::IPA for German

Colspan::style    Center::german    Standard::english    Swiss::short    Vowels::austrian    Roughly::scottish

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents German language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.

See Standard German phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of German. For information on how to convert spelling to pronunciation, see .

Consonants DE AT CH Examples English approximation [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="fortislenis">In Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German, the lenis obstruents /b, d, ɡ, z, dʒ, ʒ/ are voiceless [b̥, d̥, ɡ̊, z̥, d̥ʒ̊, ʒ̊], and are distinguished from /p, t, k, s, tʃ, ʃ/ only by articulatory strength (/v/ is really voiced). This distinction is also retained word-finally. In German Standard German, voiceless [b̥, d̥, ɡ̊, z̥, d̥ʒ̊, ʒ̊] as well as [v̥] occur allophonically after fortis obstruents, and, in case of /b, d, ɡ/, often also word-initially. See fortis and lenis.</ref> ball [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ç]] main}} hue [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="fortislenis"/> done [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} fuss [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɡ]] main}}<ref name="fortislenis"/> guest [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} hut [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} yard [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="devoicing">In German Standard German, the voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ are devoiced to [p, t, k] at the end of a syllable.</ref> cold [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} last [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}̩]] main}} bottle [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} must [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}̩]] main}} rhythm [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} not [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}̩]] main}} suddenly [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ŋ]] main}} long [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ŋ̍]] main}} take an interest [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="devoicing" /> puck [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} cupfull [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʁ]] [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="r-allophones">Pronunciation of /r/ in German varies according to region and speaker. While older prescriptive pronunciation dictionaries allowed only [r], this pronunciation is nowadays found mainly in Switzerland, Bavaria and Austria, while in other regions the uvular pronunciation prevails, mainly as a fricative/approximant [ʁ]. In many regions except for most parts of Switzerland, the /r/ in the syllable coda is vocalized to [ɐ̯] after long vowels or after all vowels, and /ər/ is pronounced as [ɐ]</ref> DE: French rouge AT, CH: far (Scottish English) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}, Haus{{#invoke:Category handler|main}}, groß{{#invoke:Category handler|main}} fast [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʃ]] main}} shall [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="devoicing" /> tall [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}, Platz{{#invoke:Category handler|main}} cats [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʃ]] main}} match [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}<ref name="fortislenis"/> vanish [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} loch (no lock–loch merger) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}}, diese{{#invoke:Category handler|main}}<ref name="fortislenis"/> hose [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʔ]] main}}<ref>Initial vowels are usually preceded by [[[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}|ʔ]]], except in Swiss Standard German.</ref> ([bəˈʔamtət]) the glottal stops in uh-oh! Non-native consonants [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʒ]] main}}<ref name="fortislenis"/> jungle [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʒ]] main}}<ref name="fortislenis"/> pleasure Stress [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ˈ]] Bahnhofstraße{{#invoke:Category handler|main}} ([ˈbaːnhoːfˌʃtʁaːsə]) as in battleship {{#invoke:IPAc-en|main}} [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ˌ]]

Vowels DE AT CH Examples English approximation Monophthongs [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ː]] main}} father [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} art [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ː]] main}} face (Scottish English) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɛ]] main}} bet [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɛː]] main}}<ref>In Northern Germany, /ɛː/ often merges with /eː/ to [[[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}|eː]]].</ref> there (Modern RP) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ː]] main}} feel [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɪ]] main}} sit [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ː]] main}} law (RP and Australian) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɔ]] main}} lot (RP and Australian) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}øː]] main}} roughly like herd [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}œ]] main}} roughly like hurt [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ː]] main}} pool [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʊ]] main}} took [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ː]] main}} roughly like shoe [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʏ]] main}} roughly like shoe, but shorter Diphthongs [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɪ]] main}} tie [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ʊ]] main}} how ɔʏ [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɔɪ]] main}} boy Reduced vowels [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ɐ]] ər main}}<ref name="r-allophones" /> DE, AT: roughly like fun CH: butter (Scottish English) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ə]] main}} comma Semivowels ɐ̯ r main}}<ref name="r-allophones" /> DE, AT: roughly like ear CH: far (Scottish English) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}̯]] main}} yard [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}̯]] main}} would Non-native vowels<ref>[e, i, o, ø, u, y], the short versions of the long vowels [eː, iː, oː, øː, uː, yː], are used in unstressed syllables before the accented syllable and occur only in loanwords. In native words, the accent is generally on the first syllable, and there are no syllables before the accent besides prepositional prefixes. Some scholars use the symbol [ɑː] for long [aː] and add [ɑ] to the list of non-native vowels, but here [aː, a] are used instead.</ref> [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} (short [eː]) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} city (short [iː]) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} (short [oː]) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}ø]] main}} (short [øː]) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} (short [uː]) [[{{#invoke:IPA symbol|main}}]] main}} (short [yː])

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