German Language Question?

Question

My question deals with the pronunciation of "ch" at the end of a couple of words. Two words as examples: "Ich" and "Nicht." Now...I've heard these two pronounced as "Ish" and "Nisht" As well as "Ick" and "Nickt" (Which is the way I'm being taught [like a throat-clearing type sound]) I'm wondering though...is one way correct? Or does the pronunciation change depending on where in Germany you are? Or is it something else...

Answer 1

I agree with Mimarspre, as far as the phonological background goes. That does not, however, help a native speaker of English pronounce either the "ich" or the "ach" sound. I usually encourage my English speaking students of German tp pretend being Scottish for the "ach" sound, because that';s the one you need in Scottish "loch" or "och aye"! The "ich" sound is very similar to the initial sound of (British) English "humour" or "human". It's just that this sound noirmally does not appear in final position in English (nor does it in initial position in German, hence the many different regional pronunciations of "Chemie" in German). So if you try combining "ich" and "human", you get the sound. Now chop off the "-youman" bit and Bob's your uncle!

Answer 2

pronouncing it like sh or k is dialect, if you say it like that and you are not from the area where they speak like that, you will just sound like a total beginner in the language. There were quite a few people in my elementary german class that used sh or k, but no one in my advanced classes.

There are only two standard ways to pronounce it at the end of words, after a, o, u it is pronounced like the ch in the scottish word loch. after i and e and with ig it is like the h in huge.

Answer 3

There are different dialects , northern, southern, and so on. Also there is feminen, and masculen ways , and there's the case of how well you know the person whom you are speaking to, whether they are an adult, child, or friend. Ch can be spoken with the hard k or the soft sh. City is normally the softer and out in the country normally the hard version. Same order goes for north and south.

Answer 4

they're both right, depending on where you are. I always just pronounce it somewhere in between those 2 to be on the safe side. not quite "ish" and not quite "ick" =)

Answer 5

well, both are correct.
pronunciation "Ish" / "Nisht" is more correct. pronunciation "Ick" and "Nickt" sounds as Berlin dialact to me. nobody else (speaking 'bout Germany) do this except Berlin sub-dialect speakers.

Answer 6

I recommend an English/German dictionary.
You can hear the words as well.
Click the little speaker.

http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/

Answer 7

Ich-Laut and ach-Laut

The term ich-Laut refers to the voiceless palatal fricative [ç], the term ach-Laut to the voiceless velar fricative [x]. In German, these two sounds are allophones occurring in complementary distribution. The allophone [x] occurs after back vowels and /a aː/ (for instance in Buch [buːx] ‘book’), the allophone [ç] after front vowels (for instance in ich [ɪç] ‘I’) and consonants (for instance in Furcht [fʊrçt] ‘fear’) (Kohler 1977, 1990; Wiese 1996: 210).

In the onset of stressed syllables (loanwords only), the pronunciation varies: In the Northern varieties of standard German, it is [ç], in Southern varieties, it is [kʰ] (for instance in China: [ˈçiːna] vs. [ˈkʰiːna]).

The diminutive suffix -chen is always pronounced with an ich-Laut [-çən]. Usually, this ending triggers umlaut (compare for instance Hund 'dog' to Hündchen ‘little dog’), so theoretically, it could only occur after front vowels. However, in some comparatively recent coinings, there is no longer an umlaut, for instance in the word Frauchen [ˈfra͡ʊçən] ‘female dog master’ (a diminutive of Frau ‘woman’), so that a back vowel is followed by [ç], even though normally it would be followed by a [x], as in rauchen [ˈraʊxən] ‘to smoke’. There is even a minimal pair for [ç] and [x] due to this effect: [kuːçən] Kuhchen ‘little cow’ vs. [kuːxən] Kuchen ‘cake’. Some explain this contradiction to the allophonic distribution as a morphemic boundary effect. However, many phoneticians believe that this is an example of phonemicization, where erstwhile allophones undergo a split into separate phonemes.

An allophonic distribution of [ç] after front vowels and [x] after other vowels is a common one, and can be heard also in Scots, in the pronunciation of light. However, it is by no means inevitable: Dutch, many Southern German dialects, as well as Yiddish, which comes from one of them, retain [x] in all positions. It is thus reasonable to assume that Old High German ih, the ancestor of modern ich, was pronounced with [x] rather than [ç]. And while it is impossible to know for certain whether Old English words such as niht (modern night) were pronounced with [x] or [ç], [ç] is likely (see Old English phonology#Consonant allophones).

Despite the phonetic history, the complementary distribution of [ç] and [x] in modern Standard German is better described as backing of /ç/ after a back vowel, rather than fronting of /x/ after a front vowel, because [ç] is considered basic as in an onset (Chemie [çemiː]) and after a consonant (Molch [mɔlç]).

According to certain analysis, the German ach-Laut is further differentiated into two allophones, [x] and [χ]. Some say that [x] occurs after /uː oː/ (for instance in Buch [buːx] ‘book’) and [χ] after /ʊ ɔ a aː a͡ʊ/ (for instance in Bach [baχ] ‘brook’), others say that [x] occurs after /uː oː ʊ ɔ a͡ʊ/ and [χ] after /a aː/.