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If I am correct, the adjective derived from the last name of Albert Einstein is “einsteinianus, -a, -um” (it is similar in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese).

I know that the suffix is “-ānus” but how to deal with the germanic part root? In German, the pronunciation is /ˈaɪnʃtaɪn/ with the first syllable being stressed, if this is somehow helpful.

  • Beyond changing the ending as a concession to grammar, I don't think there's any reason to pronounce it differently to the German. The sounds are not that alien to Latin (compared to, say, a tonal language like Mandarin), and anything else would just cause confusion for (to my mind) no obvious benefit. Unless you're writing a story in which Einstein goes back in time and the Romans Romanize his name, I suppose... – dbmag9 Sep 28 '22 at 09:00
  • I don't want to change the name at all, I am just asking if I should write einsteiniānus or ēinsteiniānus or something else to keep the German pronunciation. Since, IIRC, the ei diphthong does not exist in Classical Latin –  Sep 28 '22 at 09:04
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    I see; I don't think of macrons as part of the language (this is not an opinion I will defend, just a product of my own education) so this feels like a non-issue to me. Or are you putting the word into verse? – dbmag9 Sep 28 '22 at 09:17
  • I usually learn macrons along with the words, and I came across this one while reading Wikipedia in Latin. If I ever write poetry, I'll be glad to know the vowel quantities (like you I don't argue, it's just how I do it) –  Sep 28 '22 at 09:21
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    For a poetic form you might want to adopt einstinianus. The opening dactyl is more tractable and the shortening of a stressed second syllable is not unheard of (though I’ll leave it to the learned to cite examples). – Martin Kochanski Sep 29 '22 at 14:56

1 Answers1

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Latin did have the ei diphthong, even if it was relatively rare.

If Latin is borrowing this from a written source and it stays as it is, I don't see why they would have a problem in borrowing over the diphthongs as well.

If it had come from an oral source and allowed to develop over time, perhaps the diphthongs would have been collapsed into a long I, or maybe some other forces would have altered the pronunciation, but as it stands now, there's nothing wrong with two diphthongs, a short I, and the accent falling on the long A.

cmw
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