German accent
by Volker Weber
The reason why Germans mix up V and W is that the sound in English that is pronounced as W does not exist as a systemically defined entity in German (systemativcally defined entity = what we call a phoneme). The area of pronunciation where you find W is not used for making sense in German, but may occur as a possible pronunciation of the sound V (written W) in German, so Germans struggling with making a difference between spoken V and W tend to mix them up.
On the other hand this explains why very few English speaking people who know me will pronounce my name correctly. Bob, Ed, John and Vesey, I am not talking about you. :-)
The German language has the letters V and W. They are pronounced like English F and V respectively.
Here is a hint: Say "Folker Vayber" and you got it right.
[More >]
Comments
This is good to know. I just recently put a pronunciation guide for my name on my blog as well. Handy to know before the blogger get togethers at Lotusphere.
Which of course means that my car is a Fau Vay, which happen to be your initials, too.
Which is the reason, I created "vowe" when I was a teen. VW was taken. :-) And "vowe" does not sound as many people think, but I don't really care since it is not my name.
Well, that explains why so many Germans say EmmTeeWee instead of just MTV ;-)
hi
im playing a german in the year 12 production
im of an english speaking background & i am having heaps of trouble getting the accent right, i sound stupid when i try
is there anything i can do to help me
thnx
Hi! ^^
I'm an american student, studying german. I have very few issues with pronounciation of german words,(shockingly, a german coming over for the Bayer Corp. thought I was german O_o) but its attempting a german accent in english that gives me issues.
I was pretending to be a german foriegn exchange student for this thing a had to do for school, and I've had a bit of trouble with keeping the accent. Any suggestions? I can't fall into my pittsburgh-eeze drawl whilst trying to sound german.
Post a comment
Recent comments
Daniel Haferkorn
on Interview goes bad. Or just honest. at 20:44
ursus schneider
on Interview goes bad. Or just honest. at 19:50
Thomas Cloer
on Tame your Time Machine at 18:51
Volker Weber
on Tame your Time Machine at 17:36
Frank Mueller
on Tame your Time Machine at 17:33
Pieterjan Lansbergen
on Tame your Time Machine at 17:02
Samuel Orsenne
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 15:52
Johannes Matzke
on Interview goes bad. Or just honest. at 13:47
Volker Weber
on Sonos gear at 50% off at 13:44
Volker Weber
on Aqua Alta Surfing - quite a PR stunt for Red Bull at 13:35
Volker Weber
on BlackBerry Storm too nervous at 13:33
David Justen
on Aqua Alta Surfing - quite a PR stunt for Red Bull at 13:26
Volker Weber
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 10:35
Samuel Orsenne
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 10:18
Glen Salmon
on Sonos gear at 50% off at 04:34
Bill Buchan
on Aqua Alta Surfing - quite a PR stunt for Red Bull at 23:20
Torsten Otto
on Sonos gear at 50% off at 21:57
Peter de Haas
on Windows blues at 21:26
Hajo Schmitt
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 20:14
Hajo Schmitt
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 20:07
Volker Weber
on Windows blues at 19:54
Peter de Haas
on Windows blues at 19:47
Volker Weber
on Nokia advertises Lotus Notes Traveler at 19:43
Volker Weber
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 19:35
Goetz Goerisch
on New hardware coming up at vowe's magic flying circus at 19:09
Click here to subscribe
