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Pronunciation Guide
The Vowels
In Pennsylvania Dutch there are short and long vowels.
The short vowels are written and pronounced as follows:
a - like English o in hot; for example: Katz
(pronounced kots) cat.
ae - like Englsih a in hat; ex: Maetsch (pronounced
like it's English equivalent) match.
e - like the English e in bet; ex: Bett
bed, weck away
- at the end of a word (or part of a compound word), like
English a in extra; ex: laade (pronounced lawd-a)
to load .
i - like English i in kiss; ex: is is
.
o - like English ou in ought, or like English u
in duck: ex: Kopp head.
u - like English oo in foot; ex: Hund dog.
Rule 1: Vowels are generally short before two or more consonants, or before
a single final consonant; ex: Wedder weather, Appel
apple, hot has, schun already.
The long vowels are written and pronounced as follows:
aa - like English aw in saw; ex: Haas (pronounced
haws) rabbit.
ae - like English a in made; ex: Baem (pronounced
bame) trees.
e, or ee, or eh - like English a in made
; ex: lese (pronounced lace-a) to read, bees (pronounced
base) angry, fehle (pronounced faila) to lack.
ie - like English ie in believe; ex: Hiet (prounounced
heat) hats.
o, or oo, or oh - like English o in note
; ex: brode (pronounced brode-a) to fry, Boot (pronounced
like its English equivalent) boat, froh glad.
u, uu, or uh - like the English oo in mood
; ex: Schuler (pronounced shoolah) pupil, Hut (pronounced
hoot) hat, Buhn (pronounced boon) bean, Buh
boy.
Rule 2: The vowels ae, e, o and u are long
when they stand before a single consonant in the middle of a word; ex:
Maedel (pronounced maid-ul) girl, lese to read,
brode to fry, Buwe (pronounced boova) boys.
The other long vowel sounds are easily recognized by the fact that they
are either doubled or followed by an h (or both).
The Consonants
ck, f, k, l, m, n, p,
t are pronounced as in English.
b, d, g - like English b, d, g
in bad, dog, good at the beginning or in the middle
of words; ex: Buh (pronounced boo) boy, dick thick
, biede to offer, guut (pronounced goot) good
, Rege (pronounced raya) rain. When g stands in the
middle of a word it usually has a very soft sound, so that Rege sounds
more like raya.
- like English p, t
, k when they come at the end of words; ex: hab (pronounced
hop) have, Hund (pronounced hoont) dog, Weg (pronounced
vake) road.
pp, dd - when in the middle of a word, these sound softer,
almost like pp and tt; ex: Appel apple, Wedder
weather.
gg - in the middle of a word, this combination has a soft pronunciation
so that often hardly any sound is heard; ex: Wagge (pronounced va-ga,
sounds more like va-a) wagon.
h - like English h in horse at the beginning of words;
ex: heem (pronounced hame) home.
- silent in the middle or at the end of words; here it merely
indicates that the preceding vowel is long; ex: drehe (pronounced
dray-a) to turn, sehne (pronounced sane-a) to see,
froh, glad.
ch - has two sounds:
1. after the vowel sounds ae, ee, ie
, e, i, and ei, it has the so-called ich-sound.
This is the sound of ch in words like: raeche to avenge
, reeche to reach, rieche to smell, Blech
tincup, sich himself, reich rich.
2. after the vowel sounds aa, oo, uu
, a, o, u, and au, it has a deeper sound, farther
back in the throat. This is the so-called ach-sound of ch. This
is the sound of ch in words like: Raache revenge,
nooch after, Buche beech, Dach roof
, Loch hole, Buch book, Bauch belly
.
chs - like English x in fix; ex: nichs or nix
(pronounced nix) nothing.
bh - like English p in put; ex: bhalde (pronounced
palda) to keep.
gh - like English k in kill; ex: ghat(t) (prounced
kot) had.
ng - always like English ng in singer (never as in
finger); ex: lang long, Ring ring,
Finger finger.
r (or rr) - like the English r in rose, but
trilled or flapped once. This sound of r is used at the beginning of
words and between vowels; ex: rund round, breche
to break, Diere doors.
- after the short vowel a and immediately before
a consonant, the r is not pronounced; ex: hatt (pronounced hot)
hard.
- after any other vowel and immediately prepreceding
a consonant, the r sounds like the English vowel a in father; ex:
aerscht (pronounced air-ah-sht) first.
- at the end of words and in the combination -er
at the end of words (or parts of compounds), the r has this same
ah-sound; ex: gaar (pronounced gaw-ah) at all, vier
(pronounced fee-ah) four, Wedder (pronounced ved-ah) weather
, der (pronounced dah) the, er (pronounced ah) he
.
s - always a hissing sound, like English ss in miss
(never in rose); ex: sell that, lese to read
, hees hot.
sch - like English sh in shoe; ex: Schul
school, bischt are.
tsch - like English ch in church; ex: tschumbe
to jump.
v - like English f in fish; ex: viel (pronounced
feel) much.
w - like English v in vote; ex: wann (pronounced
von) when.
x - like English x in fix; ex: Hex witch
, fixe to fix, nix nothing.
y - always a consonant, like English y in yet; ex:
Yaahr year.
z - like English ts in hats; ex: zehe (pronounced
tsaya) ten, katz (pronounced kots) short. In the middle
of words (and often at the end), this sound is represented by tz; ex:
butze to clean, Blatz place.
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