Pronunciation and other random thoughts

[titacats]

Ok for those on my Flist that can actually speak German how does one pronounce "ich" and "nicht"?  I mean in the songs they are pronounced ish for "ich" but in the books I've looked up, one tells me this is correct and another tells me it should be pronounced ick. It's kinda driving me a bit nuts. If indeed "ich" can be pronounced both ways, why?

Comments

[evening_rose]

It depends on the dialect, actually. My grandma explained to me once, but I didn't really listen. :x

Liad

[titacats]

Thanks. ;) I kind of figured it probably had something to do with dialect. I know in the Philippines there's a 'national' language as opposed to the 80 odd dialects so that we can communicate. I assumed it would be something along those lines but I'd like to know which is the wider used version? *shrug*

[evening_rose]

The 'ish' is the more common version. If I remember well, the other one is mostly common in Berlin area [and like my grandma said then, by old peope. :x].

Liad

[titacats]

Thanks!

[lirren]

OMG, I'm laughing so hard I have tears running down my cheeks. That's adorable!

[titacats]

lol

Did I mention that when Angelica catches her singing Monsoon that way she sings right along with her? I swear we watched that video so many times. :)

[fangirl_07]

awwwwwwwww leave it to kids to change the lyrics ;) Although I must say that I do something similar with the German lyrics and my invented words *blushes*

[titacats]

Oh God I hope no one that can speak/understand German actually hears me singing along coz I'm not sure what exactly I've turned the words into. *blush*

[fangirl_07]

LOL
When walking to the university, I try not to sing aloud, because there are lots of tourists near the football stadium and you do not know who might listen to you!! ;)

[ma_chelle]

Your kids are TH fans, too? I love that!

My daughter keeps burning CDs for her friends, who all know they are that "German band" and that Bill is the twin who looks like a girl! lol And today, my son introduced the band to a friend of his on you tube who lives in Colorado. She had never heard of them before but now loves them and has a bunch of their vids on her youtube page!

Isn't it fun to spread the love? ;)

[titacats]

I love that I can share my love of TH with my kids :)

I've managed to convert a cousin and several of her friends just by asking her to record the ema's for me. I included the Scream America CD in my Christmas gift to her and she totally fangirled when she saw the cd. Warmed my heart it did. My older daughter has some of her friends listening to them now too.

[sarahsan]

Ohhh, SUCH good pronunciation questions...I hope somebody comes along and actually answers them (instead of doing what I'm about to do), because I'm trying to teach myself, too.

Okay, NO clue about mich/mir dich/dir, but a word or four about ich

First of all, go here: http://wps.prenhall.com/ml_otto_alles_1/15/3941/1009000.cw/index.html It's the textbook audio I'm about to summarize. Under Aussprache.

I understood it to be this way: the ich sound isn't ever pronounced "ick". The "ck" sound, in German, is approximated by the partial glottal stop "ch" you hear in the composer Bach's name, and only occurs after the vowels A, O, and U. After the vowels E and I, the "ch" is occluded at a more forward position in the mouth. This can, apparently, in some dialects sound basically identical to an "eesh/ish" sound (which can cause some confusion in German, since "isch" is a totally different ending but, in this case, would be pronounced the

[titacats]

Thanks sooo much for the link! I should go get that book too.

Anyway I have the info about the vowels and how they affect the ch from one of the books. However in one of the little German phrase book/touristy books that I looked up there is a pronunciation guide right after the word and in one it says ich= ikh the other ich = ish. Then what confuses me more is within the same book nicht = nikht (by itself) but in some phrase/sentence nicht= nisht and in other phrase/sentences nicht= nikht. I need the rules so I can put a sentence together without looking like a total fool lol

[sarahsan]

Yyyyep, totally--I've definitely heard the sound shifting around a bit depending on the phrases.

It may be something I never quite get right cause I'm not native. I'd like to be close, though. XD

I got that textbook for Christmas and I can't WAIT to get started (just haven't really had time yet)...it seems like a really good, thorough text. *is dork*