Is there any resource on the internet where it is explained on how to pronounce characters like:
"
/
\
and so on?
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Special characters don't have a sound associated with them, but certain words - or pauses- are inserted where they are or the intonation of text near them is changed. – EagleFliesBanana Jul 26 '23 at 13:00
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1A (non-exhaustive) list can be found on Wikipedia – infinitezero Jul 27 '23 at 05:26
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Actually this question consists of two parts: One is what the names of these characters are in German, and the second is how these names are pronounced. – RHa Jul 27 '23 at 21:33
3 Answers
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Let us reframe this question as
1. What are the names of those special characters in German, what would a German native speaker call each of them?
Synonyms ordered by (my subjectively perceived) frequency in daily use, further biased by being an IT professional:
# Raute, Hash (anglicism), Doppelkreuz, Kanalgitter (AT, informal), Fis (old school, from music theory), more names
/ Schrägstrich, slash (anglicism), sometimes: Vorwärts-Schrägstrich or simply Schräger
\ Backslash (anglicism, de facto terminus technicus), Rückstrich, rare: Rückwärts-Schrägstrich, umgekehrter Schrägstrich
° Grad, Kringel, Ring, Ringerl
^ Dach, hoch (meaning: to-the-power-of), Zirkumflex, Hütchen
" (Doppelte) Anführungszeichen, Anführungsstriche, Doppeltes Hochkomma (to distinguish it from the apostrophe), Krähenfüßchen, Gänsefüßchen. Most of these words are also used for the German ones („ “).
» « , « » französische Anführungszeichen
§ Paragraph
$ Dollarzeichen
% Prozent, Prozentzeichen
& Und-Zeichen, Kaufmännisches Und, Kaufmannsund, Ampersand, et-Zeichen (rare and ambiguous because it sounds like at-Zeichen which would be @)
@ at1, at1-Zeichen, Klammeraffe (informal), Affenschwanz (informal)
~ Tilde, in mathematics also Schlange
' Hochkomma, Apostroph, einfaches Anführungszeichen
´ Akzent, Akut (few people seem to understand this, many confuse it with/use it instead of the apostrophe, which is a typographic nightmare but understandable since in German, we rarely encounter its intended function for the french à, é, ô and the like)
` Akzent, grave-Akzent
| senkrechter Strich, Strich, pipe (in IT)
; Semikolon, Strichpunkt
: Doppelpunkt
_ Unterstrich
{} geschweifte Klammer (auf/zu), geschwungene Klammer
[] eckige Klammer (auf/zu)
() (runde) Klammer (auf/zu)
< Kleinerzeichen, spitze Klammer auf, Spitzklammer auf
> Größerzeichen, spitze Klammer zu, Spitzklammer zu
= ist-gleich, gleich, Gleichheitszeichen
? Fragezeichen
! Ausrufezeichen, Rufzeichen (AT)
* Stern, Sternchen, mal (IT), Asterix (informal), Asterisk (rare)
+ Plus
- Bindestrich, Minus
2. Is there a resource on the internet where it is explained how to pronounce them?
Simply look up the word on Wikipedia or dict.leo.org (as detailed in the other answers here) and listen to the audio.
1 pronounced like english at.
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3"at" follows english pronounciation, which is important to note – EagleFliesBanana Jul 27 '23 at 09:19
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10{ und } heißen meiner Ansicht nach üblicherweise "geschweifte Klammer". – J Fabian Meier Jul 27 '23 at 13:48
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» und « bzw. › und ‹ kenne ich auch unter dem Namen Guillemets – laut Wikipedia auch noch Möwchen oder Spitzzeichen. – Numeri Jul 28 '23 at 00:54
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Why does this answer include all sorts of stuff that wasn't asked about? – mkrieger1 Jul 28 '23 at 20:21
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1In der Musik ist das # aber ein Kreuz, kein Fis. Fis wird es erst, wenn es (auf Notenpapier vor dem F) hinter dem F steht, F# ist Fis, aber C# ist Cis, nicht C-Fis. – user unknown Aug 21 '23 at 20:25
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What do AT-commands for modems have to do with the @ sign? The @ sign did historically never stand for attention, using it for that in electronic communication is a recent development. => paragraph deleted, was offtopic anyway. – HalvarF Aug 22 '23 at 12:58
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German Wikipedia. Even if you can't understand enough German to read the text, the boldly written words are names for the signs. Just search for the sign and it will redirect you to the article. E.g.
The names and their pronunciations are the same: If you wanted to read them out, you would say their names. E.g.: Er sagte Doppelpunkt Anführungszeichen unten Hallo Punkt Anführungszeichen oben for 'Er sagte: „Hallo.“'
infinitezero
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Dodezv
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That I answered does not mean I don't consider if the question should be closed. Checking wikipedia does count as a general source for me... – Dodezv Jul 26 '23 at 13:16
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Sure, but this is not the question. He does not ask for the pronounciation of the names of the signs, but for the pronounciations of the signs themselves. – EagleFliesBanana Jul 26 '23 at 14:08
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4@OranMatheus: Given that the answer was accepted, I doubt your interpretation. – guidot Jul 26 '23 at 14:19
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1@Dozdev: For Anführungszeichen there may be no unten / oben depending on typographical choices, as also mentioned on the given Wikipedia page. – guidot Jul 26 '23 at 14:24
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"That I answered does not mean I don't consider if the question should be closed. Checking wikipedia does count as a general source for me..." a closed question does not accept any answers, so it seems dubious to me that you are considering that question should be closed put also post an answer. You can't have your cake and eat it too. – infinitezero Jul 27 '23 at 05:23
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1And funnily enough your answer didn't even answer the question, but could basically be considered a "link only" answer. – infinitezero Jul 27 '23 at 05:40
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I think Dodeszv's answer is very good, but maybe this also helps further:
https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Anf%C3%BChrungszeichen https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Schr%C3%A4gstrich https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Raute https://dict.leo.org/englisch-deutsch/Backslash
With the little play symbol next to the german word, you can hear it.
viebrix
user56396
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