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Help[Facts] Re: German pronounciation question
in reply to a message by Anya Mel’nik or Mel’nyk
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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Replies
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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