How is “ch” pronounced correctly?

Question

I'm interested (or rather "re-interested") in learning German. When I looked up some basic lessons to get myself started, I found this on about.com. If you click on any of those words, you can hear the word said by a German-speaker, to improve your pronunciation. The issue I'm having is that I took German in high school, and I'm noticing a significant difference between how the words are pronounced on this site, and how my German teacher would pronounce similar words. For example, try "Gruß dich". The site says "dish", just like it would be pronounced in English!

My teacher had me learn a different way to say the "ch". I can't explain it, but it's certainly not like "sh". It feels like it comes more from the throat.

Also, you can see on that page that some of the phrases have "sch" in them. These, my teacher would pronounce just like the English "sh", but the site does not differentiate between them.

Actually, she seemed mildly offended when I incorrectly repeated a word after her that had the "ch" sound in it. Is this a regional variation? She's from Austria, if that helps. As a German beginner, which way should I pronounce the words?

Thanks for looking!

Answer 1

There are two different pronunciations for "ch" in standard German.

• /χ/ (as in Bach, wach, lachen)
• /ç/ (as in ich, Mädchen)

Your question is about the pronunciation variations of /ç/. While there is just one standard pronunciation, in some dialects, though, the sound is differently spoken. In some regions the "ch" in words like ich, Mädchen, ... is spoken as /ʃ/ (which actually is the sound of "sch" as in waschen, Taschen, ...).

That is not wrong or unnatural or even funny. As the answer to the related question points out those people aren't able to speak a normal /ç/, even if they try to - at least, it's very hard and needs much concentration.

I recommend to foreign speakers to pronounce "ch" as /ç/, but remember the alternative /ʃ/.

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I reread your question and now I think that "It feels like it comes more from the throat." means the /χ/-sound. As already mentioned, there are two different pronunciation and you just have to learn when to pronounce the "ch" as either /ç/ or /χ/. (The rule is very simple: Use /χ/ after a, o, u except when "ch" is followed by diminutive -chen _WIKIPEDIA)

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Side note (based on the comments): There is a small distinction between /χ/ and /x/. The actual German sound is the former one, but some sources shows the latter to simplify matters.

Answer 2

I found a nice youtube-video on words with "ch".

My teacher had me learn a different way to say the "ch". I can't explain it, but it's certainly not like "sh". It feels like it comes more from the throat.

It does, yes. As some other posters already pointed out, there are two ch-sounds.

One of them (the /χ/) sounds like the "ch" in "Loch Ness", doesn't it?

Answer 3

Roughly speaking there are two variants to pronounce "ch"

• in "lachen" the sound is produced in the back of the throat. It is perfectly similar to "ch" in "Loch Ness". I don't know the correct terminology, let's name it "throaty" sound here.

• in "Grüß dich" the sound is produced in the mouth by pressing the tongue to the roof of the mouth. I think there is no similar sound in common english. It is not totally unlike "sh"s in "dishwasher", but you will probably be recognized by your pronunciation of this after 10 years of practice /wink/. Let's call this one "mouthy" pronunciation.

I think there is a rule (with exceptions, of course) about when the "ch" is throaty and when it is mouthy. After an "open vowel" like "a" the "ch" us usually "throaty", after a "closed vowel" like "i" it is usually "mouthy".

• "throaty": Dach, suchen, kochen, machen, lachen, Buch, Nacht
• "mouthy": Fichte, dich, echt, zechen, möchten, lächeln (!), Bücher (!), nächtlich (!)

Answer 4

As Em1 pointed out, there are two different pronunciations for "ch" in standard German. BOTH sound "throaty", although they're produced in the mouth:

• /x/ (voiced velar fricative - tongue touches the soft palate, but not the uvula) - use this when the ch is preceded by a "dark" vowel, such as a, o, u

• /ç/ (voiced palatal fricative - tongue touches the hard palate) - use this in all other cases.

All foreign learners should concentrate on these and forget other variants for the moment - then you should be pretty safe. The good thing is: this will come natural, anyway, because it acommodates the natural movement of the tongue when talking, so it's much easier than it sounds. :)

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NOTE: the /χ/ sound is the voiceless equivalent of the "French" "r", made all the way back against the uvula (the soft little stalactite at the back of your mouth). It sounds a bit like clearing your throat. Most Germans find this rather hard to pronounce, but it is commonly used by the Swiss and Tyrolians, I think. It is also common in Arab languages.

/x/ is made a bit further to the front.

Take a look at a table with the IPA and maybe play around a bit, trying the various positions of the tongue.

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To answer the most important bit of your question, Hassan: Your teacher was right, Austrian or not :)

I can't listen to the example you mentioned at the moment, but I'm fairly sure this is ripuarian dialect (even if the speaker is not aware of the fact) - they typicaly use /ʃ/.

In Bavaria there's another variant, but only for word initial position: /k/