Help:IPA/Standard German

The charts below show the way International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Standard German language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Standard German phonology and German orthography § Grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences for a more thorough look at the sounds of German.

Consonants
DE	AT	CH	Examples	English approximation
b			bei;^[1] ab (AT, CH)^[2]	ball
	c		China, Leipzig (AT, CH)	cute
ç			ich, durch;^[3] China, Leipzig (DE)	hue
d			dann; Kleid (AT, CH)^[2]	done
f			für, von, Phänomen	fuss
ɡ			gut; Tag (AT, CH)^[2]	guest
h			hat	hut
j			Jahr, Yo-Yo	yard
k			kann, cremen, sechs; Tag (DE)^[2]	cold
l			Leben	last
l̩			Mantel	bottle
m			Mann	must
m̩			großem	rhythm
n			Name	not
n̩			beiden	sudden
ŋ			lang	long
p			Person, ab (DE)^[2]	puck
pf			Pfeffer	cupful
ʁ	r		reden^[4]	DE: French rouge AT, CH: Scottish red
s			lassen, groß, Haus	fast
ʃ			schon, Stadt, spitz, Champagner, Ski	shall
t			Tag, Stadt; Kleid (DE)^[2]	tall
ts			Zeit, Platz, Potsdam, Celle	cats
tʃ			Matsch, Cello	match
v			was, Vase^[1]	vanish
x			nach^[3]	Scottish loch
z	s		Sie, diese^[1]	DE: zebra AT, CH: soup
ʔ			beamtet [bəˈʔamtət]^[5]	uh-oh!
Non-native consonants
dʒ			Dschungel, Pidgin^[1]^[6]	jungle
ð			Motherboard^[7]	this
ɹ			Spray^[8]	rice
θ			Thatcherismus^[7]	think
w			Web, Whiskey, Squash^[9]	web
ʒ			Genie, Entourage^[1]^[6]	pleasure
Stress
ˈ			Bahnhofstraße [ˈbaːnhoːfˌʃtʁaːsə]	battleship /ˈbætəlˌʃɪp/
ˌ			Bahnhofstraße [ˈbaːnhoːfˌʃtʁaːsə]	battleship /ˈbætəlˌʃɪp/
Syllable break
.			Ephraim [ˈeːfra.ɪm]	flower /ˈflaʊ.ər/ (contrasting with flour /ˈflaʊər/)

Vowels
DE	AT	CH	Examples	English approximation
Monophthongs
a			alles, Kalender	father, but short
aː			aber, sah, Staat	father
ɛ			Ende, hätte	bet
ɛː			spät, wählen^[10]	RP hair
eː			eben, gehen, Meer	mate
ɪ			ist	sit
iː			liebe, Berlin, ihm	seed
ɔ			kommen	off
oː			oder, hohe, Boot	story
œ			öffnen	somewhat like hurt; RP ugh
øː			Österreich, Möhre, adieu	somewhat like heard
ʊ			und	pull
uː			Hut, Kuh	tool
ʏ			müssen, Ypsilon	somewhat like cute
yː			über, Mühe, psychisch	somewhat like few
Diphthongs
aɪ			ein, Kaiser, Haydn, Verleih, Speyer	high
aʊ			auf	vow
ɔʏ			Euro, Häuser	choice
Reduced vowels
ɐ		ər	immer^[4]	DE, AT: frustration CH: Scottish letter^[11]
ə	ɛ		Name	DE: balance (but not sofa)^[11] AT, CH: GA accent
Semivowels
ɐ̯		r	Uhr^[4]	DE, AT: sofa CH: Scottish far
i̯			Studie, Italien	yard
o̯			Pointe^[12]	quite
u̯			Linguist, Gouache^[12]	would
y̑			Etui^[12]	somewhat like evaluation
Non-native vowels
ãː			Gourmand, Engagement, Restaurant, Chance^[13]	French Provence
ɛ̃ː			Pointe^[13]	French quinze
ɛɪ			Mail^[14]	face
õː			Garçon^[13]	French Le Monde
ɔː			stalken, Motherboard^[15]	dog
ɔʊ			Code^[14]	American goat
œ̃ː			Parfum^[13]	French emprunte
œːɐ̯		øːr	surfen, Gouverneur^[16]	roughly like RP bird
Shortened vowels
ã			engagieren^[13]	French chanson
ɛ̃			impair^[13]	French vingt-et-un
e			Element^[17]	roughly like dress
i			Italien^[17]	seat
o			originell^[17]	story, but short
õ			foncé^[13]	French Mont Blanc
œ̃			Lundist^[13]	French vingt-et-un
ø			Ökonom^[17]	roughly like hurt
u			Universität, Souvenir^[17]	truth
y			Psychologie^[17]	like meet, but with the lips rounded

Citations

General and cited references

Hall, Christopher (2003) [First published 1992], Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English (2nd ed.), Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-6689-1
Krech, Eva Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (2009), Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch, Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-018202-6
Mangold, Max (2005), Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.), Duden, ISBN 978-3411040667

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Citations

General and cited references