Questions tagged [pronunciation]
Aussprache - Questions on how to correctly speak a word.
334
questions
14
votes
3answers
6k views
Is Liszt really pronounced like the English word "list"?
I would think Franz Liszt's surname would be pronounced "least" or "leasht," but according to this, it is pronounced "list." Is that true? If so, why?
1
vote
2answers
204 views
Wie spricht man den Namen Pahl aus?
How would German native speakers typically pronounce the family name Pahl?
I know a family, who live in an English speaking country, that pronounce it with an English “aw” vowel sound - same as “Paul”....
4
votes
1answer
252 views
Meine Aussprache von Wörtern endend auf "en" (mit einem Verschlusslaut davor)
Meine Muttersprache ist Deutsch und ich wundere mich über meine Aussprache von Wörtern, die mit einem Verschlusslaut und darauf folgend "en" enden. Beispiele mit allen Verschlusslauten wären ...
5
votes
1answer
419 views
How can I distinguish between close and close-mid long vowels more easily?
I have trouble distinguishing between long close vowels ([i:], [u:] and [ü:]) and close-mid vowels ([e:], [o:] and [ö:]). For example, when I hear a new word (for example, Löwe) I find it hard to tell ...
1
vote
2answers
190 views
Spricht man das 'r' in "Verlust"?
Bei der Aussprache des Wortes "Verlust", spricht man das 'r'? Und auch wenn ja, tut man es immer, oder darf/will man es manchmal (zum Beispiel, wenn schnell gesprochen wird) auslassen?
5
votes
6answers
507 views
Sprechpause bei "Gendergap" - Beispiele für solche Pausen außerhalb des "Genderns"
Es geht hier nicht um Meinungen oder Einstellungen zur Sinnhaftigkeit!
Mir geht es um eine "technische" Frage, die den Leitlinien der Meta-Diskussion folgt.
Im Beispiel
Schüler:Innen (oder ...
1
vote
3answers
236 views
I need some German middle words p and b minimal pairs
The letters p and b should be in the middle of the words, and please not like this: "tribe" and "tripe", because they pronounced here as the last sound.
1
vote
3answers
186 views
About the -er pronunciation in German
Ok, so I understand -er is almost always pronounced as a shwa or "uh". Often it goes all the way to an "ah" sound in German in my experience.
Non-native speakers of German that ...
1
vote
2answers
126 views
pronunciation of e in the word geradeaus
I have recently started learning German, and I am facing a great deal of pain in pronouncing 'e'. I am not a native English speaker, but I am speaking it since I can remember. So while learning German ...
5
votes
2answers
445 views
Minimalpaar h ↔︎ ch
Ein Minimalpaar ist ein Paar, das aus zwei sehr ähnlichen Wörtern besteht, die sich in der Aussprache nur durch einen einzigen Laut unterscheiden. Beispielsweise unterscheidet sich die Paare
Kiste = [...
4
votes
2answers
212 views
Why is the Ch in Chiemsee & Cham not [h] but [k]?
I know that Chemnitz is not pronounced [Hem-nits] but [Kem-nits] due to its Slavic etymology origin (Kamenitsa/Kamienitsa etc.) But if so, why isn't it then spelled Kemnitz?
That brings me to my ...
0
votes
2answers
151 views
Deutsche Mundart die mit Macht / Ehre assoziiert wird? [duplicate]
Ich möchte gern wissen, ob es beim deutschen Sprachraum sowas gibt wie einen gewissen Dialekt oder eine gewisse Mundart, oder vielleicht auch nur kleinere Abweichungen zur Aussprache einer Person, die ...
2
votes
1answer
434 views
Does this East-Austrian speaker have a Slavic accent?
I was watching a travel video about Burgenland (Austria), and was taken aback by the interview with this woman, at 2:41 here:
https://youtu.be/Gf609dfRevM?t=134
There's also an interview with her ...
11
votes
2answers
981 views
Pronunciation of "oe" in place names
The letter combination "oe" is pronounced like "ö" in the name of the city Oelde, but like "o" in the name of the city Coesfeld. Is there an explanation of this ...
1
vote
1answer
138 views
Pronunciation of die Höhle vs. der Hölle? [closed]
I want to make sure I am not hearing something that isn't there. Take the sentence "Die Höhle in der Hölle" (The cave in hell). When I listen to the sentence on Google Translate, either ...
2
votes
3answers
105 views
Softer vs. harder sounding consonants
I've been studying German using an app as a hobby for some time. Recently I've added Rosetta Stone to my learning as well. It uses multiple people (I assume native speakers) unlike my previous app, ...
7
votes
2answers
378 views
Why is "doofer" pronounced ['doːvɐ] insead of ['doːfɐ]?
Hearing "Zwei Doofe, ein Gedanke" I could not recognize that [ˈdoːvɐ] refears to doofe (my mind tried to write dowe or dowa, but I didn't think of f first).
Is there any way to guess when f ...
3
votes
3answers
246 views
Stress in Composita & Southern versus Northern German variants of Standard German in Stress
I (as a Bavarian native speaker) notice that Northern Germans when speaking standard German almost consistently use a different stress in composita, which can sound illogical to the Southern German ...
1
vote
0answers
142 views
Pronunciation of “Schnee” [duplicate]
I am trying to learn German and struggling with some aspects of pronunciation.
I have heard the word "Schnee" pronounced here and elsewhere, and it sounds to me like it's pronounced /ʃniː/. ...
2
votes
2answers
283 views
Pronunciation of "R"
I know a similar question has been asked many times before, but I haven't found an exact answer.
I have seen and heard the "R" pronounced both as a uvular trill and as a uvular fricative. It ...
1
vote
1answer
128 views
Weshalb schreibt man "löst" nicht mit >ß<?
Es heißt
Du löst die Aufgabe.
nicht
Du lößt die Aufgabe.
oder
Du löhst die Aufgabe.
Da man löst nicht als lösst spricht, frage ich mich, weshalb es nicht lößt oder löhst heißt.
Hat es etwas ...
3
votes
1answer
189 views
Herkunft Aussprache Ordinalzahlen 4 "Virrtä" und 7 "Sippte" im Rheinland/Süddeutschland
Verfolgt man bspw. die öffentlich-rechtlichen Medien (wie den DLF, vornehmlich im Rheinland produziert), gibt es offenbar insbesondere im rheinländischen und südlichen Teil Deutschlands die ...
2
votes
1answer
285 views
How is the name Kronecker pronounced?
His name seems to be pronounced by English speaking physicists, who probably do not speak German, as ‘Kronnecker’. What is the correct pronunciation?
5
votes
2answers
623 views
Why does ''tst'' in Geburtstag sound like ''ts'',but not like ''tsh'' [duplicate]
I used FORVO to get right pronounciation and heard ''ts''.
How do i know when letters are consonant combinations and when they are not?
2
votes
1answer
145 views
Warum schreibt man «gescheit» mit T?
Warum schreibt man «gescheit» mit T? Das Wort kommt ja von «scheiden» (bedeutet also das Vermögen, gut zu unter-«scheiden»), so dass eigentlich die Schreibung «gescheid» vorzuziehen wäre – wie Grimm ...
5
votes
1answer
187 views
Trilled r's in Die Moritat von Mackie Messer
Bertolt Brecht's performance of Die Moritat von Mackie Messer is sung with heavily trilled r's (see this YouTube video. I'd always put this down to Brecht having been born and raised in Augsburg deep ...
4
votes
1answer
168 views
Pronunciation of ä [duplicate]
AFAIK a short "ä" is always pronounced /ɛ/ in German, but is there a consensus among native German speakers about the pronunciation of a long "ä" ? Different sources say different ...
-2
votes
1answer
331 views
Wie kann man zwischen den Namen der Buchstaben "i" und "e" unterscheiden?
Gibt es überhaupt einen Unterschied in der Aussprache von dem Buchstabe "e" und dem Buchstabe "i"? Ich habe ja keinen gehört (in google translate).
Wie weiß man um welchen es sich handelt, wenn man ...
0
votes
0answers
70 views
Pronouncing "ch" [duplicate]
Being new to german and not being used to it I find that
Ich is pronounced as itch i.e the the ch is pronounced like ch in chapter
Milch is pronounced as mil- sh, ch as sh in shampoo
And Mich is ...
7
votes
2answers
246 views
Wieso spricht man die Namen der Buchstaben H und K mit einem A-Laut am Ende aus?
Wieso spricht man die Namen der Buchstaben H und K mit einem A-Laut am Ende aus, anstelle eines E-Lautes, wie etwa beim G?
(G deshalb, weil es ja eigentlich nur ein stimmhaftes K ist.)
Mir ist ...
3
votes
3answers
158 views
Mir gefällt vs ich mag
I want to say "I am doing this because I like teaching others" and it's not quite clear to me if this should be:
"weil ich die andere zu lehren mag"
oder
"weil mir gefällt, die andere zu lehren"
...
1
vote
3answers
163 views
Hochdeutsch and pronunciation
I have been learning German for the last couple of years using DuoLingo. The dialect taught there is of course Hochdeutsch. I have since finished all DuoLingo content and have now moved on to LingQ. ...
3
votes
1answer
124 views
orthography: voiced sonorant after short vowel, "dusselig"
For the unvoiced sonorant /s/ we have either of both:
ß marking /s/ after long vowels
"Fuß", "in maßen"
double-s to mark /s/ after short vowels
"Fluss", "in Massen"
Whereas for the voiced ...
16
votes
4answers
5k views
Is Kilometer ever pronounced as 'kaa em' in German?
I am Dutch and I would like to understand if a German native speaker would understand if I pronounce the 'km' abbreviation of the word 'Kilometer' as 'kaa em'.
1
vote
1answer
373 views
Should the German ä be ë? [closed]
In German the umlaut indicates a "narrowing" or "tightening" of the vowel it modifies, e.g
o -> ö
u -> ü
a -> ä
But the pronunciation of ä is actually a modification of e. By this ...
8
votes
3answers
751 views
Why was ⟨ß⟩ discontinued in Switzerland?
I can think of three different reasons why ⟨ß⟩ was discontinued in Switzerland. However, I do not know which one to prefer, and there may be other explanations. That is why I am asking.
Here are the ...
0
votes
1answer
850 views
How to ask for a date?
How do you ask a woman out on a date in German? I.e. "would you like to go out sometime?"
2
votes
2answers
162 views
"vo" für "vau" der Deutlichkeit halber?
Die deutsche synthetische Stimme, die aus dem GPS-Navigationssystem in unserem Mietwagen kommt, spricht die Autobahnstrecke VR1 auf Madeiera als "vo er eins" aus. Ich habe diese Aussprache "vo" für "...
0
votes
5answers
459 views
How does German j differ from German i?
I understand that in German, the letter j is often used as some kind of i
For example:
Sowjet means soviet
Objekt means object
While the words Jannine or Jessica would be transliterated and likely ...
1
vote
1answer
163 views
German vowels audio examples
I'm learning German and I'm looking for audio examples of the German vowels in Standard German. I know in principle no two people pronounce things exactly the same, but just some examples of someone ...
1
vote
4answers
158 views
Pronunciation of Ernst Robert Curtius
I've been reading a book by Ernst Robert Curtius, a 20th. cent. German philologist, and sources online suggest that Curtius is pronounced as "Court-zi-us." I'm wondering where that "z/s" sound after ...
8
votes
5answers
2k views
How can you tell apart the pronunciation at the end between "meine" and "meiner" in the daily spoken situation?
As I tried to listen to the real speaking environment, I can't really see the difference between those.
z.B:
Ich habe eine nette Mutter.
Ich helfe meiner netten Mutter.
1
vote
3answers
165 views
guten appetit oder guten nappetit? Welches ist richtig [closed]
Was ist richtig, guten appetit oder guten nappetit?
Ich höre immer "guten nappetit".
"guten appetit" oder "guten nappetit"? Welches ist richtig
When it's written "guten appetit", why it's pronounced ...
1
vote
2answers
208 views
Stark regional difference between pronunciation of the letter "d" when it precedes "en"?
I read the following post about the rules for pronouncing the letter "d"in German. However, it doesn't seem to address a stark difference I hear between German speakers when the word has a "d" in it ...
4
votes
1answer
137 views
epenthetic /i/ in r, l, n + ch
As a follow-up to a question recently asked (Why doesn't the "ch" pronunciation rule occur for words such as "durch" and "manchmal"?) , I was wondering about the ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Why doesn't the "ch" pronunciation rule occur for words such as "durch" and "manchmal"?
German has two different ways to realise ch phonetically:
One way (let's call this the hard realisation) like in Kuchen, lachen and kochen is similar to the Spanish J. I have learned that this ...
3
votes
4answers
274 views
Schoasch, Schosef und Schakop
Mein Großvater, geboren 1897 in Straßburg, hat Josef geheißen. Er war bekannt als de' Sepp oder de' Seppel. Dennoch hätte man Josef als Schosef ausgesprochen und nicht /jo:sɛf/. Einen alten Kollegen ...
12
votes
1answer
535 views
Kennzeichnung aspirierter Plosive (z.b. TH in Theater, Thron usw.)
Als Plosive bezeichnet man jene Konsonanten, bei denen der Laut dadurch gebildet wird, dass der Luftstrom für einen kurzen Moment unterbrochen wird. Das anschließende geräuschvolle Entweichen der ...
0
votes
2answers
719 views
Why is the German "qu" pronounced as "kv"?
Why is the German "qu" pronounced as "kv"? Most of the languages I know of pronounce "qu" as "w" and/or "kw". What's the history behind this oddity?
4
votes
4answers
364 views
vowel length in Mutter and Vater
Mutter used to have a long u realized as a diphthong (MHG, OHG muoter). Vater had a short a, as evidenced in the Grimms' remark about Vater : "der stammvocal, im älteren deutsch stets kurz, wird nhd.,...