German Pronunciation

GERMAN PRONUNCIATION: GENERAL EXPLANATIONS

The sound quality of certain vowels and consonants varies considerably throughout the German speaking areas. Even highly educated people, speaking correct standard German which is taught in all schools, will sound different depending on which area they come from. This regional colouring of the sound quality is not to be confused with dialects of which there are many. Whether German sounds guttural and hard or sing-song and soft, whether spoken fast or slowly, your ability to understand will increase in relation to the amount of exposure to spoken German you can get.

German is, with very few exceptions, a totally phonetic language, once you have learnt the sound values of each letter you can read German. Regarding your own linguistic achievements, be patient and remember that as a child it will have taken you up to two years or more to learn to speak your own native language even though you were constantly surrounded and immersed in it. Everyone who has learnt his or her own language is able to learn a foreign language.You just have to give yourself a little time and be as tolerant with yourself as you would be if you tried to teach someone else.

For some time now, there have been arguments raging as to the rights and wrongs of a spelling reform, which should, in theory, be implemented in all German-speaking countries. It has, however, only been partially adopted and you might find occasional spelling differences between spellings in German texts.