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Help[Facts] German pronounciation question
In Germany, s is pronounced like English z. But my question is, do Germans say foriegn names with z sound too? Example, would German pronounced Svitlana with s or would German say "zvitlana"?
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In Germany, the letter S is usually pronounced /z/ when between vowels or in the beginning of a word when followed by a vowel (Sara, Lisa). Otherwise it's pronounced /s/ (Sven, Esther).
Svetlana is quite common among people of russian origin and I've always heard it pronounced /s/.
In my experiance, germans are quite good at using the correct pronounciation of foreign names (apart from nasal pronunciations and the French J). I've met Sami, Sydney and Soline and the S was pronounced /s/ by germans.
"zvitlana" would be quite a tongue twister for germans.
Svetlana is quite common among people of russian origin and I've always heard it pronounced /s/.
In my experiance, germans are quite good at using the correct pronounciation of foreign names (apart from nasal pronunciations and the French J). I've met Sami, Sydney and Soline and the S was pronounced /s/ by germans.
"zvitlana" would be quite a tongue twister for germans.
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Would German person say my name (Anastasiya) with two s sound and not like anashtaziya?
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Most people would say anasta-ZEE-a. The name is rare but well-known in Germany and especially used among people of russian descent.
Like elbowin said: There is also a dialect in Germany where the -st- is always pronounced sht, even if you would say s-t in High German (e. g. the word "weißt" or popular German names like Konstantin, Christian ...).
On the other hand, there is a North German dialect in which -st- is always pronounced s-t, although in High German it is sht (e.g. Stein, Stephanie ...).
Like elbowin said: There is also a dialect in Germany where the -st- is always pronounced sht, even if you would say s-t in High German (e. g. the word "weißt" or popular German names like Konstantin, Christian ...).
On the other hand, there is a North German dialect in which -st- is always pronounced s-t, although in High German it is sht (e.g. Stein, Stephanie ...).
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The old Hamburg dialectal feature of s-t at the beginning of the word famous is the phrase "s-tolpern über einen s-pitzen S-tein" is dying out rapidly, as this map clearly shows:
https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/stein/
The colourings are: blue: This feature is unknown; yellow: Was used in the past, but not nowadays; pink: only elderly people use it; the possible answer "it is in current use here" was not ticked frequently enough to be shown on the map.
https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/stein/
The colourings are: blue: This feature is unknown; yellow: Was used in the past, but not nowadays; pink: only elderly people use it; the possible answer "it is in current use here" was not ticked frequently enough to be shown on the map.
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Anashtaziya would reveal a strong regional and dialectal background (Southwestern Germany, specially Schwaben), speaker of High German or other regional variants would not do this. In Standard German, st becomes sht only at the beginning of a word.
And there is a style by some speakers of High German (not me) to differentiate between native and foreign words by using either sht or st depending on the etymology. This leads to minimal pairs like Stiel /SHTEEL/ "trunk" and Stil /STEEL/ "style". It consider this as "showing off with learned etymological knowledge".
And there is a style by some speakers of High German (not me) to differentiate between native and foreign words by using either sht or st depending on the etymology. This leads to minimal pairs like Stiel /SHTEEL/ "trunk" and Stil /STEEL/ "style". It consider this as "showing off with learned etymological knowledge".
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Located in Germany I can say that Germans mostly use "spelling pronunciations" when seeing unknown foreign names (this is essentially any name beyond English and French). And there is an unwritten rule to put the stress on the penultimate syllable.
So when Germans see Svitlana they read zvit-LA-na.
This is the High German side of the story. Another side is that the initial /z/ sound has a very small base in German dialects. Dialectal speakers will use /s/ initially.
So when Germans see Svitlana they read zvit-LA-na.
This is the High German side of the story. Another side is that the initial /z/ sound has a very small base in German dialects. Dialectal speakers will use /s/ initially.
This message was edited 3/12/2025, 8:59 AM
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They don't just say any S as the English Z.
Any S before a T is SH not Z. 'Stau' (traffic jam) for example is said with a SH sound at the beginning. So is the name Stefan. The name Sven is also not said with a Z sound, but just a regular S. I'd assume they'd use the Sven sound for Svitlana too.
Edit: it probably depends if in the foreign name the S is followed by a vowel or not.
Any S before a T is SH not Z. 'Stau' (traffic jam) for example is said with a SH sound at the beginning. So is the name Stefan. The name Sven is also not said with a Z sound, but just a regular S. I'd assume they'd use the Sven sound for Svitlana too.
Edit: it probably depends if in the foreign name the S is followed by a vowel or not.
This message was edited 3/12/2025, 7:15 AM
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Well I knew sh, before t, but I didn't know before v.
But what if it was like Sanya or Slava? and maybe Svitlana would still be said with s? Like in Russian е is pronounced "ye" normally but in foreign names it is "eh". So I wondered if German maybe does similar thing here?
I think ss (ß) is always s sound, would I want to use this for if I wanted German to pronounce these names with s or would Germans assume that foreign name with s is prounced same?
But what if it was like Sanya or Slava? and maybe Svitlana would still be said with s? Like in Russian е is pronounced "ye" normally but in foreign names it is "eh". So I wondered if German maybe does similar thing here?
I think ss (ß) is always s sound, would I want to use this for if I wanted German to pronounce these names with s or would Germans assume that foreign name with s is prounced same?
This message was edited 3/12/2025, 7:25 AM
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