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#Post#: 18061--------------------------------------------------
On German pronunciation - Part 1: those fecking umlaute
By: Alharacas Date: July 16, 2019, 7:25 am
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Since over the years, I've spent quite a lot of time explaining
and practicing German pronunciation with language partners and
the odd student, I thought I'd open a thread (or maybe a small
series of threads) about it.
Please don't expect any huge revelations, it's just that in the
past, those facts and rules seemed to come as a surprise to
several people.
First of all, those terrible, terrible Umlaute. They may look
daunting, but - surprise n°1 - if you happen to speak French,
you already know how to pronounce them, because they're actually
identical with some French sounds:
ä = French ai
ö = French eu
ü = French u
You don't speak French? Well, the "ä" shouldn't be a problem,
anyway, because it's very close to the English "a" in "mad".
For "ö" and "ü", there's a trick: pronounce a nice German "o"
(as in "lot", but spoken through a cat's *rse mouth), say it out
loud, say it several times. Then - freeze! Keep your mouth in
precisely the shape it needs to be in for the "o" and try to say
a German "e" (as in "meh"). The emerging sound will be the "ö"
you need. Practice a little, then do the same with the "u" (like
in "goo", but for a nice German "u" try to make the sound in
your mouth rather than in your throat). There you are. :)
#Post#: 18062--------------------------------------------------
Re: On German pronunciation - Part 1: those fecking umlaute
By: SHL Date: July 16, 2019, 8:42 am
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[quote author=Alharacas link=topic=1238.msg18061#msg18061
date=1563279941]
Since over the years, I've spent quite a lot of time explaining
and practicing German pronunciation with language partners and
the odd student, I thought I'd open a thread (or maybe a small
series of threads) about it.
Please don't expect any huge revelations, it's just that in the
past, those facts and rules seemed to come as a surprise to
several people.
First of all, those terrible, terrible Umlaute. They may look
daunting, but - surprise n°1 - if you happen to speak French,
you already know how to pronounce them, because they're actually
identical with some French sounds:
ä = French ai
ö = French eu
ü = French u
You don't speak French? Well, the "ä" shouldn't be a problem,
anyway, because it's very close to the English "a" in "mad".
For "ö" and "ü", there's a trick: pronounce a nice German "o"
(as in "lot", but spoken through a cat's *rse mouth), say it out
loud, say it several times. Then - freeze! Keep your mouth in
precisely the shape it needs to be in for the "o" and try to say
a German "e" (as in "meh"). The emerging sound will be the "ö"
you need. Practice a little, then do the same with the "u" (like
in "goo", but for a nice German "u" try to make the sound in
your mouth rather than in your throat). There you are. :)
[/quote]
That’s true, Alharacas, about the French. If you learn a little
French pronunciation, a lot of the sounds are pretty close. I
can’t really say identical, but much closer than English. I read
a book once about German pronunciation which dated to 1961, and
it had some good advice in it. There used to be (maybe still is)
something the author kept referring to as “the Siebs”, (have to
do an internet search on it). He did say if you had trouble with
rolling your “r’s” like in Spanish, which I guess is a bit
Southern, you could use the French R sound instead, like in
“Rue” and be pretty close. Rolled R’s are too hard for me, so I
settled on more the French-like R in Rue. You get a slight
gutteral sound out of it if you are not careful, and it can be
rolled in the throat too, with a little practice. Dutch really
goes a bit overboard with its gutteral sounds, like the guttural
“g”which sounds more like the “ch” is hoch. So, I think Dutch
pronunciation is a bit more challenging.
I actually had some lady in the hotel bar ask me the other night
if I was from Holland, because of the accent in German. I
thought, “oh no. I have to get back to working on German
pronunciation.” That’s better at least than an American accent,
of which I have heard plenty. An American accent in German
sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.
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