schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5355 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch
| Message 1 of 10 12 August 2010 at 12:16pm | IP Logged |
I've been meaning to do one of these for a while, and I finally came across a passage I liked in a book I liked. Its from "alle Sprachen dieser Welt" by Zbigniew Mentzel ("Wszystkie jezyki swiata" in the original polish). It's a novel, but does have slight background theme of language learning (or rather, language failing) which makes it quite interesting. I'll post the text after the weekend, just to make it more challenging. You know you'll only peek otherwise.
All comments gratefully received. Even if you don't know exactly what is wrong, if you just mention the bits that sounded wierd, it may help.
edit: removed old link
a slightly better attempt. less whispery. more fluid
new improved schoenewaelder
Danke
Edited by schoenewaelder on 13 August 2010 at 11:04am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5103 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 2 of 10 12 August 2010 at 1:20pm | IP Logged |
That was actually very good!
[What I don't like about the recording is that you speak very quietly, to an extent it's almost whispering. This doesn't help you pronounce things well, nor us listening to it.]
I don't know why you had a problem with the word "füllten" (at 0:18). Perhaps it was the umlauted vowel. Too bad there weren't more ü/ö in the text.
The word "Bilder" (plural of das Bild) appeared several times and you seem to pronounce it in a weird manner. To me it kinda sounds like with a Scandinavian accent, hah :)
Your 'sch' sound, as at 1:14 in the word "verschwanden", is a bit too soft. Although, in other words you pronounce it well, so maybe it's only the fact that you spoke too slow and perhaps lacked a bit of confidence in pronouncing some words that lead to this.
1:45 Huh! In the word "Mir", I think you had a go at the German "R", didn't you?
Yeah, it's hard ;/
Edited by Derian on 12 August 2010 at 1:21pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5355 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch
| Message 3 of 10 12 August 2010 at 1:45pm | IP Logged |
You know, I hadn't even realised that. I do have a quite a quiet voice generally, but I think I probably was worried that the neighbours would think I had gone crazy.
Quote:
Too bad there weren't more ü/ö in the text. |
|
|
Lets just stick with the easy stuff for the moment!
Edited by schoenewaelder on 12 August 2010 at 1:45pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5115 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English
| Message 4 of 10 12 August 2010 at 9:42pm | IP Logged |
I also think that this was pretty good. Besides your problems with ü and ö that Derian has already pointed out, your r sometimes sounds a bit a like rolled/trilled r, for example in "waren" and "Straße", which gives your pronunciation a Southern German or East Prussian touch. If you want to blend in, you may want to pronounce the r more like a French (guttural) r, though not as "throaty" as in French. (BTW, a rolled r is perfectly acceptable in German, but most newscasters and TV actors don't speak it.)
I also noticed the "ch" in "hochwerfen" was almost pronounced as a [x] instead of a [ç]. There were also a couple of words in which the vowels were either a bit to short or a bit too long, but all in all, you did a pretty good job. Keep up the good work!
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5561 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin
| Message 5 of 10 12 August 2010 at 10:43pm | IP Logged |
Long/short vowel distinction - füllten ihre Gläser, not fühlten ihre Gläser; Geschirr has a short vowel, I also don't hear a clear distinction between long and short e and o, schwas, 'ch' - at least once you pronounced it like /k/, sometimes like Doitsujin mentioned. Are you located in Bavaria?
Prosody and stress leave room for improvement, I'd really like to hear how you sound after trying to mimick German stress patterns for a week or two.
Not bad, though. Just in case you wondered.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5355 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch
| Message 6 of 10 13 August 2010 at 10:48am | IP Logged |
Yes, I had another listen, and it does sound a bit "Biijlder" or "Biuhjlder"
I'm not sure if it's because I've got a bit of a weak "l", or because I was trying extra hard to emphasise the "l" and it messed up the vowel. Also I probably don't hit my teeth with my tongue when I say my "d"s and my "-er"s tend to be a bit erratic - anything from -e, to -ère, to -ör.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5355 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch
| Message 7 of 10 13 August 2010 at 10:52am | IP Logged |
cool
Quote:
I also noticed the "ch" in "hochwerfen" was almost pronounced as a [x] instead of a [ç] |
|
|
It was years before I realised there even was a difference.
Edited by schoenewaelder on 13 August 2010 at 10:52am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5355 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch
| Message 8 of 10 13 August 2010 at 10:57am | IP Logged |
Bao wrote:
Are you located in Bavaria?
|
|
|
Berlin. I have been listening to quite a bit of Schweizerdeutsch lately, where they use an impressively throaty sound for both k and ch, but I don't think I can really blame that. It's just my general inconsistance.
Quote:
Prosody and stress leave room for improvement, I'd really like to hear how you sound after trying to mimick German stress patterns for a week or two.
|
|
|
I like your optimism. I'll get back to you in 6 months.
Edited by schoenewaelder on 13 August 2010 at 10:57am
1 person has voted this message useful
|