Saturday, July 12, 2014

I Love You - in German



Ich liebe dich

Let's break it down:

"ich"
It sounds something like the /j/ sound in Spanish, kind of like a snake hissing.
Most English-speakers get away with saying "ish," as in "finish" or "fish."

"liebe"
Say this slowly "lee-buh."

"dich"
The "ich" in "Dich" is pronounced the same as "ich" in the first word.
"Dich" sounds similar to the English word "dish," except the /ch/ sound is produced in the middle of the mouth instead of the front.

If you want to get technical, that difficult /ch/ in German is a voiceless palatal fricative.
But it isn't pronounced the same way you would pronounce the /ch/ voiceless palatal fricative in English.

Yes, you can take the girl out of the linguistics and speech pathology career . . . . but you can't take the "annoying need to discuss these things" out of the girl!

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