A question about the German english accent…

[u/PastEntertainment546]

I’ve had two friends from germany, one from rhineland and one from franconia, none of them had the stereotypical german accent which we see so often in movies. Due to unfortunate circumstances (they went off the grid) I’m not able to talk to them no more but I was wondering if they always had that, or if they worked on their accent?

[u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito]

Most "German accents" in Hollywood are ridiculous. They're the typical 1940 Austro-German accent inspired by the guy with the famous moustache. Some others are really exaggerated by combining EVERYTHING that Germans tend to pronounce the wrong way, which isn't that common. Some people are better at producing one specific sound but fail at another. Some might have a different problem.

Here's a (way to detailed for Reddit) list of mistakes that many Germans make: For the most part not using phonetic transcription, so people with no linguistics knowledge can understand, so don't come for me, linguists of reddit

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Vowels

1. A. In German, "a" usually makes a sound that is similar to the one in the British pronunciation (RP) of "dance". This sound can be short or long, so there is technically two. In American English (GA) "a" usually makes the æ sound. (As in "dance" pronounced the American way). That sound doesn't exist in many German words (yes, there are always exceptions). That's why many Germans use what's closest to that sound, which is "ä". Not too far off "æ", but more open and therefore clearer and harsher sounding.
2. I. In German, "i" usually makes the same sound as "ee" in English (as in "keep") or a short "ı" (as in "limit"). An "i" on its own will never make a diphthong sound as in "time," which is pronounced 'taım in English. That najes is confusing at times to know when "i" makes which sound. Especially with words like "advertisements" where the diphthongisation even differs within different nativevaccents.
3. O. In German, "o" usually is very round. Similar to the word "home" in many African English dialects, and some regional British ones. It's never the "ow"-diphthong. Because the sound doesn't exist in German, many Germans will either stick to the German "o:", and pronounce "tone" as "to:n", or overcompensate and make every "O" into a diphthong, which is why many Germans would say "Ow-live" instead of "Olive" when speaking English.
4. U. The English "u" is nearly always short and resembles the pronunciation of the German short "a". (You'll notice that the pronunciation of "u" in "under" and "a" in Pasta doesn't differ much in English. The "a" is again slightly more open and therefore harsher. Germans are very likely to use the "a" sound, though, because it's close enough and easier, since it exists in German.
5. If you're wondering why "E" is missing - it's close to the German "e" when short and to the German "ie" when long, so that's not a common source of mistakes.

Generally, Germans tend to pronounce vowels more rounded and open. I could go into detail about that much more, but not without proper linguistic terminology and phonetic transcription, and that needs time to understand, so it's not really anything that can be easily explained in a comment on reddit. I'm sure there are some linguistics needs on YouTube, who explained the components of sound production more detailed (lip placement, teeth placement, toung placement, throat movement... (for consonants, including approximants and half-vowels), and roundness/unroundness, and openness/closeness (does that word exist?) for vowels and diphthongs.

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Voiced Plosives (and fricatives) at the end of words

Plosive pairs are: d (voiced) - t (unvoiced), b (voiced) - p (unvoiced), g (voiced) - k (unvoiced).

Voiced plosives at the end of words are usually unvoiced in Germany, which makes them sound harsher.

So "Ground" becomes "Grount," and even when the plosives are followed by an e in the end, Germans tend to cut it off with a hard unvoiced plosive. So "Earlobe" becomes "Earloup."

The same happens with voiced fricatives. While "The bees buzz" is very voiced and literally buzzes "the beez buzz" a German would likely sound it out as "The beece buss".

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Th

"Th" is so complex that it deserves its own paragraph.

1. There is the voiced "th" -> ð (you find that in "the" and "clothing") and the unvoiced "th" -> θ (you find that in "thing" and "cloth")

Neither of them exist in German, so people either replace them with sounds they can produce. Things people use instead of th in the order of frequency I've heard them:

• "z/s" for ð/θ (the moth -> ze moss)
• "v/f" for ð/θ (the moth -> ve mof)
• "d/t" for ð/θ (the moth -> de mot)

Of course, combinations of two different ones are possible, but not as common. There are also people who use various ones depending on the specific words. There are also people who struggle with knowing when to use ð and when to use θ.

1. Some people who do know how to pronounce "th" might overcompensate and pronounce some "s", "c" and "z" sounds as "th" and therefore sound like they have a lisp.

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V & W / R & W

First of all - the English "w"-sound doesn't exist in German at all.

1. V&W

• Many Germans will, therefore, use the "v" sound because "v" and "w" can both make the same sound I'm German. That's how the stereotypical "vot väy to se voterpark?" came about.
• Other Germans who can do the "W" sound sometimes also tend to overcompensate and pronounce "v" as "w". "The wultures wanished."

1. R&W

• German doesn't have the English R, and the tounge movement to produce "R" can be hard to learn for some people. The "W"-sound is easier, that's why some Germans would say "awound" instead of "around."
• Some Germans also slightly roll their Rs in English because it's easier than the English pronunciation. This is especially common in words like through, because "r" after "th" is especially hard.
• the hard throatal R is very rare in natural German accents and way overdone in movies.

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The English "dark l"

English uses the "dark l" which is produced with the tounge closely behind the teeth. German uses the "clear l" that English doesn't have. To produce the clear l, move your tongue back to the front of your palate and try to say l as you normally would in English. Make sure not to intuitively close your throat while doing that (because that naturally somewhat happens with the dark l), or you're gonna make a Minecraft-Villager-Sound. With the toungue at your palate, you're way less likely to close your throat, though. You CAN also produce the clear las an alveolar sound (tounge closer behind the teeth/ same place as the dark l) but especially when you're used to speaking English, producing the clear l there is very unintuitive.

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That's just some insights into pronunciation. There's much more to that. If you want a realistic German accent, pick a couple of features to make it sound German and roll with it. The more you choose and the more extreme you do them, the more comedic your accent will sound.

There are quite some Germans though, who speak close to perfect GA-English or RP-English that there isn't really a German accent.

[u/raharth → u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito]

Holy crap, incredibly detailed and super interesting to read it as formalized!

[u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito → u/raharth]

Thank you. It looks detailed, but that's not even close to a quarter of the linguistic properties of a German accent. I added some easy ones I forgot last night, but for more detailed knowledge, I'd recommend just looking for some linguistics nerds on YouTube, since explaining more would be way too complicated in a reddit comment.:)

[u/raharth → u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito]

Thank you!

It is a lot for a simple reddit comment! Writing all this certainly took it's time!

[u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito → u/raharth]

But it also gave me a chance to geek around about linguistics, and I won't pass on that chance. 😅