Merry Christmas in German

[ATI_7500]

Das ist doch v

[Hagar]

I know very little German, except for a few basic words & phrases I learned before a school visit to Austria more years ago than I care to remember. I do recall that Austrian German is sometimes very different to that spoken in Germany itself. I assume that it would also vary in different areas of the country, much like the large number of regional dialects & accents in the UK. For example; a Geordie pronounces words very differently to a Cockney. I find the Geordie dialect very difficult to understand myself so I don't know how a complete stranger would cope.

I've read through this thread carefully several times & apart from gn85's brave attempt I still have no idea of the correct pronunciation of Frohe Weihnachten.

[Woodlouse2002]

Just say it as it's spelt, with a strong german accent and in an aggresive tone of voice.

(As a friend once told me, "German used to be a great language intill Hitler came along and made saying 'good morning' sound like a declaration of war...")

[Hagar]

That's all very well Woody but it isn't that helpful. Take the "ei" in Weihnachten. I can think of at least 3 different ways of pronouncing that depending on where you're from. Ee as in wee, aye as in eye & ay as in hay.

I doubt that you're old enough to remember the words of the old song,

You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither
Either, either Neither, neither
Let's call the whole thing off.

You like potato and I like potahto
You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto.
Let's call the whole thing off

[Woodlouse2002]

Your not taking what i'm saying literally enough. Forget regional accents and all that rubbish. It is literally spoken as it's spelt.

[Hagar]

Your not taking what i'm saying literally enough. Forget regional accents and all that rubbish. It is literally spoken as it's spelt.

And you're missing my point. It's quite likely that I would pronounce it differently to you.

After all this I still have no idea how it would be pronounced in Germany even supposing there is only one way of pronouncing it, which is by no means certain. LOL

[Felix/FFDS]

Your not taking what i'm saying literally enough. Forget regional accents and all that rubbish. It is literally spoken as it's spelt.

And that's why I could teach a German speaker some Spanish easier than I could to an English-only person.

With few exceptions, Spanish also is spoken as written ...

[gn85]

[quote]Das ist doch v

[Woodlouse2002]

He's our local german guy. We keep him in a cupboard intill someone has some german that needs translating or something and voila, out he pops, does the work and then back into the cupboard.

[Hagar]

I'm sure you're not the only person who has lived or does live in Germany and has knowledge of both languages and can even defeat the accent barrier.

All ARFFguy20 wanted was for someone to help him pronounce Frohe Weihnachten correctly. So far nobody seems to have done that. If you're German perhaps you can spell it out here phonetically so we can put this to rest.

[gn85]

Your not taking what i'm saying literally enough. Forget regional accents and all that rubbish. It is literally spoken as it's spelt.

I agree fully with what you say about German.  There are odd variations that different regions throw in, but if you were to speak to a German teacher and ask THE correct pronounciation, you should get the same answer back EVERY time.  Learning German phonetics will enable you to pronounce German words.  The one other possible problem you can have with pronouncing German words is the fact that German words tend to be very long compound words.  Knowing where the breaks are in these words and where to stress and relax can cause some difficulty.

Example.  Volkswagen.  That is two words.  Volks = people; wagen = car.  Most of us know how to say this already so it's not a problem to determine where the breaks are.  Yet, if you take a word like 'geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungshuegel'.  It takes a little bit of understanding to break that one up.  BTW, that's the word for a 'speed bump'.  

Anyways, we're all being armchair linguists.  

To the original person who asked... if you still need help.  Feel free to ask for further assistance.

[gn85]

[quote]Fro - as in 'Afro'
Ha - as in 'ha ha ha'
Vie - as in 'vitamin'
knock - as in 'knock knock'
ten - as in 'ten'

If you can work on making a German accent, it will come a bit more 'real'.

[Hagar]

[quote]I tried, I even gave a website to help with this.

[ATI_7500]

(As a friend once told me, "German used to be a great language intill Hitler came along and made saying 'good morning' sound like a declaration of war...")

It actually is...I'll attack everyone who says this to me on a bad day.

[gn85]

Oops Sorry. I didn't realise that it was you who posted that before. If that's not correct we're back to square one.

If you check out the website, select German and try the ladies voice, it's not PERFECT.. but it's close enough for government work.

I figured that'd be a decent resource for hearing it over the net.  Yes, that's correct.