# Standard German phonology

The **phonology of Standard German** is the standard pronunciation or accent of the German language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof as well as the geographical variants and the influence of German dialects.

## Vowels

Monophthongs of standard German, from Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015)
### Single vowels

Monophthong phonemes of Standard German|  | Front | Central | Back |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| unrounded | rounded |
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long |
| Close | ɪ | iː | ʏ | yː |  | ʊ | uː |
| Close-mid |  | eː |  | øː | (ə) |  |  | oː |
| Open-mid | ɛ | (ɛː) | œ |  | (ɐ) |  | ɔ |  |
| Open |  |  | a | aː |  |

### Vowel combos

Diphthongs of standard German, from Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015)

|  | Ending point |
| --- | --- |
| Front | Back |
| Open-mid | ɔʏ̯ |  |
| Open | aɪ̯ | aʊ̯ |

## Consonants

German has 25 phonemes, which is average among other languages. One of its more unique sounds is the unusual affricate /p͡f/.

|  | Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar/ Uvular | Glottal |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nasal | m | n |  | ŋ |  |
| Plosive | fortis | p | t |  | k | (ʔ) |
| lenis | b | d |  | ɡ |  |
| Affricate | fortis | p͡f | t͡s | t͡ʃ |  |  |
| lenis |  |  | (d͡ʒ) |  |  |
| Fricative | sibilant | fortis |  | s | ʃ |  |  |
| lenis |  | z | (ʒ) |  |  |
| non-sibilant | fortis | f | (θ) | ç | x | h |
| lenis | v | (ð) | j |  |  |
| Lateral |  | l |  |  |  |
| Rhotic |  | r |  |

### *Ich-Laut* and *ach-Laut*

'*Ich-Laut*' is the voiceless palatal fricative [ç] (found in the word *ich* [ʔɪç] 'I'), and ach-Laut is the voiceless velar fricative [x] (as in *ach* [ax] the interjection 'oh', 'alas'). *Laut* [laʊ̯t] is the German word for 'sound, phone'.

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 *mich* [mɪç] 'me/myself') and consonants (for instance in *Furcht* [fʊʁçt] 'fear', *manchmal* [ˈmançmaːl] 'sometimes'). (This happens most regularly: if the ⟨r⟩ in *Furcht* is pronounced as a consonant, *ch* represents [ç]; however if, as often happens, it is vocalized as [ɐ], resembling the vowel [a], then ⟨ch⟩ may represent [x], yielding [fʊɐ̯xt].)

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## Other websites

* Listen to the pronunciation of German first names