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German Pronunciations for Hindi speakers

The phonetics of German are relatively easy for more Hindi speakers except for a few sounds that are more nuanced.

  1. a on its own is pronounced /ə/ () while after a consonant it has the impact of /æ/ ().
  2. ä (a-umlaut) is pronounced ().
  3. ch has multiple variations
    1. tsch is pronounced /tʃ/ ().
    2. sch is pronounced /ʃ/ ().
    3. ch if preceded by i or e or ö sound is pronounced /ç/. This sound is non-existent in Hindi. One can approximate it to /h/ (). A more accurate pronunciation would be to say while touching the back of one’s tongue to the upper palette (ceiling of the mouth).
    4. In all other cases, it is pronounced /x/ (ख़).
  4. d at the end of a word is pronounced while everywhere else it is like /d/ (). So, kind (child) is किंत while kinder(children) is किंदर.
  5. eu is pronounced ओ ॅ ए . This is a diphthong. This sound is not native to Hindi. It is halfway between ओए and औए.
  6. ei is pronounced (आइ), This is a diphthong.
  7. e, if it is the first vowel sound, is pronounced . If it is somewhere in the middle, it is . And if it is at the end, it is (schwa).
  8. ie is pronounced /i/ ().
  9. h is like English h /h/ () except after vowels, it acts as a sound extender like the Sanskrit avagraha .
  10. j is pronounced like English y /j/ ()
  11. g at the end of a word is pronounced as . Everywhere else, it is the same as English g /g/ ().
  12. ng is pronounced like English ng /ŋ/ ().
  13. r, just like English, if preceded by a vowel extends the previous sound (). Otherwise, it sounds like English retroflex r(Sanskrit ).
  14. s when followed by a vowel is pronounced ज़. s when followed by consonants is pronounced . s at the end is pronounced .
  15. t is pronounced – like Spanish.
  16. o is pronounced . Think of the first sound in मॉडल. This sound is not native to Hindi either and it is halfway between मोडल and मौडल.
  17. ö is pronounced like i in bird. This sound is non-existent in pure Hindi. And the is used to donate it these days.
  18. u is pronounced /u/ ().
  19. ü is pronounced /Y/ with the sound pronounced more in the throat
  20. v is pronounced like English f, that is, /f/ (फ़). And that’s why Volkswagen is pronounced फ़ोल्क्सवागन. While such consonant clusters might be rare in English, they are common in German. German has f as well, and that’s pronounced like English f too! Now, for the English loan words, v is pronounced as /v/.
  21. w is pronounced like English /v/, (व़)
  22. y is pronounced like English y if it is at the beginning or the end. In the middle, it is pronounced ü.
  23. z is pronounced /ts/ (त्स)
  24. ß is pronounced as a long s sound – सऽ. This is the only non-Latin alphabet in German.
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