pronounced different.

does soup come in a ten can?

one two three four five six seven eight nine tin?

whos in the wizard of oz? the ten man?

no. hes made of tin.

Answer 6

In American English, the high front vowels are currently undergoing a phonological shift in sounds.  This is especially noticeable in the vowels [i] and [e] before the nasal consonants [m] and [n] & <ng>.  

In linguistics, this change has been dubbed the "pin-pen merger."  This is especially true for the Southern US English varieties, where this trend began but has slowly spread across the country.  You personally don't hear the difference between the vowels in these phonetic environments because you probably live in an area or region of the country which has adapted to the sound shift [like in the Mid-West or Mid-Atlantic], a place where the merger didn't occur yet during the time when your mother learned how to speak with other people outside her home.  

So to answer your question:  you both pronounce "Kristin" & "Kristen" correctly.  She pronounces it in the standard way she learned to, and you pronounce it in the standard way you learned, too.  

Check out the Wikipedia link below to learn more about the pin-pen merger.  There's even a cool map to show you what regions currently don't hear the difference between /-in/ & /-en/.

Answer 7

they're do have a bit of a difference

Answer 8

it probably has to do from what part of the country you are from. For me, tin and ten are pronounced NOTICEABLY different (im from the northeast). It may just be that you have a regional dialect.  

Answer 9

There's a slight difference, but i guess it doesnt matter since they're hard to distinguish.

You can try enunciating the names slowly though

Kris-tin

Kris-tuhn

Answer 10

They ARE different. But, their difference can only be noticed by phoneticians, only when they are pronounced in a classroom pace (if you know what I mean!) The difference between "short /I/" and "schwa" sounds shouldn't lead to a big family quarrel I suppose. Just drop this discussion and live your lives! :)

Answer 11

lol,my mom does that with words too,she always thinks she's saying them right but i eventually prove her wrong.Just ask a bunch of people or show her this yahoo answers question and i'm sure she'll realize you're right. :D p.s.~I LOVE your name. I also like Kristin with an I better than an E. :D

Answer 12

Tin and ten are pronounced differently unless she's saying "Kristeen"? Then it would have to be Christine with an 'e' at the end.

Answer 13

umm to me theirs a slight different but when u read it ..it doesn't make a difference... if you ask somebody that doesn't know you to spell your name they would spell it either or...like keyshia or Keisha...same name different spelling and different ppl might say it differently  

Answer 14

I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but "tin" and "ten" are pronounced differently.  This may differ by region and dialect (I don't know where you are from) but "tin" has a short i vowel "ih" (as in "sticky") and "ten" has a short e vowel "eh." (as in "check.")  Do you hear a difference between the words "chick" and "check," because it is the same vowel difference.

Now, that said - I don't think most people consider Kristen and Kristin to really be different names or pronounced differently.  Usually people just say "ihn" with the short i sound for both, in my experience, because it's the "Kris" that is emphasized and the second syllable is just swallowed up.  But I suppose you could differentiate by saying "Kris-tehn" or "Kris-tihn."

Answer 15

If you say the name slowly I can see maybe it sound like tin and ten as in the English corresponding words. However, in normal speech they sound the same to me. I guess it just depends on how someone speaks English. I mean it's kind of the preference of the person, isn't it? haha. It's their name!

Answer 16

Kristen may be pronouced "Kristn" or "Kristuhn", but never "kris 10"

Kristin could be "Kristuhn", or "Kristin".

It all depends on the person's accent. If your mom thinks her accent is the only correct one, just ignore her.

there are many accents in which 10 and "tin" are the same, it is not wrong to have an accent like that either, though it is not "standard".

Answer 17

i think it depends on where you live, your mom might be from the south and you are raised in the north, or your mom's from the north and you live in the south. i live in the mid-west we say tin and ten differently, we pronounce tin with "in" and we pronounce ten with "n." but it might be different where you live. dialect classes only teach you how people pronouce words in different regions. basically what i'm saying is that both you and your mom are right.

Answer 18

Lol it is pronounced the same its just spelled different.Like Lindsay and Lynsey. same pronunciation way diff spelling.

Answer 19

My sister's name is Kristen, and I have a friend named Kristin. I pronounce them both the same and no one has ever corrected me. Yeah, I pronounce "ten" and "tin" differently, but it's very slight and hardly noticeable. I guess it depends what area of the world you are from, or what area of your specific country.

Answer 20

they r pronounced slight differently...

but ur mom is over-reacting if she says u have to take dialect classes only for this reason.