New answers tagged pronunciation
5
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 ...
9
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 ...
4
In standard pronunciation, short "ä" is [ɛ] and short "e" is [ə], [ɛ], or [e], where the last one occurs in foreign words ("Methode" [meˈtoːdə]) but rarely in native ones ("lebendig" [leˈbɛndɪk]). That means that most of the time, there is no audible difference between short "ä" and "e". For instance, the vowels in "nässer" and "besser" are the same, namely ...
8
It's from Latin,
servus
meaning slave, servant.
So when someone greets you,
Servus!
it meant originally "[I am your] servant" but it is nowadays only a friendly greeting, like "Hi!" in English.
Think of old-fashioned sign-offs in English letter-writing:
Your obdt. & humble servant
You will hear "Servus!" much more often in southern ...
4
/fʁoˈbeːniʊs/
(primary stress on the second syllable)
The r is more fricative, although a slightly rolling /ʀ/ is appropriate for more articulate pronunciation (e.g. when speaking in front of a larger audience without PA system). However, in some rural regions in the northwest, in the south of Germany as well as in Austria and Switzerland, natives will ...
3
The second syllable gets the stress, i.e. [fʀoːˈbeːni̯ʊs]. This is according to latin rules (penultimate syllable is stressed if long, otherwise the one before it) that are observed in the German pronunciation of Latin. Examples include Auˈsonius or Auˈrelius.
1
Since Frobenius is a latinised name, the traditional German pronunciaton of latin words should apply: [ˈfʀoːbeːni̯ʊs] (with the usual variation of the pronunciaton of the letter r). This is also the pronunciaton I heard among mathematicians.
1
According to german wikipedia] uvular trill [R] is used as the standard pronounciation in Schweiz, Siebenbürgen, Bayern, Österreich, Südtirol and part of Norddeutschlands.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimmhafter_alveolarer_Vibrant
I'm from austria myself and only use it in classical singing or in very formal public speech: its used in "stage german" ...
3
Not being a mathematician, my inclination was to pronounce it
'vaɪɐʃtʁas
with the sound of the third syllable equivalent to the ʃtʁas in Strass (rhinestones) or like the as in Trasse. (Since the recent orthography reforms, vowel before 'ß' gets a long or half-long sound, but the spelling of proper names remains unaffected, thus names like Haß or Heß ...
3
It is pronounced ['vaɪ̯əʁˌʃtʀas], ['vaɪ̯ɐˌʃtʀas] or ['vaɪ̯əʀˌʃtʀas], depending on the dialect, under the assumption that the a is a short vowel. According to a lot of old orthographies, ß could be preceded by both, a short and a long vowel. This does not exclude ['vaɪ̯əʁˌʃtʀaːs] and similar, however, having studied Mathematics in Germany for some years, I ...
5
Usually, the "r" in the middle is vocalic, that is, ['vaɪəɐ̯ˌʃtʁas] or ['vaɪɐ̯ˌʃtʁas]. Using [ʁ] instead of [ɐ̯] is also fine (some might claim that this is the "official" pronunciation). I would not use a trill here.
The second "r" may be a fricative [ʁ] or a trill [ʀ], [r], depending on your dialect. The last vowel is usually pronounced short by ...
8
This is a very good question. I can only state assumptions. I think it evolved as a quirk because it's easier to pronounce. For example, the word 'fünfzehn' (15) is sometimes pronounced 'fuffzehn', and the word 'zwanzig' (20) is sometimes pronounced 'zwanzich' (very common in northern Germany).
Try to slowly pronounce the word 'vier' with a long 'i' and ...
12
"Rules" for pronunciations are merely descriptive not prescriptive.
The pronounciation depends on the whole word.
The numbers up until 20 were more often used than numbers greater than 20 when the German language developed. That's why the pronunciation of "vierzehn" could develop more independently from "vier" than for example "vierhundert". So, the word ...
0
I can not read this pronunciation language, but they are pronounced exatcly the same. If you are speaking very fast and not very clear vier might be a little clearer than vierzehn.
6
The voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] is nowadays the common pronunciation of "r" in High German.
The uvular trill [R] is used if you want to emphasize the "r", or if you want to achieve a clear pronunciation in a more formal speech or conversation. In most contexts it is harder to speak and thus avoided.
Both originated from a weakening of the alveolar thrill ...
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