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11

I think it's true, and I think it's unfortunate, and I think I am as guilty as most Germans of this: An accent somehow labels you, and different accents come with different labels. Of course, which accent provokes which response is an individual matter (although there are probably statistically valid general tendencies) which depends on both the listener ...


10

Ich würde vermutlich versuchen, das zu umschreiben, vor dem Hintergrund, dass es sich ja bei Beidem um zwei Seiten der selben Medaille handelt: "Sie verwendet Deutsch mit leichtem französischen Einschlag" "Man merkt ihr den französischen Akzent auch im Schriftverkehr an" "Sie schreibt mit Akzent" ist mir zu wenig. Es klingt unvollständig und ...


8

Did you read the Wikipedia article yet? The newsreaders you hear on Deutsche Welle all speak standard German or at least they are supposed to. As a learner of German residing abroad, you should aim for "standard German" pronunciation. Most movies made in Germany have their actors speak standard German except when dialect is indicated by the script. Your ...


6

Phonetics do not fully determine the spelling in German. For instance, terminal devoicing is not reflected in the orthography ("Wand" = [vant]), and vowel length can be indicated in several ways ("e" in "Weg", "ee" in "See", and "eh" in "Mehl" represent the same vowel [eː]). There are some phonemes that are omitted very frequently. The most important case ...


6

There's a big upside to an accent that your boss is probably exploiting. I think he's letting you speak in front of an audience because people subconciously listen harder to what someone is saying as opposed to a native speaker that might even be "tainted" by a local German dialect (accent). And you know how us Germans don't like other German's dialects.


5

Wenn der Eindruck vom Satzbau herrührt kann man sagen: "Er schreibt mit Dänischem Satzbau". Oder jemand verwendet Redewedungen, die im Englischen typisch sind - tut er nicht? Dann könnte man das konkret so sagen. Oder die Schreib Weise wäre in einer anderen Sprache korrekt. Freilich könnte man unbewußt an eine Sprache erinnert werden, ohne sich bewußt ...


5

Obviously, a foreign accent marks you as a foreigner. If that is a status symbol or not, very much depends on if the locals (Germans) generally look up to or down on foreigners of a particular country. Sadly, while Americans, French and westerners in general are usually looked up to, people from Eastern and Southeastern European and developing countries ...


5

In Germany it's the German spoken in Hannover and Braunschweig that is traditionally said to be closest to what written German is supposed to be pronounced. It is, however, not some 'native Hannover dialect' which makes it that way, but the absence of local dialects that were spoken there in earlier centuries. Programme presenters of all nationwide public ...


5

I think your analysis of education level having a large influence is quite correct. People who never had to learn another language cannot appreciate the time and effort you put into educating yourself; and having an accent just tells them you are foreign. This triggers completely different reactions. For your boss, I think it is more likely that he just ...


5

Waldfräulein is normally accented more on the first syllable than on the second. It is not an exception described in the wikipedia article you mentioned. Waldfräulein is a compound noun of the two nouns Wald and Fräulein. Exception: For example: Ich bin ein Waldfräulein und keine Waldfrau. In this example, you can accent either the first syllable of the ...


4

There are four main reasons why the spelling of a German word might deviate from the phonetic spelling (which is rather complicated itself, especially concerning the indication of the length of vowels): Loanwords and proper names, even if they are hardly perceived as such anymore. Either they are pronounced different like Maschine (the phonetic spelling ...


3

Der Begriff "Akzent" bezieht sich meines Erachtens spezifisch auf die spezielle Aussprache von Lauten und Betonung von Wörtern, und dezidiert nicht auf Fragen des Satzbaus, der Wortwahl oder der Grammatik. Insbesondere kann man perfektes Deutsch mit deutlichem Akzent sprechen (oder auch deutsche Texte fehlerfrei, aber mit Akzent vortragen), sowie umgekehrt ...


3

How did you search at Google? I tried it with http://www.google.de/search?q=mp3+dialekte+deutsche and found some hits. Technical remark: Google forwards me alqays the the German version of Google. Perhaps thats a reason, why I get more results. A short history: http://www.studentstories.de/folge31-deutsche-dialekte Mundart-Tonbeispiele (universtity ...


3

(English version below) Aus gegebenem Anlass noch einige Anmerkungen zur Frage, welche Aussprachevariante des Deutschen einen höheren Status als andere beanspruchen dürfe. In der Frage schwang die Vorstellung mit, es gebe eine Sprachregion in Deutschland, die quasi über allen anderen throne wie einst Willem zwo über seinen Untertanen (siehe Abb. 1 unten). ...


2

The emphasis on the first syllable (on Wald) would be correct and standard in this case, although it seems to me that I have heard some people who might put the stress on the second here, but that would be more a regional or dialectic variation (perhaps in some southern regions?). You might also check out a couple of articles from Duden about the accent ...


1

This cannot be easily reduced to "foreigner brand marks" or "status symbols". But yes, different accents elicit different reactions. Which does not mean you should get rid of your accent. Getting rid of an accent is really hard work. There are so many subtleties in pronunciation you learn automatically as a child, but as an adult it's almost impossible to ...


1

Ich kenne keinen passenden Ausdruck bezogen auf Schrift. Es gibt aber zwei andere Ausdrücke die bezogen auf Schrift meiner Meinung nach besser aussehen: holpriges Deutsch gebrochenes Deutsch Sowohl Sie schreibt holpriges Deutsch wie auch Sie schreibt gebrochenes Deutsch funktionieren in meinen Augen besser als Sie schreibt mit Akzent.



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