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.

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Standard German on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Standard German in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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

More information Consonants, DEU ...

Consonants
DEU	AUT	CH	Examples	English approximation
b			bei;^[1] ab (AT, CH)^[2]	ball
ç			ich, durch;^[3] China, Leipzig (DE)	hue
d			dann; Kleid (AT, CH)^[2]	done
f			für, von, Phänomen	fuss
ɡ			gut; Tag, Leipzig (AT, CH)^[2]	guest
h			hat	hut
j			Jahr, Yak	yard
k			kann, cremen, sechs, bequem; Tag (DE);^[2] China (AT, CH)	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, fließen, Fest	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, Quelle, Vase^[1]	vanish
x			nach^[3]	Scottish loch
z	s	z	Sie, diese^[1]	DE, CH: zebra AT: soup
ʔ			beamtet [bəˈʔamtət]^[5]	uh-oh!
Non-native consonants
ð			Motherboard^[6]	this
dʒ			Dschungel, Pidgin^[1]^[7]	jungle
θ			Thatcherismus^[6]	think
ɹ			Spray^[8]	rice
w			Web, Whiskey, Squash^[9]	web
ʒ			Genie, Entourage^[1]^[7]	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
DEU	AUT	CH	Examples	English approximation
Monophthongs
a			alles, Kalender	pasta
aː			aber, sah, Staat	father
ɛ			Ende, hätte	bet
ɛː			spät, wählen^[10]	RP hair
eː			eben, gehen, See	Scottish mate
ɪ			ist	sit
iː			Liebe, Berlin, ihm	seed
oː			oder, hohe, Boot	story
ɔ			kommen	off
øː			Österreich, Möhre, adieu	somewhat like heard
œ			öffnen	somewhat like hurt; RP ugh
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: bet^[12]
Semivowels
ɐ̯		r	Uhr^[4]	DE, AT: sofa CH: Scottish far
i̯			Studie, Italien	yard
o̯			Pointe^[13]	quite
u̯			Linguist, Gouache^[13]	would
y̑			Etui^[13]	somewhat like evaluation
Shortened vowels
e			Element^[14]	roughly like dress
i			Italien^[14]	seat
o			originell^[14]	story, but short
ø			Ökonomie^[14]	roughly like hurt
u			Universität, Souvenir^[14]	cesspool
y			Psychologie^[14]	like meet, but with the lips rounded
Non-native vowels
ãː			Gourmand, Engagement, Restaurant, Chance^[15]	French Provence
ɛ̃ː			Pointe^[15]	French quinze
ɛɪ			Mail^[16]	face
õː			Garçon^[15]	French Le Monde
ɔː			stalken, Motherboard^[17]	dog
ɔʊ			Code^[16]	goal
œ̃ː			Parfum^[15]	French emprunte
œːɐ̯		øːr	surfen, Flirt^[18]	roughly like RP bird
Shortened vowels (Non-native vowels)
ã			engagieren^[15]	French chanson
ɛ̃			impair^[15]	French vingt-et-un
õ			foncé^[15]	French Mont Blanc
œ̃			Lundist^[15]	French vingt-et-un

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