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I am was pronouncing gestrig as [ˈɡɛstʀɪç], rhyming with mich [mɪç]. My Austrian colleague did not understand me until she said, oh, you mean [ˈɡɛstʀɪk]. Wiktionary lists both the [ɪç] and [ɪk] endings for fertig but only the [ɪç] ending for gestrig. She blamed it on her Austrian, but I'm no native speaker and certainly capable of mispronouncing words, and I certainly don't take wiktionary as gospel when faced with the word of a native speaker. Between the [ɪç] or [ɪk] endings for words that are spelt with the -ig suffix (fertig, gestrig, häufig, gläubig, etc.), is either pronunciation more standard than the other, or is it purely a regional differenc and is either pronunciation correct?

gerrit
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  • Does she roll her rs? I tried to roll the r and pronounce the following -ig as [ɪç] . I wasn't successful. (It felt like having a Katarrh.) – Janka Oct 24 '18 at 21:46
  • Standard german is [ɪç]. – Jonathan Scholbach Oct 24 '18 at 22:06
  • @Janka We don't speak German together much because we're both in England, but when I'm overhearing as she's speaking with relatives on the phone I find her quite hard to understand. – gerrit Oct 25 '18 at 08:04

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I think the answer is yes. The standard pronunciation for -ig ending i is regional. I have noticed that those from the north of Germany tend to pronounce it with a soft aspirate [ɪç] than with the hard [ɪk] preferred amongst Austrian, Southern Germans, and Swiss.

Nick
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