Re: Speaking of pronunciation guides...

_grenfell_ <*grenfell__at__grenfell_.yahoo.invalid*> · Tue, 23 Apr 2002 22:39:57 -0000

Don't forget V being pronounced like F, at least at the beginnings of 
words.

If I remember correctly, y is like an IPA y, if that helps 
any....pretty much a rounded i.  Same as u in French, sometimes.  (Is 
the only German word with a Y that you can think of "typisch"? That's 
the only one I can think of :))

Adam Bishop

--- In quizbowl_at_y..., Andrew Feist <feistatduke_at_y...> wrote:
> 
> --- ZAMM_Phaedrus <no_reply_at_y...> wrote:
> > --- In quizbowl_at_y..., "nephelococcygia"
> > <dthorsle_at_u...> wrote:
> > > I've been meaning to bring this to the attention
> > of the list since I 
> > > found it while editing MLK:
> > > 
> > > http://www3.sympatico.ca/untangle/aztecnames.html
> > > 
> > > Hopefully moderators will soon no longer fear the
> > Aztecs.
> > 
> > I don't suppose anyone has websites or other easily
> > (cheap) obtainable 
> > with general rules of pronunciation for various
> > languages? I'd 
> > probably be most interested in Latin (with
> > differentiation between 
> > ancient and Church Latin), Greek, French, and
> > German. 
> > 
> > P.S. If you're looking to buy a general lit
> > reference, the Merriam 
> > Webster Encyclopedia of Literature does come with
> > pronunciation guides 
> > and Amazon.com seems to have used copies listed for
> > under ten bucks.
> > 
> How hard can German be?  It has fixed pronunciation
> rules, after all.
> 
> Consonants:
> Are consonants, you know, like English.  Except: c and
> g are always hard; j is a y ("Ja!"); w is a v; z is a
> "ts"; and consonants tend to get bitten off at the
> ends of words (so d at the end of a word is more of a
> t).  Two consonants together generally are not
> pronounced together, but split into syllables, except
> sch (= "sh") and ch (= gargle), and occasionally "ng".
>  (I suppose there are others, but I can't think of
> them right now.)  German has managed ways to get
> things like a j sound (jungle -> Dschungel), but those
> are generally only in clearly borrowed words.
> 
> Vowels:
> a = "ah"
> aa = "aaaah"
> ae (a umlaut) = "ay"
> au = "ow"
> e = "eh"
> ee = "ehh", verging on a long a
> ei = "eye"
> ie = "ee"
> i = "ih" (before "ch" sometimes sounds like eek,
> depending on dialect)
> o = "oh"
> oe (o umlaut) = hold your mouth like you're going to
> say "ay", then (without changing anything) (try to)
> say "oo".  (Go ahead, do it.)  If I had to write a
> pronunciation guide, I'd use "oo", although "ay" is
> also seen (cf. "Danke Schoen").
> u = "oo"
> ue (u umlaut) = "ewww"
> y = kind of a cross between "ay" and "ee" (I can only
> think of one German word that has a y in it, so I
> never heard it much)
> 
> Stress almost always lands on the penultimate
> syllable.
> 
> Examples:
> Saarland (saahr' lant)
> Goethe (goot' huh) or (gayt' he) MOST EMPHATICALLY NOT
> (ger' tuh) (Note the syllable breaks between
> consonants)
> Ich bin ein Berliner (ihch (or eek) bin ayn behr-lin'
> er)
> Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz
> (boon'-des-ows-bihl'-doongs-foor'-dehr-oongs-geh-sehts)
> with accents matching each word (bundes, ausbildungs,
> förderungs, gesetz); since aus, ung, and ge are
> affixes, stress falls where it would if the word
> didn't have them.
> 
> HTH.
> 
> =====
> Andrew Feist  http://www.math.duke.edu/~andrewf
> The moving hand writes, and having written, smears the ink.
> 
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