The vowels are: a, ä, e, i, o, ö, u, ü.

The diphthongs or compound vowels are: ai, ei, au, äu, eu; all other letters are consonants.

II. SIMPLE VOWELS.

Every vowel, followed by two consonants, is pronounced short: followed by only one consonant, it is long.

A, a, is pronounced like a in the English word

father.

Alter,

Vater,

Ae, a, is pronounced like a in the English word care.

Kälte,

Käse,

Lärm,

Säbel,
7

Blätter,

Länder.

E, e, is pronounced like e in the English word letter.

denken,

trennen

Ende,

Litel,
Männer,

Rebe.

I, i, is pronounced like e in the English word me. ̧

Esel,

Etel,

reden,

Fltis,

finden,

Ofen,

rollen,

, o, is pronounced like o in the English word hope.

De, ő, is pronounced like u in the English word

I, u, is pronounced like oo in the English word roof.

Blut,
Blume,

lle, ü, is pronounced like the French u. There is no corresponding sound in the English language.

,, has the sound of the German i, by which it is generally replaced.

III. DOUBLE VOWELS.

The double vowels, aa, ee, oo, are no diphthongs, because only one letter is sounded, and the second only serves to indicate that the syllable is long.

Je, ie, is pronounced like ea in the English word meat.

In the German diphthongs, the two vowels must be sounded one after the other, but so quickly as to form only one syllable.

Ai and ei are pronounced almost alike, and have the sound of the English ¿ in the word fire.

Saite,

Seite,

Maus,

Baum,

Au, is pronounced like ou in the English word house,

rauben,

laufen,

blau,

faum,

Aeu and eu, are both pronounced like oy in the

English word joy.

Mäuse,
Bäume,

The pronunciation of the consonants differ but little in the two languages; the scholar should remark the following peculiarities.

C, c, before a, e, and i, is pronounced like ts.

Cäsar,

Cedar,

Citrone.

Before a, o, it, before a consonant and at the end of a syllable, it is pronounced like k, by which in most cases it may be replaced.

Carl,
Conrad,

Curt,
Creole,

Tombac,

Classe.

Ch, at the beginning of a word is pronounced like k, except in words derived from the French, when it preserves the French pronunciation.

In the middle or at the end of a word ch has a pronunciation quite peculiar to the German language, and more or less gutteral, but for which no corresponding sound can be found in English; it is like the Scotch ch in the word loch after a, o, u, au, but softer after ä, é, i, ö, ü, äu, eu, and after a consonant.

chs or chs is pronounced like a when these conso nants belong to the root or radical syllable.

Wachs,
Ochs,

Fuchs, sechs,

1*

wachsen,

Büchse.

But the d preserves its gutteral pronunciation, when it stands before the 8 or f by contraction or in a composed word.

nachsehen,

wachsen, des Buchs instead of des Buches G, g, at the beginning of a syllable is pronounced like the English g in the word good; but between two vowels, in the middle of a word, and at the end of a syl. lable, it has a sound like the ch, only much softened.

gehen,
Wagen,

Regen,

groß,
Sieg,

Krug,

Gabe,

artig,

richtig.

After it at the end of a word it is pronounced like very soft k.

Gang,

Ning,

Sprung.

S, h, is always aspirated at the beginning of a syl.

lable.

Reihe,

Ruhe,

After a vowel or a t, the h is not pronounced, but only indicates that the syllable is long.

I, i, only stands at the beginning of a syllable, and is pronounced like the English y in the word yet.

f replaces the double f, and is pronounced short.

Brücke,

Jugend.

Acker.

Quer.

Qu, qu, has the sound of qu in English.

S, f, s, at the beginning of a syllable is pronounced like the English 2, at the end of a syllable, however, like

The long f is placed at the beginning and in the middle, only at the end of syllables. If in a non

composed word there are two s, one after another, they are written ss.

Wasser,

wissen,

müssen.

is only placed at the end or in the middle of syl. lables; it is always preceded by a long vowel, and has the sound of the English 88.

Straße,

groß,

Sch, sch is pronounced like the English sh.

Schatten,

schlafen,

Schule,

Schild,

fließen.

Peitsche,

Tisch.

ft and sp are pronounced like st and sp in English;

but in some parts of Germany they pronounce st at the beginning of a word like sht, and sp like shp.

Stuhl,

stehlen,

spielen,

stechen.

Vieh.

W, w is pronounced like the English v.

Welt,

Wiese,

3, is sounded like ts.

Zahl,

Zorn,

Zeit,

zwanzig,

replaces the double and is pronounced very hard.

Blitz,

Nutzen

Wand.

Holz,

Herz.

setzen.

VI. SYLLABIC ACCENT.

The Germans never pronounce several successive syllables one after the other with the same force; the principal syllables are pronounced with a louder, and the others with a softer tone. The end-syllables in German words are pronounced very softly.

The accent is always laid upon the radical syllable, that is, upon the one which includes the principal idea; thus in the word Gerechtigkeit (justice) which is derived from recht (just), the second syllable is pronounced more strongly than the rest.

In compound words, the first syllable always has the accent, because it presents the principal idea and modifies the following one: Blumengarten, Gartenblume.