Help:IPA/Standard German

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Standard German on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Standard German in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between , / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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The charts below show the way International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Standard German language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Standard German phonology and German orthography § Grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences for a more thorough look at the sounds of German.

Consonants
DE	AT	CH	Examples	English approximation
b			bei; ab (AT, CH)	ball
	c		China, Leipzig (AT, CH)	cute
ç			ich, durch; China, Leipzig (DE)	hue
d			dann; Kleid (AT, CH)	done
f			für, von, Phänomen	fuss
ɡ			gut; Tag (AT, CH)	guest
h			hat	hut
j			Jahr, Yo-Yo	yard
k			kann, cremen, sechs; Tag (DE)	cold
l			Leben	last
l̩			Mantel	bottle
m			Mann	must
m̩			großem	rhythm
n			Name	not
n̩			beiden	sudden
ŋ			lang	long
p			Person, ab (DE)	puck
pf			Pfeffer	cupful
ʁ	r		reden	DE: French rouge AT, CH: Scottish red
s			lassen, groß, Haus	fast
ʃ			schon, Stadt, spitz, Champagner, Ski	shall
t			Tag, Stadt; Kleid (DE)	tall
ts			Zeit, Platz, Potsdam, Celle	cats
tʃ			Matsch, Cello	match
v			was, Vase	vanish
x			nach	Scottish loch
z	s		Sie, diese	DE: zebra AT, CH: soup
ʔ			beamtet	uh-oh!
Non-native consonants
dʒ			Dschungel, Pidgin	jungle
ð			Motherboard	this
ɹ			Spray	rice
θ			Thatcherismus	think
w			Web, Whiskey, Squash	web
ʒ			Genie, Entourage	pleasure
Stress
ˈ			Bahnhofstraße	battleship /ˈbætəlˌʃɪp/
ˌ			Bahnhofstraße	battleship /ˈbætəlˌʃɪp/
Syllable break
.			Ephraim	flower /ˈflaʊ.ər/ (contrasting with flour /ˈflaʊər/)

Vowels
DE	AT	CH	Examples	English approximation
Monophthongs
a			alles, Kalender	father, but short
aː			aber, sah, Staat	father
ɛ			Ende, hätte	bet
ɛː			spät, wählen	RP hair
eː			eben, gehen, Meer	mate
ɪ			ist	sit
iː			liebe, Berlin, ihm	seed
ɔ			kommen	off
oː			oder, hohe, Boot	story
œ			öffnen	somewhat like hurt; RP ugh
øː			Österreich, Möhre, adieu	somewhat like heard
ʊ			und	pull
uː			Hut, Kuh	tool
ʏ			müssen, Ypsilon	somewhat like cute
yː			über, Mühe, psychisch	somewhat like few
Diphthongs
aɪ			ein, Kaiser, Haydn, Verleih, Speyer	high
aʊ			auf	vow
ɔʏ			Euro, Häuser	choice
Reduced vowels
ɐ		ər	immer	DE, AT: frustration CH: Scottish letter
ə	ɛ		Name	DE: balance (but not sofa) AT, CH: GA accent
Semivowels
ɐ̯		r	Uhr	DE, AT: sofa CH: Scottish far
i̯			Studie, Italien	yard
o̯			Pointe	quite
u̯			Linguist, Gouache	would
y̑			Etui	somewhat like evaluation
Non-native vowels
ãː			Gourmand, Engagement, Restaurant, Chance	French Provence
ɛ̃ː			Pointe	French quinze
ɛɪ			Mail	face
õː			Garçon	French Le Monde
ɔː			stalken, Motherboard	dog
ɔʊ			Code	American goat
œ̃ː			Parfum	French emprunte
œːɐ̯		øːr	surfen, Gouverneur	roughly like RP bird
Shortened vowels
ã			engagieren	French chanson
ɛ̃			impair	French vingt-et-un
e			Element	roughly like dress
i			Italien	seat
o			originell	story, but short
õ			foncé	French Mont Blanc
œ̃			Lundist	French vingt-et-un
ø			Ökonom	roughly like hurt
u			Universität, Souvenir	truth
y			Psychologie	like meet, but with the lips rounded

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e In Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German, the lenis obstruents /b, d, ɡ, dʒ, ʒ/ are voiceless and are distinguished from /p, t, k, tʃ, ʃ/ only by articulatory strength (/v/ is really voiced, and /s/ is the only alveolar fricative). The distinction is also retained word-finally. In German Standard German, voiceless as well as occur allophonically after fortis obstruents and, for /b, d, ɡ/, often also word-initially. See fortis and lenis.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f In German Standard German, voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ are devoiced to at the end of a syllable.
^ ^a ^b and belong to one phoneme traditionally transcribed /x/. The velar allophone appears after back vowels and /a, aː/ and it may instead be uvular , depending on the variety and speaker. In this guide, the difference between velar and uvular allophones is ignored and both are written with ⟨x⟩.
^ ^a ^b ^c Pronunciation of /r/ in German varies according to region and speaker. While older prescriptive pronunciation dictionaries allowed only , that pronunciation is now found mainly in Switzerland, Bavaria and Austria. In other regions, the uvular pronunciation prevails, mainly as a fricative/approximant . In many regions except for most parts of Switzerland, the /r/ in the syllable coda is vocalized to after long vowels or after all vowels, and /ər/ is pronounced as .
^ The glottal stop occurs in German Standard German. It is not transcribed phrase-initially, where it is just as likely to be used in English as it is in German. Word- and phrase-internal glottal stops are transcribed. Austrian or Swiss Standard German do not have glottal stops (Krech et al. 2009, pp. 236, 262).
^ ^a ^b Many speakers lack the lenis /ʒ/ and replace it with its fortis counterpart /ʃ/ (Hall 2003, p. 42). The same applies to the corresponding lenis /dʒ/, which also tends to be replaced with its fortis counterpart /tʃ/. According to the prescriptive standard, such pronunciations are not correct.
^ ^a ^b /ð/ and /θ/, occurring in English loans, may be substituted with any of /d, z, v/ and /t, s, f/, respectively.
^ Used in some loanwords from English, especially by younger speakers.
^ Often replaced with /v/.
^ In Northern Germany, /ɛː/ often merges with /eː/ to .
^ ^a ^b As several other Germanic languages, Standard German has mid and open schwas. Care must be taken to clearly distinguish between the two. In English, the former appears in words such as balance, cannon and chairman and the latter variably in sofa, China (especially at the very end of utterance) and, in some dialects, also in ago and again, but one needs to remember that Standard German has no such free variation and is always open, just as is always mid. In some English dialects, an unstressed /ʌ/ in words such as frustration and justiciable is a perfect replacement for Standard German .
^ ^a ^b ^c /o̯, u̯, y̑/ only occur in certain unadapted or partly unadapted loanwords.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h The nasal vowels occur in French loans. They are long when stressed and short when unstressed. In colloquial speech they may be replaced with irrespective of length, and the in these sequences may optionally be assimilated to the place of articulation of a following consonant, e.g. Ensemble or for (Mangold 2005, p. 65).
^ ^a ^b The diphthongs /ɛɪ, ɔʊ/ occur only in loanwords (mostly from English), such as okay. Depending on the speaker and the region, they may be monophthongized to (or in an unstressed syllable-final position). Thus, the aforementioned word okay can be pronounced as either or .
^ The long vowel /ɔː/ occurs only in English loanwords, and is often replaced with the native short /ɔ/ or long /oː/, according to the speaker and where it occurs in a word.
^ or is the German rendering of the English NURSE vowel /ɜːr/ and the French stressed (Krech et al. 2009, pp. 64, 142).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f , the short versions of the long vowels , are used at the end of unstressed syllables before the accented syllable and occur mainly in loanwords. In native words, the accent is generally on the first syllable, and syllables before the accent other than prepositional prefixes are rare but occasionally occur, e.g. in jedoch , soeben , vielleicht etc. In casual speech short preceding a phonemic consonant (i.e., not a ) may be replaced with , e.g. , (Mangold 2005, p. 65).

General and cited references

Hall, Christopher (2003) , Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English (2nd ed.), Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-6689-1
Krech, Eva Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (2009), Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch, Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-018202-6
Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.), Duden, ISBN 978-3411040667

[fortislenis-1] In Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German, the lenis obstruents /b, d, ɡ, dʒ, ʒ/ are voiceless and are distinguished from /p, t, k, tʃ, ʃ/ only by articulatory strength (/v/ is really voiced, and /s/ is the only alveolar fricative). The distinction is also retained word-finally. In German Standard German, voiceless as well as occur allophonically after fortis obstruents and, for /b, d, ɡ/, often also word-initially. See fortis and lenis.

[devoicing-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f In German Standard German, voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ are devoiced to at the end of a syllable.

[dorsalfricatives-3] to one phoneme traditionally transcribed /x/. The velar allophone appears after back vowels and /a, aː/ and it may instead be uvular , depending on the variety and speaker. In this guide, the difference between velar and uvular allophones is ignored and both are written with ⟨x⟩.

[r-allophones-4] Pronunciation of /r/ in German varies according to region and speaker. While older prescriptive pronunciation dictionaries allowed only , that pronunciation is now found mainly in Switzerland, Bavaria and Austria. In other regions, the uvular pronunciation prevails, mainly as a fricative/approximant . In many regions except for most parts of Switzerland, the /r/ in the syllable coda is vocalized to after long vowels or after all vowels, and /ər/ is pronounced as .

[5] The glottal stop occurs in German Standard German. It is not transcribed phrase-initially, where it is just as likely to be used in English as it is in German. Word- and phrase-internal glottal stops are transcribed. Austrian or Swiss Standard German do not have glottal stops (Krech et al. 2009, pp. 236, 262).

[postalveolarlenis-6] Many speakers lack the lenis /ʒ/ and replace it with its fortis counterpart /ʃ/ (Hall 2003, p. 42). The same applies to the corresponding lenis /dʒ/, which also tends to be replaced with its fortis counterpart /tʃ/. According to the prescriptive standard, such pronunciations are not correct.

[th-7] /ð/ and /θ/, occurring in English loans, may be substituted with any of /d, z, v/ and /t, s, f/, respectively.

[8] Used in some loanwords from English, especially by younger speakers.

[9] Often replaced with /v/.

[10] In Northern Germany, /ɛː/ often merges with /eː/ to .

[schwas-11] As several other Germanic languages, Standard German has mid and open schwas. Care must be taken to clearly distinguish between the two. In English, the former appears in words such as balance, cannon and chairman and the latter variably in sofa, China (especially at the very end of utterance) and, in some dialects, also in ago and again, but one needs to remember that Standard German has no such free variation and is always open, just as is always mid. In some English dialects, an unstressed /ʌ/ in words such as frustration and justiciable is a perfect replacement for Standard German .

[semivowels-12] /o̯, u̯, y̑/ only occur in certain unadapted or partly unadapted loanwords.

[nasalV-13] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h The nasal vowels occur in French loans. They are long when stressed and short when unstressed. In colloquial speech they may be replaced with irrespective of length, and the in these sequences may optionally be assimilated to the place of articulation of a following consonant, e.g. Ensemble or for (Mangold 2005, p. 65).

[middiphthongs-14] The diphthongs /ɛɪ, ɔʊ/ occur only in loanwords (mostly from English), such as okay. Depending on the speaker and the region, they may be monophthongized to (or in an unstressed syllable-final position). Thus, the aforementioned word okay can be pronounced as either or .

[15] The long vowel /ɔː/ occurs only in English loanwords, and is often replaced with the native short /ɔ/ or long /oː/, according to the speaker and where it occurs in a word.

[16] r is the German rendering of the English NURSE vowel /ɜːr/ and the French stressed (Krech et al. 2009, pp. 64, 142).

[shorttense-17] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f , the short versions of the long vowels , are used at the end of unstressed syllables before the accented syllable and occur mainly in loanwords. In native words, the accent is generally on the first syllable, and syllables before the accent other than prepositional prefixes are rare but occasionally occur, e.g. in jedoch , soeben , vielleicht etc. In casual speech short preceding a phonemic consonant (i.e., not a ) may be replaced with , e.g. , (Mangold 2005, p. 65).

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