Pronunciation of 'France'

Guest   Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:59 pm GMT
Uriel Said:< Germans at that time (30 years ago) seemed to have it stuck in their heads that Americans *never* learn other people's languages >

A view also quite common with small town folks here in Germany LOL.

People here were shocked when an American nun visited our local Church and started to speak German. For some strange reason they didn't mistaken her for English (which I think would be more logical) but thought she was Dutch. Some of her pronunciation of German words sounded how would some Dutch people would pronunce.

I nevered heard an American before speak fluent German other from David Hasselhoff singing a Christmas carol in German and also the Great President kennedy with his famous quite 'Ich bin berliner' though I suspect President Kennedy wasn't fluent.
Johannes   Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:03 pm GMT
The post above this is mine.
Uriel   Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:45 pm GMT
Oh, dear; to have David Hasselhoff representing us internationally....

I spoke German until I was 5 and my family moved back to the US (well, back for them; I had never lived there before). Now, unfortunately, it is all gone. But I'm told I spoke with the local accent, which must have been either Bavarian (I was born in Wurzburg) or from around the Karlsruhe area (we moved around a lot), just south of you.
Benjamin   Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:37 am GMT
Johannes — you do accept that it wasn't me who wrote that offensive message, don't you? I just want to make sure.
Benjamin   Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:36 am GMT
Uriel - wow so didn't your parents maintain the German language at home? LOL the bavarian accent well here in Germany some of us particularly from Northern Germany find their accent abit 'rough on the edges' not pleasant to the ears.

Benjamin - It's okay but thankyou for your concern. I now understand what had happened thanks to the other people explaining that trolls are on the loose. I never heard the term 'troll' used in another context before other from the beast under the bridge.
Johannes   Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:39 am GMT
Sorry the last post is by me not Benjamin

<Oh, dear; to have David Hasselhoff representing us internationally....>

Why? he is a wonderful person. I enjoyed watching videos of Baywatch from the late 1980's a wonderful American movie star. I recently came across a old programme with David Hasselhoff called 'NightRider' such classics I would love to see more of.
Uriel   Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:45 am GMT
Well, my parents are American, and my mother was the only one fluent in German. My dad speaks what he calls "survival German" -- just enough to get by. Now that he has a wife who speaks English as her 5th language, I think he has to use it a little bit more!

Yeah, my stepbrother has told me that Bavarians are considered a breed apart! ;) He won't say WHY, exactly....

David Hasselhoff is considered uber-cheesy in the US. But I remember watching "Nightrider" as a kid (*cough*) ... the car was lots of fun ... Kit ... always sarcastic, as I recall. I had a roommate once who was very proud of the fact that she owned a car of the same make and model as Kit. Last time I saw her, she was "working on" getting it painted ... which meant she had been driving around in a coat of black primer for months and months.
Jason   Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:47 am GMT
Being that I have begun learning German, I am curious about something. Does the german language have anything which is the German equivalent of the british RP? The audio CD's which accompany my textbook contain examples of what I am almost certain is "standard" German speech. However, I know that there are regional variations (without even getting into schwezendeutsch which some claim is practically a whole different language). What i want to know is this: Is there some type of german accent which is considered very posh and is only spoken by a small minority of the population? Or is German more like American English in which the majority of speakers simply speak GAE with only some people speaking with a SE, a NYC, or a New England variety?

(GAE is used in everything from "The OC" to "Revenge of the Nerds"). Are Germans' regional origins easily identifiable by their accents as is the case in Britain or not so easily identifiable as is the case in the US and especially in Canada or Australia?
Kirk   Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:52 am GMT
<<GAE is used in everything from "The OC">>

Hehe, The OC is funny because the actors get the vowels right sometimes. Being from California, I can tell which of the actors are really from here and which ones need more time with the dialect coach.
Candy   Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:42 am GMT
Jason,
As far as I know, the Hannover accent is assumed to be the 'best' variety of German (at least that's what I've heard), although I'm sure Johannes could answer this question much better than I can! German regional accents are extremely strong, often incomprehensible to people from other regions, although I believe that these regional dialects are slowly disappearing - unfortunately. One of my students told me last week that her grandparents spoke the local (Rhineland) dialect as their native language, her parents can speak it but mostly use Hochdeutsch, while she herself has no knowledge of the dialect.
WTR   Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:38 am GMT
I think 'Leftenant' is the British for 2nd Lieutenant. And for a short-Colonels, ie: 'Leftenant Colonel'.
WTR   Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:39 am GMT
Also stems from the navy, when you had Midshipmen, then you had 'Leftenants' and then Lieutenants...or something like that.
This was back when the Army had 'Ensigns', mind you.
Guest   Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:01 pm GMT
"I think 'Leftenant' is the British for 2nd Lieutenant. And for a short-Colonels, ie: 'Leftenant Colonel'."

The British (and Canadian and Australian and New Zealander and Jamaican and Indian etc., etc.) for 2nd Lieutenant is - 2nd Lieutenant (pronounced "leftenant").

"Half-colonels" are lieutenant colonels and it's still pronounced "leftenant."
Uriel   Sun Jan 22, 2006 8:21 pm GMT
Explain Hochdeutsch, please. I thought that was the "standard" dialect of German.
Travis   Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:03 pm GMT
Well, things aren't that simple. "Hochdeutsch" has two meanings. It strictly just means "High German", that is, all the West Germanic dialects to which the Second Germanic Sound Shift applied. However, the term is also informally used, especially if it is also referred to as "standard", to refer to the formal literary form of German, the sort that one would normally expect to be taught to individuals who do not natively speak any Low or High German dialect, Dutch included. To avoid ambiguity, I prefer to speak of just "standard Hochdeutsch"; however, in this context I am using "Hochdeutsch" solely in its strict sense of High German as a whole, and rather the adjective "standard" is being used to explicitly state that that which is being referred to is the formal/literary variety of such.