XVI

GUIDE TO THE GERMAN

INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA)

VOWELS

German IPA Al!l!roximate En2lisb

IPA
Example Transcription Equivalent
Symbol

[i:J Liebe f'li:~] keep, these

[I] ich (r~J bitter
[e:J sehen ['ze:an] bacon (w. Irish accent w/o fer) glide)
re:J ware, Kase* ['ve:~ - 'ke:~] ----------
[£] Stem, [Item] pet, better
[a: - a) malen, Wasser f'ma:lan - 'vassar] car park (w. a slight flat "Boston" a)
[o:] Sohn,Mond fzo:n - mo:nt] bone (w. Insh accent, w/o foul glide)
[:,) Woche,Hom ['v:,xa - h:,m] fought, horn
[u) und, gesund [unt - ga'zuntJ look, pull
[u:) gut, Ruhm [gu:t - ru:m] pool, room

*In modem, conversational German, these words would be pronounced with a closed [e:J f'veT.} -
'ke:~J

Mixed vowels
[y;J Btihne ['by:naJ
[Y] Gluck [glYkJ
[0:J schon [J0:nJ
[ce) Glockchen f'glrek~n]

jung, ja UuIJ - ja:] yes, yonder

Schwas
fa! Liebe, Rosen ['li:ba - 'ro:~n] zebra, sofa, about
la--J ** Heber, dieser ['Ji:ba-- I 'di:za.-J leader, either

**Used only in dialogue and spoken sections

Diphthongs
lae]
Wein, Hain (vaen - haen] wine, mine
loo]
Maus, Haus [moos - hoos l mouse, house
(:,~J*** Freund • Br··au Ifr:,0nt - br:,0] boy, toil (approximate]
***Note: The phonetic tr · · di tionatY
to the other anscnption of the three German diphthongs varies from one c .
O
· ne a Iso sees for the F. d b" . u mbinatJOO
rau - aoJ and for th W. . · reun com mahon [:,y - :,y - :, 1] ; for the naus co
C
Takc particular not . fh em combinat'ion rar - ae J. I prefer the ones hsted
· . . th t ble above.
m e a
O
hannony. c t e use of the dark [uJ for the [oo] diphthong for reasons of vowel
•
XVII

CONSONANTS
Plosives
[b] Boot, Liebe [bo:t - 'li:~] boat, abide
[p] Pelz, pauken [pelts - 'pook;)n] pelt, place
[d] dunkel, dort ['duqk;)l - d:>rt] doom, don't
[t] tausend, Tod ['tOOZ;)Ilt - to:t] tale, tumble
[g] gerne, gut ['gem;) - gu:t] go, gale, good
[k] Kultur, kalt [kul'tu:r - kalt] cake, cool

Fricatives
[v] Wasser, was ['vasS;)r - vas] violet, veteran
[f] von, Furst [fon - fnst] farm, family
[3] Loge**** ['lo:3;)] pleasure,measure
[J] schnell, schon [Jnel - J0:n] sham, shawl
[z] Sahne, sill3 ['z.a:nd - zy:s] zebra, zenith
[s] Hass milssen [has - IDYSSdn] salad, suit
[h] Held, Hauch [belt - hoox] hero, hand
[x] Bach,***** [bax]
[y] ich, Bachlein [Iy - 'beylaen]

****This word is a French loan word. Germans are not really comfortable with a [3] sound.
What results is that they usually unvoice it and pronounce it [J]: ['lo:Jd].

*****The only way to give an English example is by using the Loch [bx] Ness Monster.
Unfortunately the creature is usually referred to as the Lock [bk] Ness Monster.

~
[n) Nase, nein ['na:Z;) - naen] nose,no
[m] Mann, mein [man - maen] man, mine
[I)) bringen, sinken ['bnl)dll - ZII]k;)n] bring, sink

Liquid
[l] lachen, Lenz ['laxdn - lents] laugh, list

Note: The German [l] is not at all like the American "retroflex" l sound, which generally occurs at
the ends of words and has its own phonetic symbol [t] ="barred/". The German sound is very
much like the Italian and French/.

Vibrants
[r] rot, Reich [ro:t - raey] red, round (British roll)
lrl fahren ['fa:f:;)ll] very (British flip)
[R]* raus, rot [Raos - Ro:t]

*This [R] sound is the guttural r made in the back of the throat and used only in conversation.
will use this symbol only in spoken passages.
·---,-----·
XVIII

Affricates
lts1 Zimmer, Zar ('tsnnm~r - tsa:r] pu!§, be\!§
(ks1 Wachs, Lachs (vaks - laks] wax, lax
(tJ1 Putsch (putfl hitch, hutch
(pf) Pfeil, Topf (pfael - t:>pf1 u1t.Jor grabs
(pfl] Pflicht (pflI~l] to1t._flight of stairs

Other phonetic symbols

[:1 Indicates long vowel ('by:n~]
['1 Vertical stroke-stress mark, indicating that the following syllable takes the
stress: Melankolie: (mela[}ko'fo]
(?] The "Hamsa" or hiatus symbol that separates a consonant from a following vowel
in neighboring words: und ach (unt ?ax]

Borrowed Foreign Sounds

[e1 The French nasal vowel in Quinquin [ke'ke] (Rosen/cavalier)
lo1 The French nasal vowel in acte de presence [pre'zos] (Rosen/cavalier)
and assemblee {aso'ble] (Ariadne auf Naxos)

SOME NOTES CONCERNING GERMAN DICTION

1) The German Vowels

All German vowels except a, (which has only long and short duration) have two sounds. Ther~
will be a long, closed vowel and a short, slightly more open counterpart. Thus we have {i:1 as 1ll
Liebe, and h] as in bitte, pretty much like their English counterparts fee/ and fill.

Then we have (u:) as in Mut and [u] as in Mutter, much like their English counterparts pool and
pull, and so on, thus:

1°:l as ~n Sohn and l:>] as in Sonne, approximately like bone and bought.
le:_I as~ leb~n and le] as in Lenz, approximately like bacon and belt.
\q,,J as~ schon and [re] as in Schopfung
{y:J as m Buhne and {y] as in Gluck

The rule of thumb . tha . d losed: (wie,

.1 1 is ta vowel followed by a single consonant or an h 1s long an c
' ir, me ,r, er, vor, Ohr, schon, hohnen, .fiihlen, far).

On the other hand whe . . h rt and open:

(bitte Mutt w ' n a vowel is followed by several consonants, it usually 18 s 0
, er, etter, Sonne, Schopfer, gliicklich).
There are, however m
and long even thou~ :t
0
. . 8 closed
::eptions to the above rule of thumb where a vo~el remalll les:
d by consonant clusters, as shown in the following exatnP
le:l Erde Schwert erst
earth Herd stets Pferd werden
sword first
hearth always horse to become

• Ill
r tr

~
XIX
[o:] Mond Obst groft blojJ stojJen
moon fruit large
Ostern
barely to push
Easter
[y:] sujJ gruften Wuste duster FujJe
sweet to greet Bucher
desert somber feet books
[~:] rosten trosten hochst Gro/Je
to roast to console highly size
Then, of course, there are conjugated verbal fo In . .
three consonants after the vowel will reta· th r;11s. this ca~e, ~ ver?_with clusters of two or
coniugated with a 1 1 d m e ong vowel of its infinitive form and be
:i ong c ose vowel, thus:

lch lebe - du lebst - er /ebt

[I~ 'le:b;} - du: le:pst - e:r le:pt]
ich tue - du tust -
[1~ 'tu:;:, - du: tu:st]
ich lobe - du lobst - er lobt
[1~ 'lo:b;} - du: lo:pst - e:r lo:pt]
2) The Mixed vowels

It !s always a s~urce ~f surprise to me that singers aren't taught that the Gennan Umlaut
mixed vowels u and o have two sounds apiece.

The u can be a long, closed_ [y:] as in Buhne, Fu/Je, mu/Jig, Wiiste, gru/Jen, suhnen,fahlen, or it
can be a short open [Y] as m wufite, kiissen, miissen, Gluck, zuruck, Kunst/er, Hutte.

T~e O can b~ long closed [~:] as in schon, Sohne, Tone, or a short open [re] as in Schop/er,
Tochter, Glockchen, Koln.

For some exceptions, see the Germa~ Vowels, above.

3) The Schwa

The German Schwa[~] is an un-rounded vowel (that is, the lips do not round as in the French
mute syllables) having a number of slightly different colorations that change imperceptibly
~epending on vocalic harmonization (that is, the color of neighboring vowels, usually the vowels
m the following word in the vocal line). Thus, Jch lieb!!, dich will have a brighter schwa than the
schwa in ich hab!!_ Durst, for the simple reason that in the first example the schwa is found
between two high front vowels, and in the second example the schwa is found between a central
vowel [a] and a dark back vowel [u] The singer is cautioned to keep his schwas in line, otherwise
the vocal pattern will suffer by employing too dark a schwa (in the first example) or too bright a
schwa (as in the second example). It has a variable quality. Far be it for me to assign different
phonetic symbols to these variations of schwa color, but the singer has to choose the right color
so as to render the vocal tine smooth and undisturbed. The schwa will also brighten and change
quality as the voice rises to the upper tessitura.

The other schwa soW1d used in this book is [a--] , which occurs in some portions of Der
Rosenkavalier and Ariadne au/ Naxos. German words ending in w1stressed -er are generally
transcribed as [::>r] as in the Siebs Deutsche Hochsprache. This reflects an older way of singing
German, where all r's were faithfully pronounced (a practice which will be adhered to in my later
Wagner music-drama transcriptions). But when these words are spoken rather than sung they
 xx

may lose their final r's (see "R" reduction, below). _T~s ~ymbol is also used for the Vienn_ese
dialect (see "Viennese Variants, below). Its sound 1s s1D11lar ~o the New ~ngland p~~nunc1ati?n of
the words mother, sister, river.father, where the final vowel 1s spoken without the r-coloratton"
heard in other parts of the country.

4) "R" Reduction

Not all r's in a post-vocalic position (that is, after a vowel) have to be pronounced in German. In
conversation they usually are reduced or eliminated, being substituted by the [a--] schwa type
sound. In singing, when the music runs at quick tempi, the same may occur.Small words such as
er, der, wit, mir, nur invariably lose their final rand other words such as Mutter, Vater, wieder,
ober, besser, schlimmer, weder, jener, aber, unter, may lose the final r in song. Some German
singers roll all their r's and some reduce them as they feel depending on tempo or the importance
of the word in the phrase. In sung text in this book the above words would be transcribed with
no r reduction, leaving the pronunciation or omission of the r's to the singer's discretion.
However, in dialogues the above words will be transcribed phonetically as [e:a--, de:a--,vi:a--, mi:a--,
nu:a--, 'muta--, 'fa:ta--, 'vi:da--J etc. As explained in the paragraph above under schwa, the sound of a
reduced r in a word such as Vater is pretty much like the word father pronounced in the New
York/New England manner with no r sound at all after the vowel.

5) Aspirate Plosives [p - t - k]

In Gennan, these voiceless plosive consonants are aspirated, something we never do in Italian. In
other words, an aspirate plosive like [k] in the word Keller has a slight puff of air escaping . . .
between the [k] consonant and the vowel that follows. This is totally correct in German, as it is ID
English. The [p] and [t] also have aspiration, a very idiomatic characteristic of the German
language.

6) The two German ich and ach Fricatives [1c; - ax]

The ich [y] palatal fiicative sound is a problem for non-German singers. It is really a voiceless Lil
glide. Simply say the English word you, feeling the position of the tongue as you say the Yin the
word. Then unvoice the Y by eliminating the vibration of the vocal cords and say the name Hugh.
You ~·11 soon _discover
· that that U] and [y] have exactly the same articulation, with [Y~ b_emg
. the
unvoiced cousm of the other. Then practice other English words with Hugh in it: nunudity,
humanity, humility, huge, etc. -

The ach lx) fricative is made in the back of the throat, between the raised back of the tongue and
the lowered rear of the soft palate. One could say that it is an exaggerated h sound. It is not ~ ·
1511
~uttural, unpleasant sound, as heard in World War II movies barked out by Nazi officers, nor
~~ gu~tural or raspy a sound as similar sounds in Arabic Hebrew and Dutch. Practice the two "te
..~~~tt;~~>u:~e,,aftcr th e other,,by ~sing the first two wo;ds of Pamina's aria from Die_Zau,?ef:ese
~ ti c. •s ' _or Kon stanze s ana from Die Entfuhrung aus de m Serail "Ach ich izebte ·
arc gen e mcat1ve sounds th t h Id '
· a s ou not add unvocal raspiness to the sound .

...
 XXI

7) The German Double Consonants

In ~inging German, when a consonant appears doubled between vowels, as in Sonne, Wetter,
Manner,Mutter, Amme, a/le, Welle, Decke, Widder, Flagge, Herren one has to audibly double the
conso~t, almo~t ~ m~ch as we double the Italian doubles. In conversation this does not happen
as drastically as m smgmg. My phonetic transcriptions of German doubles in the sung text will
show ['z::mnd, 'vet~r. 'menndr, 'muttdr, 'alld, 'velld, 'v1dddr]. In the spoken lines, however, I will
not show such a doubling.

Italian doubles its consonants with equal emphasis both in singing and speech. German only
doubles them in singing.

8) The German Hiatus (Trennung)

In German conversation (and in singing, although not quite as strictly), there must be a separation
between final consonants in a word and the initial vowel of the next word in a phrase. I don't like
to call it a "glottal stroke", because I don't ever want to suggest an anti-vocal glottal whack.
These separations should be gently accomplished, hopefully without disturbing the vocal line and
legato. Thus, for instance, in Papageno's entrance song (in Die Zauberflote ), bei alt undjung im
ganzen Land we need to hear [bae ?alt] and not [ba jalt].There is a slight hiatus between those
two words. Many of our great German singers nowadays omit the [?) in fast passages or difficult
tessitura sections in favor of a more legato singing line. I will use this[?] (hamsa) symbol
sparingly for the same reasons, especially when the voice is required to ride on stratospheric
passages that would make such separations a vocal stumbling block. Thus, when the Queen of
the Night sings her Vengeance Aria, far be it for me to put a[?] in Tod und Verzweiflung [to:t ?unt
fertsvaefluq], or one inflammet um mich her ['flammdt ?um mi~ he:r]!

Not all German singers make the same separations all the time and the same way. They do them
as they feel them, as with the reduced r.

9) The German "R" Sounds [r - r - R]

The [R] sound is the guttural throaty r the Germans learned from the Fre~~h Hugu~no~s and
~uickly adopted centuries ago. It is basically the same r gras_seye or Pans1an r . I_t 1s Wid~ly used
m conversation and will be used in spoken sections. OtherWise, the use of the tnlled [r) is
~referred for singing. The flipped [r] is really more used in dialectal_speec? between ~owels, ~ut
It can also be used in high speech, albeit with a little more snap than its Italian or Sparush cousins.

10) The letter "S" Before Vowels

.S ne sieben' Sachs' Salome,
The 1etter s before vowels is always pronounce d rz]· on ' .
suss.
d
However, in Austrian Gennan and Viennese dialect these initial s's are unvmced and pronounce
Is] (see paragraph below on Viennese Variants).

11) The Letter "V"

In G . d If] sound as in von, Vater, Vetter, vier. vol/. However
ennan the letter v 1s pronounce as an • • 1 · [ ] d
in non-Gennanic words like Oliven, Vision, Rival, Valentin, the v retams its c ass1c v soun .
 ---------1111111
XXII

12) Modification of Vowels

In all languages, when a vocal line rises to the upper reaches of the compass, vowels have to b
modified. It also happens when ~e voice h~s ~o dip into very low ranges: Usually they modi; to
a more comfortable sound to facilitate the smgmg process. In my phonetic transcriptions I will
always use the proper vowel sound, but if the syllable happens to fall on a very high (or low)
note, the singer is given license to choose a more comfortable vowel (within reason ... ) to make
the singing easier. In spoken lines, however, no such modification is allowed!

13) Main Viennese Variants

In cultivated singing one has to go by the rules of Hochdeutsch (Stage German), but there will be
occasions when a Viennese accent will be preferable in such typically "Viennese" roles as Baron
Ochs, Papageno, Faninal, the Haushofi:neister in Ariadne aufNa.xos, and many characters who
inhabit the Austro-Hungarian operettas of Lehar, Kalman, Strauss, Fall, Zeller, and Millocker.
Viennese German differs from Hochdeutsch in several areas:

a - The most startling variant is the so-called Wienerische ei, the ei/ai diphthong, which in
German is [ae] and in Viennese becomes [ree] with the diphthong's first element flattened to an
[re] sound as in the American words rat, cat, bat. Words like mein, Wein, nein become [mreen,
vreen, nreen] instead of their German counterparts [aen, vaen, naen].

b - The letters before a vowel assumes a voiceless [s] sound instead of the [z] sound it has in
German. (See above under Letter S).

c - At times the [a] vowel asswnes a much darker color, fluctuating between a "dark" [a] and
[~], Such words like Vater, ja, Gnaden, will be transcribed phonetically as ['fa:t;:,r, ja: 'gna:d;;,n]
when sung by "Viennese" characters.

d - The initial b, d, g, letters harden considerably, almost resembling their voiceless P, t, k

counterparts.

e -The schwa[;:,] is much brighter, being at times closer to [e].

13) The Separable Verbs (with their separable prefixes)

" h as ~ehen,
There are many verbs in German that have what we call a "separable pre fiix sue are
mefstehen, einschlafen, anore1ifien abnehmen hinfahren in which the underlined prefixels be
=-=· '- ' ' 0 per Y
placed at the end of the sentence in which the word appears and therefore cannot pr ter
1
(page
translated into English unless the prefix is united with the verb stem. In Der Rosenka:a
1O) t.here is the phrase hier kommt mir keiner herein. The separable prefix verb here is arated
herein/kommen . Hereinkommen means "to come in" . The herein and kommen are sep
and the sentence is transcribed and translated thus:
bier kommt mir keiner herein
here comes in no one (---)
(No one is coming into my room.)
e other
The word herein is therefore not translated and merely shown with (---). Here are sol:J)
examples:
 [~~~::t§:-_~~ ~:)
(].,......mler=ydrun,,.,,.;1,)

~ (-66) 0:ial,ld,c/rdi, Fo,:/ui.-

Onao, llb<btdio f,d,tlo ,.,
Oziu. ' !'lll "'"-lbt -l>ts (-)
('"<116Kb.. ,. ,Mpon!,iep<fi<l'm> """""11"1';,l"'°""· ••letdoor"""11e.l

n..r. i,noP""'bl•-""6on fo,the "'<ltd,,..,,..;..,r,the_, ,.~

14)Sitoo- o f WON1J . .,1,...,_ i o,pok<o ~-orfo,t ■ .,;, ,1 ,_ , tt>

'l,hm..-.,hasto!p<akorsiog (1Ufld""'¥') ,ucl,JIO"""•bbl d>,bl d>, • ;JJ,J d>,1h< t

....
and d . . ,pokmu.-p ..... .....,.;,yat u ,..Joo,'!""l]:,,.._..tEa$1iol>.plw....-
.,,ll~o ... , looldoc,"tr.c""' °""l "''Jlyay[.;,d>UOJo,ii.,,d,glwithJ;--.Jy~
1'111<>--~m,..i.,....._.,_,. "" ,., - . , .... ...,,..i"""•(>i!,i,oo .
Nowoylh,Oermat,-b;std.,b•bl.wwtd,,ll'>iproc,oon,:,,<h<><jot,tlilt
"wi """""and"loold<Js": ltu(llo:,~.~I

......