Help:IPA/Standard German

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{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="5" | Consonants

| {{lang|de|bei;In Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German as well as in Southern Germany, the lenis obstruents {{IPA|/b, d, ɡ, z, ʒ/}} are usually voiceless {{IPA|[b̥, d̥, ɡ̊, z̥, ʒ̊]}} (only {{IPA|/v/}} is really voiced). There is no consensus about what distinguishes the voiceless lenis obstruents from the fortis obstruents {{IPA|/p, t, k, s, ʃ/}}. The distinction might include articulatory strength, duration, or fortis stop aspiration. Voiceless {{IPA|[z̥, ʒ̊]}} are difficult to distinguish from {{IPA|/s, ʃ/}} for untrained ears, except in Switzerland where a distinction in articulatory strength and length is easier to perceive (see {{harvnb|Ammon|Bickel|Ebner|Esterhammer|2004|page=LVII}}). In Northern Germany Standard German, the lenis obstruents are often voiced {{IPA|[b, d, ɡ, z, ʒ]}} when surrounded by other voiced sounds or after a pause, whereas final fortis and lenis obstruents are merged in final-obstruent devoicing. ab}} ({{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}})

| ball

| {{lang|de|nach}}

| Scottish loch

| {{lang|de|ich, durch;{{IPAblink|ç}} and {{IPAblink|x}} belong to one phoneme traditionally transcribed {{IPA|/x/}}. The velar allophone appears after back vowels and {{IPA|/a, aː/}} and it may instead be uvular {{IPAblink|χ}}, depending on the variety and speaker. In this guide, the difference between velar and uvular allophones is ignored and both are written with {{angbr IPA|x}}. China, Leipzig}} ({{abbr|DE|German Standard German}})

| hue

| {{lang|de|dann; Kleid}} ({{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}})

| done

| {{lang|de|für, von, Phänomen}}

| fuss

| {{lang|de|gut; Tag, Leipzig}} ({{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}})

| guest

| {{lang|de|hat}}

| hut

| {{lang|de|Jahr, Yak}}

| yard

| {{lang|de|kann, cremen, sechs; Tag}} ({{abbr|DE|German Standard German}});In German Standard German, voiced stops {{IPA|/b, d, ɡ/}} are devoiced to {{IPA|[p, t, k]}} at the end of a syllable. {{lang|de|China}} ({{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}})

| cold

| {{lang|de|Leben}}

| last

| {{lang|de|Mantel}}

| bottle

| {{lang|de|Mann}}

| must

| {{lang|de|großem}}

| rhythm

| {{lang|de|Name}}

| not

| {{lang|de|beiden}}

| sudden

| {{lang|de|lang}}

| long

| {{lang|de|Person, ab}} ({{abbr|DE|German Standard German}})

| puck

| {{lang|de|Pfeffer}}

| cupful

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | {{IPA link|r}}

| {{lang|de|reden}}Pronunciation of {{IPA|/r/}} in German varies according to region and speaker. While older prescriptive pronunciation dictionaries allowed only {{IPA|[r]}}, that pronunciation is now found mainly in Switzerland, Bavaria and Austria. In other regions, the uvular pronunciation prevails, mainly as a fricative/approximant {{IPA|[ʁ]}}. In many regions except for most parts of Switzerland, the {{IPA|/r/}} in the syllable coda is vocalized to {{IPA|[ɐ̯]}} after long vowels or after all vowels, and {{IPA|/ər/}} is pronounced as {{IPA|[ɐ]}}. Also, in southern Germany, {{IPA|/ɐ/}} is alternatively realized as {{IPAblink|ə}}.

| {{abbr|DE|German Standard German}}: French rouge
{{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}}: Scottish red

| style="text-align:center;" |{{IPA link|s}}

| style="text-align:center;" | {{IPA link|z}}

| {{lang|de|Sie, diese}}

| {{abbr|DE|Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}}: zebra
{{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}: soup

| {{lang|de|lassen, groß, fließen, Fest}}

| fast

| {{lang|de|schon, Stadt, spitz, Champagner, Ski}}

| shall

| {{lang|de|Tag, Stadt; Kleid}} ({{abbr|DE|German Standard German}})

| tall

| {{lang|de|Matsch, Cello}}

| match

| {{lang|de|was, Vase}}

| vanish

| {{lang|de|Zeit, Platz, Potsdam, Celle}}

| cats

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background:gray" |

| {{lang|de|beamtet}} {{IPA|[bəˈʔamtət]}}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. Glottal stops are much rarer in Austrian or Swiss Standard German ({{harvnb|Krech et al.|2009|pp=236, 262}}).

| uh-oh!

| {{lang|de|Dschungel, Pidgin}}Many speakers lack the lenis {{IPA|/ʒ/}} and replace it with its fortis counterpart {{IPA|/ʃ/}} ({{harvnb|Hall|2003|p=42}}). The same applies to the corresponding lenis {{IPA|/dʒ/}}, which also tends to be replaced with its fortis counterpart {{IPA|/tʃ/}}. According to the prescriptive standard, such pronunciations are not correct.

| jungle

| {{lang|de|Genie, Entourage}}

| pleasure

| {{lang|de|Spray}}Used in some loanwords from English, especially by younger speakers.

| rice

| {{lang|de|Motherboard}}{{IPA|/ð/}} and {{IPA|/θ/}}, occurring in English loans, may be substituted with any of {{IPA|/d, z, v/}} and {{IPA|/t, s, f/}}, respectively.

| this

| {{lang|de|Thatcherismus}}

| think

| {{lang|de|Web, Whiskey, Squash}}Often replaced with {{IPA|/v/}}.

| web

| rowspan="2" | {{lang|de|Bahnhofstraße}}
{{IPA|[ˈbaːnhoːfˌʃtʁaːsə]}}

| rowspan="2" | battleship {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|æ|t|əl|ˌ|ʃ|ɪ|p}}

| {{lang|de|Ephraim}}
{{IPA|[ˈeːfra.ɪm]}}

| flower {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|l|aʊ|.|ər}} (contrasting with flour {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|l|aʊr}})

! colspan="5" | Vowels

| {{lang|de|alles, Kalender}}

| pasta

| {{lang|de|aber, sah, Staat}}

| father

| {{lang|de|Ende, hätte}}

| bet

| {{lang|de|spät, wählen}}In northern Germany, {{IPA|/ɛː/}} often merges with {{IPA|/eː/}} into {{IPAblink|eː}}.

| RP hair

| {{lang|de|eben, gehen, See}}

| Scottish mate

| {{lang|de|ist}}

| sit

| {{lang|de|Liebe, Berlin, ihm}}

| seed

| {{lang|de|kommen}}

| off

| {{lang|de|oder, hohe, Boot}}

| story

| {{lang|de|öffnen}}

| somewhat like hurt; RP ugh

| {{lang|de|Österreich, Möhre, adieu}}

| somewhat like heard

| {{lang|de|und}}

| pull

| {{lang|de|Hut, Kuh}}

| tool

| {{lang|de|müssen, Ypsilon}}

| somewhat like cute

| {{lang|de|über, Mühe, psychisch}}

| somewhat like few

| {{lang|de|ein, Kaiser, Haydn, Verleih, Speyer}}

| high

| {{lang|de|auf}}

| vow

| {{lang|de|Euro, Häuser}}

| choice

| style="text-align:center;" | {{IPA|ər}}

| {{lang|de|immer}}

| {{abbr|DE|German Standard German}}, {{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}: frustration
{{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}}: Scottish letterAs several other Germanic languages, Standard German has mid {{IPAblink|ə}} and open {{IPAblink|ɐ}} 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 {{IPAblink|ɐ}} has no such free variation and is always open, just as {{IPAblink|ə}} is always mid. In some English dialects, an unstressed {{IPA|/ʌ/}} in words such as frustration and justiciable is a perfect replacement for Standard German {{IPAblink|ɐ}}. Also, especially in southern Germany, {{IPA|/ɐ/}} often merges with {{IPA|/ə/}} into {{IPAblink|ə}}.

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | {{IPA link|ɛ̝|ɛ}}

| {{lang|de|Name}}

| {{abbr|DE|German Standard German}}: balance (but not sofa)
{{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}, {{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}}: betIn Austria and Switzerland, the most common realization of syllable-final {{IPA|/ə/}} is {{IPAblink|ɛ̝}} ({{harvnb|Krech et al.|2009|p=246}}), here transcribed as {{IPA|[ɛ]}} for simplicity.

| style="text-align:center;" | {{IPA|r}}

| {{lang|de|Uhr}}

| {{abbr|DE|German Standard German}}, {{abbr|AT|Austrian Standard German}}: sofa
{{abbr|CH|Swiss Standard German}}: Scottish far

| {{lang|de|Studie, Italien}}

| yard

| {{lang|de|Pointe}}{{IPA|/o̯, u̯, y̑/}} only occur in certain unadapted or partly unadapted loanwords.

| quite

| {{lang|de|Linguist, Gouache}}

| would

| {{lang|de|Etui}}

| somewhat like evaluation

| {{lang|de|Element}}{{IPA|[e, i, o, ø, u, y]}}, the short versions of the long vowels {{IPA|[eː, iː, oː, øː, uː, yː]}}, 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 {{Lang|de|jedoch}} {{IPA|[jeˈdɔx]}}, {{Lang|de|soeben}} {{IPA|[zoˈʔeːbn̩]}}, {{Lang|de|vielleicht}} {{IPA|[fiˈlaɪçt]}} etc. In casual speech short {{IPA|[e, i, o, ø, u, y]}} preceding a phonemic consonant (i.e., not a {{IPA|[ʔ]}}) may be replaced with {{IPA|[ɛ, ɪ, ɔ, œ, ʊ, ʏ]}}, e.g. {{IPA|[jɛˈdɔx]}}, {{IPA|[fɪˈlaɪçt]}} ({{harvnb|Mangold|2005|p=65}}).

| roughly like dress

| {{lang|de|Italien}}

| seat

| {{lang|de|originell}}

| story, but short

| {{lang|de|Ökonomie}}

| roughly like hurt

| {{lang|de|Universität, Souvenir}}

| cesspool

| {{lang|de|Psychologie}}

| like meet, but with the lips rounded

| {{lang|de|stalken, Motherboard}}The long vowel {{IPA|/ɔː/}} occurs only in English loanwords, and is often replaced with the native short {{IPA|/ɔ/}} or long {{IPA|/oː/}}, according to the speaker and where it occurs in a word.

| dog

| {{lang|de|Mail}}The diphthongs {{IPA|/ɛɪ, ɔʊ/}} occur only in loanwords (mostly from English), such as okay. Depending on the speaker and the region, they may be monophthongized to {{IPA|[eː, oː]}} (or {{IPA|[e, o]}} in an unstressed syllable-final position). Thus, the aforementioned word okay can be pronounced as either {{IPA|[ɔʊˈkɛɪ]}} or {{IPA|[oˈkeː]}}.

| face

| {{lang|de|Code}}

| goal

| style="text-align:center;" | {{IPA|øːr}}

| {{lang|de|surfen, Flirt}}{{IPA|[œːɐ̯]}} or {{IPA|[øːr]}} is the German rendering of the English {{sc2|NURSE}} vowel {{IPAc-en|ɜːr}} and sometimes the French stressed {{IPA|fr|œʁ