German orthography (
writing systemThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
), although largely
phonemicIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
, shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogic to other spellings rather than phonemic. Nevertheless, the pronunciation of almost every word can be derived from its spelling, once the spelling rules are known.
Middle Ages
The oldest known
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
texts date back to the 8th century. They are written mainly in
monasteriesMonastery , a term derived from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer Monastery (plural: monasteries), a term derived from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος - monasterios...
in different local dialects of
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
. In these texts, the letter
z along with combinations such as
tz,
cz,
zz,
sz or
zs was chosen to transcribe the sounds and . This is ultimately the origin of the modern German letters
z,
tz and
ßThe letter ß is a ligature in the German alphabet typically used to replace a double "s" in a word. Its German name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s .- Adelung versus Heyse :There are two ways to determine where to use ss and where to use ß...
(an old
sz-ligature). After the
Carolingian RenaissanceThe Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival occurring in the late eighth and ninth centuries, with the peak of the activities occurring during the reigns of the Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. During this period there was an increase of...
, however, during the reigns of the
OttonianThe Ottonian dynasty was a dynasty of Germanic Kings , named after its first emperor but also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings, after its earliest known member Liudolf and one of its primary leading-names...
and Salian dynasties in the 10th century and 11th century, German was rarely written, the literary language being almost exclusively
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
. Notker the German is a notable exception in his period; not only his German compositions are of high stylistic value but also his orthography is the first to follow a strictly coherent system.
Only in the
High Middle AgesThe High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, during the reign of the
HohenstaufenThe House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufen also became Kings of Sicily...
dynasty, there was again significant production of German texts. Around the year 1200, there was a first tendency towards a standardized
Middle High GermanMiddle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
language and spelling, based on the
FranconianEast Franconian is a dialect which is spoken in northern Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth and Suhl. The major subgroup is Main-Franconian...
-
SwabianSwabian is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia. Swabia covers much of Germany's southwestern Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg and the southwest of the Bundesland Bavaria...
language of the Hohenstaufen court. However, that language was used only in the
epic poetryAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
and
minnesangMinnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. People who wrote and performed Minnesang are known as Minnesingers . The name derives from the word minne, Middle High German for love which was their main...
lyric of the
knightA knight was a "gentleman soldier" or member of the warrior class of the Middle Ages in Europe. In other Indo-European languages, cognates of cavalier or rider are more prevalent suggesting a connection to the knight's mode of transport...
culture. These early tendencies of standardization ceased in the
interregnumAn interregnum is a period of discontinuity of a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next , and the concepts of interregnum and regency therefore overlap...
after the death of the last Hohenstaufen king in 1254. Certain features of today's German
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
still date back to Middle High German: The use of the
trigraphA trigraph is a group of three letters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined. For example, in the word schilling, the trigraph sch represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative , rather than the consonant cluster...
sch for and the occasional use of
v for because around the 12th and 13th century, prevocalic was voiced.
In the following centuries, the only variety that showed a marked tendency to be used across regions was the
Middle Low GermanMiddle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
of the
Hanseatic LeagueThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
, based on the variety of
LübeckThe Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage is on UNESCO's list of World...
and used in many areas of Northern Germany and indeed northern Europe in general.
Early modern period
Until the 16th century, a new interregional standard developed on the basis of the
East Central GermanEast Central German is the non-Franconian sub-group of Central German dialects, themselves part of High German. It comprises:*Thuringian*Upper Saxon German*Low Lusatian German...
and
Austro-BavarianAustro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. Like standard German, Austro-Bavarian is a High German language, but they are not the same language...
varieties. This was influenced by several factors:
- Under the Habsburg
The House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
dynasty, there was a strong tendency to a common language in the chancelleryChancellery is the office of the chancellor, sometimes also referred to as the chancery. Both of those words have other meanings as well.Chancellery can specifically refer to:...
.
- Since Eastern Central Germany had been colonized only during the High and Late Middle Ages in the course of the Drang nach Osten
Drang nach Osten was a term coined in the 19th century to designate German expansion into Slavic lands. The term became a motto...
by people from different regions of Germany, the varieties spoken were compromises of different dialects.
- Eastern Central Germany was culturally very important, with the universities of Erfurt
The University of Erfurt is a public university located in Erfurt, Germany. Originally founded in 1392, the university was closed in 1816 for the next 177 years...
and LeipzigThe University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in Europe and the second-oldest university in Germany...
and especially with the Luther BibleThe Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534. This translation is considered to be largely responsible for the evolution of the modern German language....
translation which was considered exemplary.
- The invention of printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.-History:...
led to an increased production of books, and the printers were interested in using a common language in order to sell their books in an area as wide as possible.
In the Mid 16th century, when, during the
Counter-ReformationThe Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648....
,
CatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
was reintroduced in Austria and Bavaria, the Lutherian language was rejected. Instead, a specific Southern interregional language was used, based on the language of the Habsburgian chancellery.
In Northern Germany, the Lutheran East Central German replaced the
Low GermanLow German or Low Saxon is any of the regional language varieties of the West Germanic languages spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands.-Geographical extent:-Low German in Europe:Dialects...
written language until Mid 17th century. In the early 18th century, the Lutheran standard was also introduced in the Southern states and countries, Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland, due to the influence of Northern German writers, grammarians such as
Johann Christoph GottschedJohann Christoph Gottsched , was a German author and critic.He was born at Juditten near Königsberg, Brandenburg-Prussia, the son of a Lutheran clergyman...
or language cultivation societies such as the
Fruitbearing SocietyThe Fruitbearing Society was a German literary society founded in 1617 in Weimar by German scholars and nobility to emulate the idea of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence and similar groups already thriving in Italy, to be followed in later years also in France and Britain...
.
19th century and early 20th century
Even though by mid 18th century, one norm was generally established, there was no institutionalized standardization. Only with the introduction of the
compulsory educationCompulsory education is a concept where children are required by the laws of a specific nation-state to receive an education. It is often closely associated with public education, that education which a state provides universally to its citizens. In some places homeschooling may be a legal...
in late 18th and early 19th century was the spelling further standardized, though at first independently in each state, due to the political fragmentation of Germany. Only the foundation of the
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
n
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
in 1871 allowed for further standardization.
In 1876, the Prussian government instituted the 1st Orthographic Conference in order to achieve a standardization for the entire German Empire. However, its results were rejected, among others by
Prime Minister of PrussiaThe office of Minister President or Prime Minister of Prussia existed in one form or another from 1792 until the dissolution of Prussia in 1947. When Prussia was an independent kingdom the Minister President or Prime Minister functioned as the King's Chief Minister and presided over the Prussian...
Otto von BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
.
In 1880,
GymnasiumA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools...
director
Konrad DudenKonrad Alexander Friedrich Duden was a Gymnasium teacher who became a philologist. He founded the well-known German language dictionary bearing his name Duden.- Life :...
published the
Vollständiges Orthographisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache ("Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language"), known simply as
DudenThe Duden is a German dictionary, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880.Currently the Duden is in its 24th edition and published in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects like loan words, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, etc...
. In the same year, the Duden was declared to be authoritative in Prussia. Since Prussia was by far the largest state in the German Empire, its regulations also influenced spelling elsewhere, for instance, in 1894, when
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
recognized the Duden.
In 1901, the
interior ministerAn interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
of the German Empire instituted the 2nd Orthographic Conference. It declared the Duden to be authoritative, with a few innovations. In 1902, its results were approved by the governments of the German Empire, of Austria and of Switzerland.
In 1944, the
Nazi GermanNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
government planned to reform the orthography. However, due to the war, this reform was never implemented.
After 1902 German spelling was essentially decided
de facto by the editors of the Duden dictionaries. After
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, this tradition was followed with two different centers:
MannheimMannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
in
West GermanyWest Germany is a common English name for the period of the Federal Republic of Germany between its' formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and the five states on its territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany,...
and
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
in East Germany. By the early 1950s, a few other publishing houses had begun to attack the Duden monopoly in the West by putting out their own dictionaries, which did not always hold to the "official" spellings prescribed by Duden. In response, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings to be binding as of November, 1955.
The Duden editors used their power cautiously, because they considered their primary task to be the documentation of usage, not the creation of rules. At the same time, however, they found themselves forced to make finer and finer distinctions in the production of German spelling rules, and each new print run introduced a few reformed spellings.
German spelling reform of 1996
The new orthography is obligatory only in schools. According to the decision of July 14, 1998, of the
Federal Constitutional Court of GermanyThe Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
outside the schools everybody can write as before, because there is no law ruling orthography. The majority of Germans use the traditional German orthography. Therefore it is necessary to differentiate between the new and the traditional orthography. The result is a general insecurity and a "Beliebigkeitsschreibung", that is, idiosyncratic spelling, for example "traditional":
Schloßstraße, "new":
Schlossstraße, but wrong:
Schlossstrasse or
Schloßstrasse.
Vowel length
Even though
vowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English...
is
phonemicIn a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
in German, it is not consistently represented. However, there are different ways of identifying long vowels:
- A vowel in an open syllable (a free vowel) is long, for instance in ge-ben ('to give'), sa-gen ('to say').
- The digraph
A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
ie usually represents long , for instance in Liebe ('love'), hier ('here'); occasionally it represents as in the plural noun Knie ('knees') (cf. the singular Knie ). This use is a historical spelling based on the Middle High German diphthong which was monophthongA monophthong is a "pure" vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong....
ized in Early New High German. It has been generalizedA generalization of a concept is an extension of the concept to less-specific criteria. It is a foundational element of logic and human reasoning. Generalization posits the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, it...
to words that etymologically never had that diphthong, for instance viel ('much'), Friede ('peace') (Middle High German vil, vride).
- A silent h indicates the vowel length in certain cases. That h derives from an old in some words, for instance sehen ('to see') zehn ('ten'), but in other words it has no etymological justification, for instance gehen ('to go') or mahlen ('to mill').
- The letters a, e, o may be doubled in a few words, for instance Saat ('seed'), See ('sea'/'lake'), Moor ('moor').
- A doubled consonant after a vowel often indicates that the vowel is short, while a single consonant indicates the vowel is long, e.g. ('comb') has a short vowel , while ('came') has long vowel .
Double or triple consonants
Even though German does not have phonemic
consonant lengthIn phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant.Consonant length is distinctive in some languages, for instance Arabic, Estonian, Finnish, Russian, Classical Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and Luganda....
, there are many instances of doubled or even tripled consonants in the spelling. A single consonant following a checked vowel is doubled if another vowel follows, for instance imm
er 'always', lassen 'let'. These consonants are analyzed as ambisyllabic because they constitute not only the
syllable onsetIn phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus.-Syllable structure:The segmental structure of a syllable begins with an onset, followed by a rime or final....
of the second syllable but also the
syllable codaIn phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. A coda is not required in syllables...
of the first syllable, which must not be empty because the
syllable nucleusIn phonetics and phonology, the nucleus is the central part of the syllable, most commonly a vowel. In addition to a nucleus, a syllable may begin with an onset and end with a coda, but in most languages the only part of a syllable that is mandatory is the nucleus...
is a checked vowel.
By analogy, if a word has one form with a doubled consonant, all forms of that word are written with a doubled consonant, even if they do not fulfill the conditions for consonant doubling; for instance, renn
en 'to run' → er rennt 'he runs'; Küss
e 'kisses' → Kuss 'kiss'.
Triple consonants affect only the spelling, not the pronunciation. They occur when words are written together, as in
Schifffahrt ('shipping') from
Schiff and
Fahrt,
Sauerstoffflasche ('oxygen bottle') from
Sauerstoff and
Flasche. Before the spelling reform of 1996, only two consonants were written if the sequence was followed by a vowel (e.g.
Schiffahrt but
Sauerstoffflasche). If hyphenated at the end of a line, all three consonants were always written (e.g.,
Schiff-fahrt and
Sauerstoff-flasche). The new spelling of both words is
Schifffahrt and
Sauerstoffflasche, with triple consonants in all contexts.
Typical letters
ei: This digraph represents the
diphthongIn phonetics, a diphthong, or , is a contour vowel—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow...
. The spelling goes back to the Middle High German pronunciation of that diphthong, which was . The spelling
ai is found in only a very few native words (e.g.
Saite 'string') but is commonly used to Romanize in foreign loans from languages such as Chinese.
eu: This digraph represents the diphthong which goes back to the Middle High German monophthong represented by
iu.
ß: This letter alternates with
ss.
For more information, see: ßThe letter ß is a ligature in the German alphabet typically used to replace a double "s" in a word. Its German name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s .- Adelung versus Heyse :There are two ways to determine where to use ss and where to use ß...
.
st,
sp: At the beginning of the main syllable of a word, these digraphs are pronounced . In the Middle Ages, the
sibilantA sibilant is a type of fricative or affricate consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth.-The term:...
that was inherited from
Proto-GermanicProto-Germanic , or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of all the Germanic languages such as modern English, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Swedish...
was pronounced as an
alveolo-palatal consonantIn phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar fricatives, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate...
or , unlike the
voiceless alveolar sibilantThe voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described....
that had developed in the
High German consonant shiftIn historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
. In the Late Middle Ages, certain instances of merged with [s], but others developed into . This change to was represented in certain spellings, for instance
Schnee 'snow', Kirsche 'cherry' (Middle High German snê,
kirse). The digraphs
st,
sp, however, remained unaltered.
v: The letter
v occurs only in a few native words. In these native words, it represents . This goes back to the 12th and 13th century, when prevocalic was voiced to . That voicing was lost again in the late Middle Ages, but the
v still remains in certain words, for instance in
Vogel (compare Scandinavian fugl or English
fowl) 'bird' (hence the letter v is sometimes called Vogel-fau), viel 'much'.
w: The letter
w represents the sound . In the 17th century, the former sound became but the spelling remained the same. An analogous sound change had happened in
Late AntiqueLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown...
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
.
z: The letter
z represents the sound . This sound, a product of the
High German consonant shiftIn historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
, was written with
z since
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
in the 8th century.
Foreign words
In many cases, the foreign spellings are retained, for instance
ph or
y in words of
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
origin (as in
Physik).
Grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences
This section lists German letters and letter combinations, and how to pronounce them transliterated into the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet
["The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...]
. This is the pronunciation of
Standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
. Note that the pronunciation of standard German varies slightly from region to region. In fact, it is possible to tell where most German speakers come from by their accent in standard German (not to be confused with the different German dialects).
Foreign words are usually pronounced approximately as they are in the original language.
Consonants
Double
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
s are pronounced as single consonants, except in compound words.
- b: at end of syllable: ; otherwise: or
- c: before ä, e, and i: ; otherwise:
- ch: after a, o, and u: ; after other vowels or consonants or initially: ; the suffix -chen always
- chs: within a morpheme
In morpheme-based morphology, a ' is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning.In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes .The concept morpheme differs from the concept word, as many morphemes...
(e.g. Dachs "badger"); or across a morpheme boundary (e.g. Dachs "roof (genitive)")
- ck: , follows short vowels
- d: at end of syllable: ; otherwise: or
- dsch: or , used in loanwords and transliterations only, words borrowed from English can alternatively retain the original . Many speakers as , as is not native to German.
- dt:
- f:
- g: in the ending -ig: or (Southern German); at the end of a syllable: ; otherwise: or
- h: before a vowel: ; when lengthening a vowel: silent
- j: in most words and in loanwords from French
- k:
- l:
- m:
- n:
- p:
- pf: in all cases with some speakers; with other speakers at the beginning of words (or at the beginning of compound words' elements) and in all other cases
- ph:
- ng: usually: ; in compound words where the first element ends in "n" and the second element begins with "g": or
- qu: or in a few regions
- r: the standard German pronunciation of r varies regionally:
- before vowels, otherwise; or
- after long vowels, otherwise; or
- in all cases
- s: before and between vowels: or ; before consonants or when final: ; before p or t at the beginning of a word or syllable:
- sch:
- ss:
- ß:
- t:
- th:
- ti: in -tion, -tiär, -tial, -tiell: ; otherwise:
- tsch:
- tz: , follows short vowels
- tzsch:
- v: in foreign borrowings: ; otherwise:
- w:
- x:
- z:
- zsch:
Short vowels
Consonants are sometimes doubled in writing to indicate the preceding vowel is to be pronounced as a short vowel. One-syllable words are pronounced with long vowels, with some exceptions such as
an,
das,
es,
in,
mit, and
von. The
e in the ending
-en is often silent as in
bitten "to ask, request". The ending
-er is often pronounced , but in some regions, people say or . The
e in the ending
-el is pronounced short as in the English word
funnel in spite of the single consonant on the end. This ending occurs in words such as
Tunnel "tunnel" or
Mörtel "mortar" or in proper names such as
Fennel.
- a: as in Wasser "water"
- ä: as in Männer "men"
- e: as in Bett "bed"; unstressed as in Ochse "ox"
- i: as in Mittel "means"
- o: as in kommen "to come"
- ö: as in Göttin "goddess"
- u: as in Mutter "mother"
- ü: as in Müller "miller"
- y: as in Dystrophie "dystrophy"
Long vowels
A vowel usually has a long sound if the vowel in question occurs:
- as the final letter (except for e)
- followed by a single consonant as in bot "offered"
- before a single consonant followed by a vowel as in Wagen "car"
- doubled as in Boot "boat"
- followed by an h as in Weh "pain"
Long vowels are generally pronounced with greater
tensenessIn phonology, tenseness is a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. It has also occasionally been used to describe contrasts in consonants. Unlike most distinctive features, the feature [tense] can be interpreted only relatively, that is, in...
than short vowels.
The long vowels map as follows:
- a, ah, and aa:
- ä, äh: or
- e, eh, and ee:
- i, ie, ih, and ieh:
- o, oh, and oo:
- ö, öh:
- u and uh:
- ü and üh:
- y:
Diphthongs
- au:
- eu and äu:
- ei, ai, ey, and ay:
See also
- German alphabet
The modern German alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet consisting of 26 letters – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet:
- Rare letters :...
- German phonology
This article is about the phonology of the German language based on the standard dialect. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants .Since German is a pluricentric language, there are a number of different...
- Antiqua-Fraktur dispute
The Antiqua-Fraktur dispute was a typographical dispute in 19th- and early 20th-century Germany.In most European countries, blackletter typefaces such as the Fraktur were displaced with the creation of the Antiqua typefaces in the 15th and 16th centuries...
- Spelling
Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. It is one of the elements of orthography and a prescriptive element of alphabetic languages...
- Punctuation
Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, white space, and indentation.Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither phonemes of a language nor to lexemes , but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as...
- English spelling
- Dutch orthography
Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet according to a system which has evolved to suit the needs of the Dutch language. The regular relationship of graphemes to phonemes is listed in the article on Dutch language...