Phonetic features of the German language

The phonetics of the German language is an order of magnitude easier than the phonetics of English or French. But it still has its own differences, ignorance of which can lead to incorrect pronunciation. What are the phonetic features of the German language?

There are two unconditional rules that anyone who studies German should know.

Rule one: all the muscles of the articulatory apparatus, namely: the palate, tongue, cheeks, chin, should be completely relaxed. If you begin to strain your muscles, then German sounds will immediately begin to turn into English.

The second rule: the tongue should be in a relaxed state and be near the lower row of teeth and only perform active actions during pronunciation. After pronunciation, the tongue should return to its place.

Phonetics touched both vowels and consonants, and there are differences.

In the phonetic system of the German language there are both single and dual vowel sounds. They are called monophthongs and diphthongs, respectively.

The phonetic features of the German language also imply the division of vowels into corresponding pairs. Such pairs are divided by longitude-brevity and by articulation characteristics. There are vowels of lower, upper, and middle rise. As well as rounded and unbroken vowels, they are also called labialized and non-labialized. Labialized vowels are more sonorous than non-labialized vowels.

The phonetic features of the German language also affected consonants. There are simple consonants and dual consonants, the latter are called affricates. In the German language there are no soft consonants at all, and the differences are not in softness-hardness, but in degree of sonorousness.

The voiced consonants are clearly inferior to the Russian consonants. If the consonant immediately stands behind the short vowel, then it is pronounced more intensively and for a longer time than the consonants following long vowels. If the consonant sound is at the beginning of a word, then it is muffled, but if at the end, then, on the contrary, it is stunned. If double consonants are found in written speech, they are always pronounced as one sound and indicate the brevity of the previous vowel sound.

Of course, this is only a small part of the basic rules of phonetics of the German language. If you correctly and clearly understand all the rules, then pronunciation and communication in this language will not be difficult. Many believe that the German language is quite easy to learn. "As we see, we read." This is partly true, but to know the phonetic features of the German language is simply necessary. Otherwise, to achieve the correct pronunciation is almost impossible.