Vowels

Here is a thorough explanation of Vowels. The German examples are in "Standard German". In general I have trusted my dictionary when I chose the English examples, i.e. the examples should reflect British (BBC) pronounciation.

The bold printed sound to every phonem is the preferred ('native') pronounciation. The other given sounds are rather approximations.

Vowels Sounds

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i   i:		u   u:
Mid	e   e:		o   o:
Open		a   a:

Vowel Phonemes

Short Vowels:

Phonem	Sounds/Allophones	English example	German example	Remarks
/ i /	[i], [ɪ]	city   [sɪtɪ]	vital   [vi'tal]
/ e /	[e], [ɛ]	let   [let]	Methan   [me'ta:n]
/ a /	[a], [ɑ], [ʌ]	cut   [kʌt]	kalt   [kalt]
/ o /	[o], [ɔ]		Moral   [mo'ral]
/ u /	[u], [ʊ]		kulant   [ku'lant]

For short vowels it is possible to substitute the lax variants (near-close, near-open). It usually happens in fast speech. However, it is considered slurring.


Long Vowels:

Phonem	Sounds/Allophones	English example	German example	Remarks
/ î /	[i:]	see   [si:]	viel   [fi:l]
/ ê /	[e:]		See   [ze:]
/ â /	[a:], [ɑ:]	far   [fɑ:]	Hahn   [ha:n]
/ ô /	[o:]		hohl   [ho:l]
/ û /	[u:]	boot   [bu:t]	Fuß   [fu:s]

Long vowels are twice as long as short vowels. (-> Timing and Stress).


Diphtongs:

Phonem	Sounds/Allophones	English example	German example	Remarks
/ ei /	[ei]	lady   [leidi]
/ ai /	[ai], [aɪ]	light   [laɪt]	Mai   [mai]
/ oi /	[oi], [oɪ], [ɔɪ]	joy   [dʒɔɪ]	Bäume   [boimɛ]
/ ui /	[ui]		pfui   [pfui]
/ ao /	[ao], [au], [aʊ]	wow!   [waʊ]	rauh   [rau]

Diphtongs are spoken long, twice as long as short vowels. (-> Timing and Stress)