Where do people say bege_ich_net instead of bege_g_net for "begegnet?"

Question

I was watching a German Roman Catholic Priest speak recently in a youtube video, and he said this, which surprised me because it sounded to me like dialect. I know it's common to hear wenig or häufig with this soft "ich" at the end, but I had never heard this sound in the middle of a word before until recently, especially with an "e" before the "g." I'm guessing this must be very common in certain areas, I just didn't know about it. By the way, I almost always pronounce "ig" as "ich" when I speak German. I'm an American Southerner and language learner. I don't think I feel comfortable with bege-ichnet though. HA! :^)

Answer 1

which surprised me because it sounded to me like dialect.

Why are you surprised?

The German language is one of the languages where a lot of people speak dialects - even in "official" situations like in television, public speeches etc.

I know it's common to hear wenig or häufig with this soft "ich" at the end

As far as I know official German pronounciation rules say that "-ig" at the end of a word is pronounced as "-ich" but "-ig-" in the middle in the word is not pronounced as "-ich-".

(Here in the south people do not do so; "-ig" in some regions even is pronounced as "-ik".)

but I had never heard this sound in the middle of a word before until recently

This seems to be very common in northern Germany.

(In the south people never do that.)

Answer 2

I am not a German speaker, nor do I know much about German dialects, so this is just my guess as a learner about what is going on in the pronunciation that you noticed. I can't describe in what regions this occurs, but I hope my answer helps to clarify the contexts where you can expect to hear this kind of pronunciation of "g".

To me, it looks like it is actually the combination of two variations in the pronunciation of German.

1. The use of /ç/ for hard (devoiced) "g" in general (not just in "-ig" words)

Other answers have mentioned the use of /ç/ instead of /k/ in some regions for the hardened (or devoiced) pronunciation of "g" after any front vowel (and not just in the ending "-ig"). I think this is related to the use of /j/ intervocalically after a front vowel instead of /g/ in some dialects, but I don't know if these phenomena always go together or if you can have one without the other. It also seems related to the use of /x/ instead of /k/ after back vowels (e.g. in the word "Tag").

2. Hardening the first consonant in intervocalic clusters like "-gn-"

The other thing that I think is happening here is hardening a consonant in an intervocalic consonant cluster ending in "n". This is apparently not done in standard "textbook" German when the cluster occurs as the result of historical elision of a vowel (e.g. for "begegnet", there is the related word "gegen" with an "e" between the "g" and "n"), but it occurs for many actual German speakers. (The rule for devoicing or not in clusters like "gn" in standard German is actually rather complicated; see the following question for details: When is the last sound of a syllable unvoiced?)

Another example could be "bn" in "ebnen", for which the Duden gives the pronunciation "[ˈeːbnən]", but which I think some people would pronounce with /p/ (see the Google Books passage from this book: Final Devoicing in the Phonology of German, by Wiebke Brockhaus).

Wiktionary also lists various pronunciations for the similar word "regnen", saying:

IPA(key): /ˈʁeːɡnən/ (prescriptive standard)
IPA(key): /ˈʁeːknən/ (most common)
IPA(key): /ˈʁeːçnən/ (northern and central Germany; chiefly colloquial)

This is consistent with the comments other users have made saying that you would not hear /çn/ in "begegnet" from southern speakers.

3? Diphthongization of long "e" (it's unclear if you are describing this)

As johnl pointed out in the comments, if you actually meant to say that you are hearing an "i" sound after the "e" vowel, that would constitute a third phenomenon which I don't know about so I can't really say anything about it.

Answer 3

Well, there is a rule, that is valid in most areas where German is spoken, except from the south (Austria). (Sorry, I don't know if in this special case Bavarian speakers behave like German or like Austrian speakers.) This rule says, that the syllable »∙ig« at the end of a word has to be pronounced as [ɪç].

"global" standard:

Der König ist selig, wenn wenig Honig im Teig ist.
[deːɐ̯ ˈkøːnɪç ɪst ˈzeːlɪç vɛn ˈveːnɪç ˈhoːnɪç ɪm taɪ̯k ɪst]

Note, that this rule only applies to »∙ig«, i.e. when there is just the monophthong [ɪ] (written as »i«) before the »g«. It doesn't apply to the diphthong [aɪ̯] (written as »ei« or »ai«) before the »g«. This is why »Teig« doesn't get this [ç].

Without this ∙ig-rule, you would hear the konsonant [k] instead of [ç] (like in Teig = [taɪ̯k]), which is a result of Auslautverhärtung (final-obstruent devoicing):

Der König ist selig, wenn wenig Honig im Teig ist.
[deːɐ̯ ˈkøːnɪk ɪst ˈzeːlɪk vɛn ˈveːnɪk ˈhoːnɪk ɪm taɪ̯k ɪst]

But in the south everything is different. There is neither a final-obstruent devoicing in the south, nor do Austrian native speakers pronounce »∙ig« as [ɪç]:

Austrian version:

Der König ist selig, wenn wenig Honig im Teig ist.
[deːɐ̯ ˈkøːnɪɡ ɪst ˈseːlɪɡ vɛn ˈveːnɪɡ ˈhoːnɪɡ ɪm taɪ̯g ɪst]

^{There also is no voiced s ([z]) in Austrian pronunciation, so »selig« is [ˈseːlɪɡ] in Austria.}

Note, that there also is an artificial pronunciation in use in theaters (for speaking and for singing), which is called »Deutsche Bühnenaussprache« (German stage pronunciation). In this version »∙ig« also is pronounced as [ɪç], even on Austrian stages. But this is not a standard pronunciation.

Everything else I told you above is standard, i.e. it is taught in schools this way, and professional speakers (i.e. in radio and TV) use this pronunciation. (Which means, they speak different in Germany and Austria, because they have different standards.)

But what you described is not a standard pronunciation. There is no standard pronunciation, where »∙ig∙« in the middle of a word is pronounced as [ɪç]. This clearly is dialect pronunciation. You will hear it in some regions in Germany, but I can't tell you exactly where.

But since it is just a dialect, I strongly recommend not to use this kind of pronunciation. Learn, that it is in use in some regions, so that you will be able to understand people who speak such a dialect, but don't actively use it.

As long, as your German is not really perfect and free of any foreign language accent, nobody will believe that you are a dialect speaker. Try to understand dialect speakers (this sometimes is hard even for native speakers), but don't try to speak this way.

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addendum

(Thank you, sumelic, for your comment!)

In nominalized adjectives, which are build from adjectives that end in »∙ig«, by attaching the suffix »∙keit« to the end (which results in a female noun that ands with »∙igkeit«), the g also is pronounced as [ç], as if it was still at the end of the word:

• Tätigkeit [ˈtɛːtɪçkaɪ̯t]
• Schwierigkeit [ˈʃviːʀɪçkaɪ̯t]
• Arbeitslosigkeit [ˈaʁbaɪ̯ʦloːzɪçkaɪ̯t]

Also interesting, people in Austria have a new trick to avoid this [ç]: Because they don't like this [ç], and because both, [k] and [g] are hart to pronounce before [k], they just omit this consonant:

• Tätigkeit [ˈtɛːtɪkaɪ̯t]
• Schwierigkeit [ˈʃviːʀɪkaɪ̯t]
• Arbeitslosigkeit [ˈaʁbaɪ̯ʦloːsɪkaɪ̯t]

Answer 4

Most people in Saxon say "be-gech-net" instead of "be geg net". In fact, they really have the most funny German dialect. Watch some videos about it.

Also people in Hamburg do that. They have a "smooth" dialect where nobody ever speaks a "g" in the middle of a word.

You can say it's northern pronounciation.