A Christmas music rant

[iampunha]

No, the stuff isn't yet filling the airwaves down here, but I had a hankering for some Christmas music tonight (this morning), so I went to see what YouTube had to offer

Comments

[fachverwirrt]

5) schtihl, schtihl, schtihl is schtihl not right. schteel, more.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Are you trying to say that the German word "still" should be pronounced with a long "ee" (as in "steel")? 'Cause it's not: it's a short "ih" as in, well, "still".

[iampunha]

You mean my mother lied to me?

[fachverwirrt]

I can't speak for every German dialect, but at least in Hochdeutsch, it's a short "ih". Generally, when one sings in German, one sings in Hochdeutsch. It's quite possible that she simply speaks a different dialect.

(And I note that I read "lied" as [lit] as in German for song...)

[iampunha]

I don't know what dialect she grew up on, but if it's any help, she lived on German military bases as a kid, so they might not have been teaching her singing German.

[phantomdiver]

Not German. American. In Germany.

Also, not military bases. Military installations. That's the neutral term. The Air Force, Navy, and (I think) Marines have bases. The Army has posts or, occasionally, forts. Installation covers all of them.

And I was taught Hochdeutsch. By native speakers. And they taught us to sing various songs like Still, Still, Still and Ihr Kinderlein, KommetAnyway, I don't speak Germany anywhere near well enough to speak any dialect at all

[phantomdiver]

Did I say shteel? I shouldn't've. It's shtill. But when you sing it, it does kind of come out as shteel.