A touch of frost

[Lesley Cox]

But Thomas, please tell a totally non-literate (in German) girl, how to PRONOUNCE these Umlaute. And how should she pronounce THAT word as well?

[Thomas Huber]

Very easy, Lesley:

Ü is pronounced = Ü
Ö is pronounced = Ö
Ä is pronounced = Ä
You got it 

I think we will better clarify that on our next phone call!



Great photos, Olga! Last night first frost came to Germany, too, but no snow so far.
Is that you in the white dress on the first photo?

[Anthony Darby]

Ü is pronounced  “ewe” without the “y” (as opposed to “oo”)
Ö is pronounced “er” without the rolled “r” (as opposed to “o” as in hot)
Ä is pronounced “ay” (as opposed to “a” as in cat)

[Thomas Huber]

Anthony, you're right with the "a" in cat.
But the others are different, if I understand you correctly.
Sorry, I don't know any English word which I could use
for explaining how to pronounce these German letters 

Maggi - you have lived in Germany for some years, can you help?

[Maggi Young]

Thomas, if you could only hear me, sitting here alone, making noises to myself to see if I can work out a way to explain them in english!!

I'll need to work on this one, or perhaps you could send me Lesley's phone number and we can both coach her?


Oops, forgot to do the easy bit: umlaut = oomlout

[Maggi Young]

Anthony is very close, really, but I can see why Thomas has doubts.  These are delicate matters, not simple to attend to in a written form! For instance, on further thought, perhaps showing oommlowt for umlaut is closer.  I would say for  Ä,  "ay" as in table, (which we say as taybul)
Ü : let's try for "ew" as in pew  or Anthony's ewe, but more breathy, as though one were trying to whistle but only a breathy ew type ooh came out! I think of it as "eu !! A bit like the eu in feu, in French.
Ö is a tricky one, while Anthony's "er" is that usually given, there is again a distinct extra dimension to it!!
It can be err but with a suggestion of the noise one would make if given a poke in the tum i.e. Huh, without the first h... uuhh!
Now, have I made myself clear? Thought not!

[Anthony Darby]

Reminds me of a Gaelic class, which descended into chaos because there were two teachers: one from Lewis and one from Harris.....! As a chorister we have to get our tongues around French, German and Latin etc. We've even had to learn some Welsh! It is very difficult to write down pronunciations. Fortunately we have a native German and two modern linguists in the choir(s), but Latin causes problems (no Romans in the choir), especially as I prefer the Italianate consonents. At least there are only five vowel sounds!

[David Shaw]

I was taught to treat the umlaut as a heavy weight over the letter so you should imagine the sound being squashed.
Good job there is no umlaut in bier or I would have been thirsty.

[Maggi Young]

Quite so, Anthony, as Ian often complains when struggling with a latin name, there's never a roman about when you need one. There's the odd remain, lying around, but that's not a lot of help, is it?

[annew]

Thomas seems to have forgotten about the possum hat....

[Thomas Huber]

Nooo, I havn't forgotten - but I hoped you have 
I still need someone who will photograph me with Lesley's cap!

[Maggi Young]

Thomas, an elephant never forgets, and neither do I! No excuses, now, Tania can make the photo, or Chris or even little Celine!

[Thomas Huber]

OK, I will ask them.... oooopss its dark now outside 
Maybe tomorrow

[Lesley Cox]

My thanks to everyone for pronunciation help. I am just about as confused as ever. I think Maggi's are best but can't you just see THOSE explanations in a German/English dictionary? And what about schadenfreude? I've seen this word many times lately. What does it mean please? The context hasn't made it quite clear. Not that I want the thread to develope into a lesson in German.

[Lesley Cox]

And one of Celine in slippers too please Thomas, though I thought they may have been a little big for her. But she will grow into them and those sheep are beyond growing now.