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Pronunciation | |
Phonetic Script | |
Vowel Mutations |
Phonetic Script - Vowel Mutations |
Here you learn about the phonetic script used for the German vowel mutations. To listen to the pronunciation, click on the little arrow in front of the respective word or on the word itself.
| Script | Letter | Vowel Mutation Type | Examples | ||||||
| Height | Backness | Roundedness | |||||||
| [ɛ:] | ä or äh | (long) | open-mid (the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel) | front (the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant) | unrounded (the lips are not rounded) | Ära f (era) ähnlich (similar) |
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| [ɛ] | ä | (short) | open-mid (the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel) | front (the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant) | unrounded (the lips are not rounded) | kämmen (to comb) ätzend (corrosive) |
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| [ø, ø:] | ö or öh | (long) | close-mid (the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and a mid vowel) | front (the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant) | rounded (its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed) | schön (beautiful, nice) mögen (to like) |
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| [œ] | ö | (short) | open-mid (the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel and a mid vowel) | front (the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant) | rounded (its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed) | zwölf (twelve) können (to be able to do something) |
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| [y, y:] | ü, üh or y | (long) | close (the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant) | front (the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant) | rounded (its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed) | grün (green) Xylofon nt (xylophone) |
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| [ʏ] | ü or y | (short) | near-close (the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted) | near-front (the tongue is positioned similarly to a front vowel, but slightly further back in the mouth) | rounded (its roundedness is compressed, which means that the margins of the lips approach one another, so that the inner surfaces are not exposed) | fünf (five) Ypsilon nt (upsilon) |
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