(, "stage German") or (, "stage pronunciation") is a unified set of
pronunciation rules for the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...
used in the
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
of the
German ''Sprachraum''. Established in the 19th century, it came to be considered pure
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
. It was codified in the pronouncing dictionary ''Deutsche Bühnenaussprache'', edited by the German scholar
Theodor Siebs
Theodor Siebs (; 26 August 1862 – 28 May 1941) was a German linguist most remembered today as the author of '' Deutsche Bühnenaussprache'' ("German stage pronunciation"), published in 1898. The work was largely responsible for setting the stan ...
, and first published in 1898.
An artificial standard not corresponding directly to any
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
, Bühnendeutsch is mostly based on the
Standard German as spoken in Northern Germany. For example, the suffix ''
-ig'' is pronounced .
Sonorants
Three acceptable realizations of
Until 1957, only two pronunciations were allowed: an alveolar trill and an alveolar flap . After 1957, a uvular trill was also allowed. A voiced uvular fricative , used extensively in contemporary Standard German, is not allowed. Therefore, ''rot'' ('red') can be pronounced , and but not .
Rhoticism
The vocalized realization of found in German or Austrian Standard German corresponds to in Bühnendeutsch so ''für'' 'for' is pronounced rather than .
Whenever the sequence is vocalized to in German or Austrian Standard German, Bühnendeutsch requires a sequence so ''besser'' 'better' is pronounced rather than .
In contemporary Standard German, both of these features are found almost exclusively in Switzerland.
No schwa-elision
Contrary to Standard German, cannot be elided before a sonorant consonant (making it syllabic) so ''Faden'' 'yarn' is pronounced rather than the standard .
Fronting of word-final schwa
In loanwords from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, the word-final is realized as a short, tense so ''Psyche'' '
psyche
Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή).
Psyche may also refer to:
Psychology
* Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious
* ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...
' is pronounced rather than the standard .
Obstruents
Syllable-final fortition
As in Standard Northern German, syllable-final obstruents written with the letters used also for syllable-initial lenis sounds ( etc.) are realized as fortis so ''Absicht'' 'intention' is pronounced (note the full voicing of , which, in position immediately after a fortis, occurs only in Bühnendeutsch: see below), but ''Bad'' 'bath' is pronounced .
The corresponding standard southern (Southern German, Austrian, Swiss) pronunciations contain lenis consonants in that position: and , respectively.
Strong aspiration of
The voiceless plosives are aspirated in the same environments as in Standard German but more strongly, especially to environments in which the Standard German plosives are aspirated moderately and weakly: in unstressed intervocalic and word-final positions. That can be transcribed in the IPA as . The voiceless affricates are unaspirated , as in Standard German.
Complete voicing of lenis obstruents
The lenis obstruents
[Mangold transcribes the voiced palatal fricative with the symbol : as if it were an ]approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
. However, he explicitly states that is the lenis fricative counterpart of the fortis fricative (). It is also worth noting that among the lenis obstruents as well as the fortis counterpart of the () appear only in loanwords. are fully voiced after voiceless obstruents so ''abdanken'' 'to resign' is pronounced . That is in contrast with the Standard Northern pronunciation, which requires the lenis sounds to be devoiced in that position: . Southern standard accents (Southern German, Austrian, Swiss) generally realize the lenis sounds as voiceless in most or all positions and do not feature syllable-final fortition: .
See also
*
Standard German phonology
The phonology of Standard German is the standard pronunciation or accent of the German language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof as well as the geographical variants and the influence ...
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buhnendeutsch
German phonology
ja:ドイツ語音韻論#舞台発音