A foolish little thing to be proud of:

[camwyn]

I went into the comic book store today after getting my first photographic driver's license in almost ten years. Fell into a discussion with the guy there, and I mentioned that I'd seen the Constantine trailer. After some discussion of why I did not rip out my eyeballs, he suddenly pointed at me.

"You know- you're the only person I know who pronounces it right."
I'd pronounced the syllable as 'tine', like the tines of a fork, rather than like the first syllable of 'teenager'. I don't know where I picked that up from, since I seem to remember the nuns using 'teen' for the last syllable of the name of the emperor who legalised Christianity. "Force of habit," I said.
"I wouldn't know that except that a few months ago I read a very early Swamp Thing, and John corrected Swamp Thing's pronunciation of his name," said the comic book store guy. "From Constanteen to Constantine."

For some reason, I was inordinately pleased to have got it right.

Comments

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that, actually. Hmmm.... thanks. :)

[ocean-song.livejournal.com]

You are so adorable. And while I would probably have pronounced it that way as well, I didn't know what the "proper" way was. So, you can feel pleased with yourself, and all those masses whom you have educated. *hugs*

[shadowspinner.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. :-)

Did you notice that they got it wrong in the trailer?

As to the pronunciation, I think Dad (who should know; working class working toward middle class background - lessons in how to talk and all) put it this way: If I'm trying to be posh its Constanteen, but if I'm just saying it normally its Constantine. And since John is so very far from posh (I mean, Liverpool? - Joke, guys. I'm not that prejudiced against people outside London. Really), I figure its probably Constantine.

[camwyn]

I noticed, yeah. It kind of grated on the ol' ears when I heard it, but I wasn't aware of correctness or not at the time.

And, yeah, John is all but the opposite of posh, he's proved that time and again.

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

I can't find any Hellblazer comics. I've searched. Camwyn, you've inflicted some kind of curse on me.

[camwyn]

Well, if you're willing to shell out more than the price of individual issues, you can get trade paperbacks at Amazon- used ones, too, so they're cheaper. Dangerous Habits or Original Sins would probably be a good place to start.

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

**blinks** I just realized in a very weird state of affairs I've been saying "Constanteen" but thinking "Constantine".

This is why I prefer writing.

[avram]

There isn’t a right way.

The scene that guy is talking about is from Rick Veitch’s run as the writer of Swamp Thing. Alan Moore, who created John Constantine, pronounces it -teen. So the answer depends on your opinions about the canonicity of auctorial statements that don’t show up in the actual text, the relative authorities of an original author versus later authors in a multi-author work, and other such things.

But anyone who says that one pronunciation is indisputably right probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

[camwyn]

M'kay. In that case, as I said to the guy at the comic store- it's force of habit on my part.

[irian.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. So it's Constan-teen vs. Constan-tine then? Interesting.

[sdelmonte]

I remember the "Constan-TINE" quote from a Moore comic, but then I only read Swamp Thing and Hellblazer sporadically.

Nonetheless, I've spent years correcting the pronounciation of Constantine's name. I would stick with the unusual version of it simply because it fits his personality to insist on not saying it like everyone else does.