Regional variant
As German is spoken over a very wide area and in several countries, there is great variety in regional pronunciation. Some of these variations are considered standard, not dialect; only these variants are dealt with here. In the north of Germany long ä is pronounced ‘eh’, i.e. the same as German long e, and thus the distinction between gäbe/gebe and nähme/nehme, for example, is not made.
In the north of Germany many long vowels in closed syllables (i.e. those ending in a consonant) are pronounced short, e.g. Glas, Tag, Zug. In the north of Germany i nal g is pronounced like German ch (both ich- and ach-Laut, depending on the preceding sound), e.g. Tag, Teig, Weg, zog, Zug.
In verbs before the endings -t and -te/-ten etc. g is also pronounced in this way, e.g. liegt, gesagt, legte, sagte; in standard German the g in these words is automatically pronounced ‘k’ due to the inl uence of the following t. In the north the ending -ung is often pronounced ‘oonk’, e.g. Zeitung, Rechnung.
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Over large areas of northern and central Germany pf at the beginning of a word is likely to be pronounced ‘f’, e.g. Pfeffer, Pfund. If you are having trouble pronouncing pf in such words, simply say Feffer and Fund and no one will even notice you are not saying pf. In southern Germany and Austria, sp and st are pronounced ‘shp’ and ‘sht’ in all positions, not just initially, e.g. bist, Australien, Wespe. The reverse can occur in the far north of Germany where sp and st might be pronounced ‘sp’ and ‘st’ in all positions, e.g. Stadt, spät. In the south of Germany and in Austria k, p and t are commonly pronounced in a way that makes them barely distinguishable from g, b and d respectively, e.g. kaufen gaufen, Parade Barade, trinken drinken. |
