If your native language is German
but you’re speaking English
you may have a German accent
But what does this actually mean?
In this video I’ll be looking at the features that
create a German accent in English
There’s no W sound in German
The letter W in the German alphabet
represents a V sound
This means Germans are likely to pronounce
W sounds as V in English
A word like "with" may be pronounced "vith"
When you see the letters NG
in the middle of a word in English
the G is usually pronounced as G like...
But the letters NG in German may not have that G sound
So a German speaker may pronounce "hunger" as...
Linguists give vowels names
to make it easier to talk about them
The /əː/ vowel in the words....
is called the NURSE vowel
and it’s made with the lips relaxed
It doesn’t exist in German
but this vowel made with the lips rounded
sounds similar
and Germans are likely to use it
for the NURSE vowel in English
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland
people speak different varieties of the German language
but most of these people
will share the same characteristic accent features
when speaking English
The speaker in the next clip is originally from Austria
but he also rounds his lips for the NURSE vowel
You can see it in the words...
The terms voiced and voiceless
describe whether a sound is made
with the vocal folds vibrating or not
If you make a long V sound
you can feel the vocal folds vibrating inside the larynx
If you make an F sound, there are no vibrations
German words don’t end in voiced consonants
This means that final voiced consonants in English may turn voiceless – they are devoiced
You can hear the voiced V sound in...
turn into a voiceless F sound
The voiced Z sound marks the plural in the words....
But a German speaker is likely to devoice that Z
and turn it into a voiceless S
Similarly the voiced D sound in...
turns into a voiceless T sound
The /a/ vowel sound in words like...
is called the TRAP vowel
German speakers are likely to change this vowel
to an /ɛ/ sound when speaking English
The /aʊ/ vowel in words like "houses" and "allow"
is called the MOUTH vowel
In contemporary British English
the vowel starts more front in the mouth
But German speakers are likely to start this vowel
further back
which gives the impression of a deeper sound
These are just some of the features
that create a German accent in English
Of course there are many others like R and L sounds
but I can’t cover everything in one video
It’s not easy speaking another language
Firstly the sound system may be different
We saw this earlier with the English NURSE vowel /əː/
which doesn’t exist in German
Secondly the letter-to-sound correspondence
may be different from language to language
For example, the letter W is pronounced as W in English
but V in German
It’s important to realise that the same letter
may represent one sound in your language
but a different sound in another language
If you’re a non-native English speaker
who wants to improve your pronunciation
then sign up for my online course
Go to my website to find out more
If you’ve enjoyed this video
please like it
and share it with your German-speaking friends!