Reply 220 of 222, by Jo22
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WolverineDK wrote on 2021-09-04, 17:49:I mean Doornkat did mention, you could use "u and e" instead of just u. The famous musician Chris Hülsbeck is also known as Chris Huelsbeck. After all, it is not rocket science. It is the pronunciation, that is the hard part. Not the word.
That reminds me of something!
The "üÜ" seems to be the hardest or strangest umlaut for non-native / English speakers.
Instead of "über", English people say "uber", for example.
Which sounds like the name of a car sharing company. 😉
The "äÄ" is audible in English words such as "cat", "tomato" (AE), "rage" etc.
Likewise, the "öÖ" is sligjtly audible in "murder".
Last but not least, the German "ei" (sounds like "eye") and "ie" (sounds a bit like e or eew) are confusing sometimes, I imagine.
Likewise, the "ch" sound..
It's not pronounced like a "k".. Except in Berlin. 🙄
Rather, it sounds like a hissing sound. Like a little baby kitten that tries to hiss.
The "sch" sounds a bit more mature, like a "sshh!" which a librarian would make in a library.
All of this reminds me of an old, old story of my family, by the way.
It was about a delayed arrival of two family members due to a roadwork (they came by car):
One of those two relatives that live/d in the US had trouble pronouncing the word "Umleitung" that was written on the traffic sign (loop way, redirection etc).
The outcome was um-le-tang vs. oom-lay-toong (I hope I got that translation right) .
My grandma had a hard time understanding what happened, because the word was sounding like total gibberish.
After one of them wrote it down, everything became clear and they all had a laugh. ^^
Edit : Just to make clear, I'm not making fun of anyone.
Just like with dialects, English-ified words have their reason and their own history.
After all, we all use loan words at some point.
It's just the failed approach of intercommunication itself that is sometimes somewhat hilarious. 😆
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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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