2

I tried to get the example of pronunciation of the word of "Universität" from Google Translate but the pronunciation that I got from it was a little far from my expectation. Google Translate pronounced "Universität" as "Universiteet". I didn't get why "ä" can be the "ee" sound?

This is pronunciation from Google Translate:

https://translate.google.co.th/?hl=en&tab=wT&authuser=0#auto/de/university

David Vogt
  • 26,425
  • 2
  • 42
  • 91
fronthem
  • 131
  • 1
  • 5
  • 1
    What's the ee sound? – c.p. Mar 22 '14 at 12:38
  • I'm not sure but you can click on my link go to google translate the sound from there in my opinion its sound likes "Universiteet". – fronthem Mar 22 '14 at 12:55
  • 3
    He is probably talking about "in some varieties of standard German, /ɛː/ and /eː/ have merged into [eː], removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like Bären/Beeren 'bears/berries' or Ähre/Ehre 'spike (of wheat)/honour' become homophonous" – blutorange Mar 22 '14 at 13:21
  • The link does not work for me. – Carsten S Mar 22 '14 at 13:27
  • "Universität" i mean "tät" in Google translate its sound likes "teeth" (a word in english means plural from of tooth) – fronthem Mar 22 '14 at 14:21
  • 1
    @terces907 in English teeth is [tiːθ], while in German Universität's ending sounds [ˈtɛːt]. – c.p. Mar 22 '14 at 14:34
  • @c.p. Thank you very much. In principal the sound it should be like you said. "ɛː" not "iː" for "ä" but anyway i think Google translate is wrong if you correct. but i think you are correct. – fronthem Mar 22 '14 at 14:41
  • 1
    Link works for me, and it is pronounced correctly in my (native) opinion. – Ingmar Mar 22 '14 at 14:44
  • Hmm, link worked for me now, too. The pronunciation given there is [eː] as suggested by @blutorange. – Carsten S Mar 22 '14 at 15:08
  • Are you French by any chance? – Phira Mar 22 '14 at 17:28

2 Answers2

7

It seems that you were expecting [ɛː], but heard [iː]. Indeed, Google's pronunciation has [eː].

Your expectation was correct, and if you learn German, [ɛː] is the pronunciation that you should probably try to achieve. However, as noted in the comments, regionally the pronunciation might be [eː] instead of [ɛː].

On the other hand, [e:] and [i:] are different phonemes that Germans always distinguish. There is a clear difference between for example beeten ([e:]) and bieten ([i:]). Depending on your native language that distinction may be hard for you to hear.

Carsten S
  • 20,879
  • 2
  • 42
  • 82
5

Generally there is no "correct" pronunciation for German, mainly because of so many regional variations. Nevertheless there are common pronunciations given for words in the various dictionaries:

Still, these pronunciation vary considerably.

People believe that German as spoken in and around the city of Hannover is the most understood variant. This also led to creating the "ARD-Aussprachedatenbank" to help people working there as newsreaders to share a common pronunciation.

Links to soundsamples from this database are given in the Duden online dictionary:

This pronunciation will let you be on the safe side when learning.

Takkat
  • 70,407
  • 29
  • 165
  • 411
  • 1
    The ARD-Aussprachedatenbank is only useful for German German (the variation of German language that is spoken in Germany). But it does not help if you want to learn Austrian German or Swiss German. In Austrian German there is no difference between the pronunciation of »Beeren« and »Bären« or between »Ehre« and »Ähre«. So in Austria »Universität« is spoken the same way as (the not existing word) »Universitet« would have been pronounced. And this matched very fine with the pronunciation offered by Google. – Hubert Schölnast Mar 23 '14 at 12:21
  • 1
    @HubertSchölnast: yeah that's pretty much the same for almost all German speaking regions including Bavaria, Switzerland, Saxonia, Swabia, Hesse, and more. For learners it is very confusing to tell them they should not use the Hanover pronunciation when in Austria, or elsewhere. Also I doubt that people who learn German as a foreign language really want to learn a Swabian, Saxonian, Swiss, or Austrian dialect. – Takkat Mar 23 '14 at 14:16
  • 2
    In addition the ORF, SF, DRS, and Radio Bolzano also use this database. – Takkat Mar 23 '14 at 14:18
  • 2
    Österreichisches Deutsch ist KEIN Dialekt! Es ist eine der drei Standardvarietäten der deutschen Hochsprache. (Vergleichbar mit britischem Englisch, das ebenfalls kein Dialekt sondern eine Varietät der englischen Sprache ist). In Österreich werden viele Dialekte gesprochen, aber es gibt KEINEN österreichsichen Dialekt. Die in Österreich gesprochenen Dialekte sind den Dialekten Niederalemannisch (in Vorarlberg) Südbairisch (in Kärnten und Teilen Tirols) und Mittelbairisch (im Rest Österreichs) zuzuordnen. – Hubert Schölnast Mar 23 '14 at 17:28
  • 1
    Für Dialekte gibt es keine genormte Rechtschreibung. Für Österreichisches Deutsch gelten aber verbindliche Rechtschreibregeln, die zum größten Teil mit den Regeln für Deutsches Deutsch übereinstimmen, in Einzelfällen aber abweichen (z.B. Adventkalender und Schweinsbraten statt Adventskalender und Schweinebraten). Diese Regeln werden vom Ministerium für Unterricht und Kunst im Österreichischen Wörterbuch herausgegeben, das meines Wissens das einzige noch gültige amtliche Wörterbuch einer Varietät der deutschen Sprache ist. (Der Duden ist seit 1996 kein amtlich verbindliches Wörterbuch mehr.) – Hubert Schölnast Mar 23 '14 at 17:35
  • http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/11096/was-ist-der-unterschied-zwischen-einer-spachvarietat-und-einem-dialekt – Takkat Mar 23 '14 at 17:40
  • At Forvo you can hear different pronunciations by native speakers from different regions (no guarantee for correctness though). Currently there are 4 sound samples for Universität, all from Germany. – Stef Jan 28 '19 at 20:54