German pronunciation books?

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moo
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German pronunciation books?

Postby moo » Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:09 pm

Hey guys!

Just wondering whether anyone knows of a good book, preferably with audio , which teaches German pronunciation?

thanks in advance ^_^
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Elexi
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Elexi » Wed Nov 16, 2016 12:42 pm

There is this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pronounce-Perf ... 0812015746
(if you can find a cheap booklet - PM me about the audio)

For free you could try the FSI German Programmed Introduction course - its a terrible course, but it has a good chunk of pronunciation practice
http://www.fsi-language-courses.net/fsi ... e-courses/
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Speakeasy
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Speakeasy » Wed Nov 16, 2016 1:06 pm

You might wish to consider the following publications:

Phonothek intensiv
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Phonothek+intensiv
Note carefully that the CDs are sold separately and that the course book is written entirely in German. The authors suggest that, from the point of view of simple pronunciation of sounds, this book can be used by beginners. However, from the point of view actually working with the exercises (vocabulary), this publication should be reserved for students entering intermediate level of German; that is, B1. Having tried this book as a beginner, I have to agree with their assessment. This is a very rigorous course in pronunciation and it is the better of the three publications that I own.

Pronounce It Perfectly in German
https://www.amazon.com/Pronounce-Perfectly-German-English/dp/0812080343/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479300075&sr=1-2&keywords=Pronounce+German
I have a copy of this publication for Spanish, Italian, French, and German (the latter without the audio). This is little more than a phrase book. I found that practicing the exercises was no better than practicing the dialogues and exercises from any course book with audio and, for this reason, I cannot recommend for any of the languages for which I have a copy.

How to Pronounce German Correctly
https://www.amazon.com/Pronounce-German-Correctly-Cassette-clamshell/dp/084422541X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479299482&sr=1-2&keywords=How+to+Pronounce+German+Correctly
Although the approach in this publication is similar to that of the "Pronounce It Perfectly in German" book, I found that it better meets the needs of the student. Nonetheless, I still found that using this publication was not much better than practicing the dialogues and exercises from any course book with audio.

Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-German-pronunciation-introduction-speakers/dp/0719066891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479302441&sr=8-1&keywords=German+Pronunciation The customer reviews on Amazon are quite favourable.The audio files are freely available on the publisher's website: http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719066894/. I decided not to purchase this book as my brief review of the free audio files left me with the impression that, for the student seeking exercise materials, the "Phonothek intensiv" course was the better choice ... er, for me.

Amazon.de "aussprache Deutsch"
As an afterthought to the main part of my post, I entered "aussprache Deutsch" on Amazon.de on the off-chance that there might be a few publications related to your question. You can review the materials, the customer reviews, and refine your own searches: https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_6_5?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=aussprache+deutsch&sprefix=aussp%2Caps%2C221&crid=318W6QWGXNJL0

The Internet
If you Google "German Pronunciation", your search will yield a number of free websites offering a handful of well-intentioned exercises which, in my view, are not very useful for the serious student.

By the way, the discussion thread "Is pronunciation a function of intelligence?" http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4930 makes for interesting reading. I decided not to participate in the discussions because, despite the fact that I adopted French as my primary language some thirty years ago, my pronunciation continues to be absolutely atrocious as is that of my German, despite having practiced with the materials listed above.

EDITED:
Typos: wie immer!
Addendum: inclusion of "Modern German pronunciation: An introduction for speakers of English"
Link: to "Is pronunciation a function of intelligence?"
Addendum: link to Amazon.de
Correction: to the information concerning "Phonothek intensiv": suggested level for study is B1, not "already completed the intermediate level" as indicated in the original text.
Addendum: "Phonothek intensiv" is entirely in German.
Last edited by Speakeasy on Mon Nov 21, 2016 1:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Elexi
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Elexi » Wed Nov 16, 2016 2:07 pm

I forgot to add - the freely available recordings for Colloquial German is a good resource for Anglophone speakers (for the pronunciation practice see the link - German 1 - tracks 2-17).

http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textb ... german.php
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Cavesa
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Cavesa » Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:08 pm

I used the pronunciation drills in FSI Basic.

No matter the pros and ons of the course, the pronunciation drills are awesome, the results were really good, especially considering the time I spent learning the pronunciation. A few well invested hours. Thanks for the tips, I am considering using some more Phonetik resources too.

And Forvo.com

Right now, I am goldlisting German vocabulary. And I consult forvo whenever something I am no entirely sure about arises. There are as well speakers from various regions, which makes it even more useful. But of course, it is not for the initial pronunciation rules acqusition.
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moo
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby moo » Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:10 pm

Thanks so much guys <3 That's really helpful!

There are some pronunciation trainers online, I might research that a little too before i pick a book/ trainer course.
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Speakeasy
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Jan 12, 2017 11:39 pm

While digging through my own collection of German-language audio recordings, I happened upon a set of Exercise Materials that I had downloaded from the Indiana University's CeLT website a couple of years ago:

German Archive
http://www.iu.edu/~celtie/german_archive.html

Should documentation exist to accompany these recordings, I suspect that it would be available only to faculty, staff and to registered students at the university. Nevertheless, even without the documentation, these archives provide an interesting opportunity for Intermediate students to review their German pronunciation and to familiarize themselves with German dialects.
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Soclydeza » Fri Jan 13, 2017 12:06 am

If you can get your hands on the Pimsleur courses, I think those or best for pronunciation, since they slow things down and speak clearly; that's what really helped my accent.

I also know that FSI has entire sections devoted to pronunciation. I never used this for German, but the French version was very thorough, so I expect the German version would be as well.

I also know the Hugo in 3 Months series has a pretty thorough pronunciation section as well. Again, I just skipped this for German but the French version was good.

I know you came here asking for a book and I don't want to be that guy that gives you advice that conflicts with what you asked for but... I'm gonna be that guy that gives you advice that conflicts with what you asked for. Going over examples in a book specifically for pronunciation can be a bit arduous. I think you'd be better off mimicking what you hear and comparing it to transcripts to see the sound-to-written word relation; you should pick up on it pretty quickly. German is very uniform in its pronunciation scheme, meaning that vowel-consonant clusters are almost always pronounced the same way (with some exceptions, of course), so once you get it down, you pretty much have it. If you have trouble with certain sounds (most common problems that Anglophones have with German are /r/, /ch/, sometimes /ö/ and /ü/), look up videos or just ask for examples to help you (for example, if you can sound like Chewbacca from Star Wars, you can pretty much do the /r/). Not that books specified for this won't help you, but it can be a pretty dry experience and I think you'd be saving time and killing two birds with one stone by focusing on mimicking the audio as you go through your other courses. I hope that helps, viel Glück!
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Speakeasy
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Jan 13, 2017 12:15 am

Soclydeza wrote: ... Going over examples in a book specifically for pronunciation can be a bit arduous. I think you'd be better off mimicking what you hear and comparing it to transcripts to see the sound-to-written word relation ...
Very good point!
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Re: German pronunciation books?

Postby tastyonions » Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:48 am

Haha, the uvular R as Chewbacca analogy is great. I hadn't thought of that before.
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