Cities where "Standard" German is spoken
I'm wondering whether anyone can tell me where the most "Standard" German is spoken. (I'm not asking for a value judgement on the various dialects--so no flame wars--just looking for the places where they speak closest to what is taught to foreigners, especially the accent.)
I've heard that Hannover claims that distinction, but have also heard smaller towns like Hameln and Frankenberg mentioned. And possibly places in the former East Germany? And do the major cities (Berlin et al.) differ that much from the standard?
Thanks for any input.
My German professor told me that Hanoverians tend to have a pretty standardized dialect (unlike the surrounding area). I'm not positive though.
Kassel ist gut. Aber ich hab' auch oft gehört, daß Hannover spricht Hochdeutsch ausgezeichnet .
When I lived there the people in Hessen said that Hannover had the snobbiest accent, and that it was considered the closest thing to pure and/or standard German. Curiously, they said that people in Hannover pronounce "st-" sounds the way we do in English, rather than like "sht-". I would like to hear this sometime. Unfortunately I only spent time in the airport in Hannover on my way to Montreal, so I didn't have much chance to witness this accent.
I think Hanover is generally accepted as the city that speaks the purest standard German. All of the big cities in Germany and Austria speak standard German just with a regional accent and a few local words, so it's not something to worry about. I personally find the Bavarian/Austrian accent to be very pleasant and colorful.
Pleasant and colorful, yes, but also wildly difficult to understand at times. Still, not as bad as ze Schweizerdeutsch.
A complex question, indeed!
Since the Hochsprache--the standardized version of the language--was largely coalesced by Martin Luther's translation of the Bible, and that translation was based largely on the dialects of the South, one might expect that there would be a town in that region that exemplifies "true standard German".
The problem is that the Hochsprache attempts to strike a "happy medium" among the various dialects--that is, to create some common ground for mutual understanding of dialects that often were not mutually intelligible.
That said, Hannover is a town that is often cited as having a "standard" German pronunciation and vocabulary.
Of course, all educated people in German-speaking countries speak both the Hochsprache and a regional dialect of some sort, with whatever degree of divergence it may have from that standardized language.
I agree that the Bavarian dialects are particularly pleasant on the ears (of course, this is the dialect I happen to speak, and was the region where I learned the Hochsprache as well), but I cannot claim that it bears a close similarity to the textbook standard.
Just my $.02-worth, but hope my perspective may be of some help.
How about some of the towns near Hannover: Göttingen, Münster, Magdeburg, Braunschweig, et al?
As somebody said before, every educated person should be able to speak hoch deutsch, as it happens everywhere, in every country!
Hoch Deustch is spoken in Krefeld Uerdingen and Dduisburg- Mundleheim den Rheim up to Wuppertal! It was Luther indeed who first translated the bible in a dialect to be understandable for all Germans; Goethe, Schiller u.z.w. contributed to the Standard langauge development, later on , as well.
Luther built Hochdeutsch as a language mainly based on the dialects of Central Germany (Saxon and especially Thuringian), a language that borrowed many morphologies from the South and that should be pronounced with a Northern accent.
As a result there is no area in Germany where German is natively spoken to its perfection!
Best choice is the "South of the North". Hannover z.B. Besonders empfehlenswert sind OSNABRÜCK u. GÖTTINGEN.
"Hoch Deustch is spoken in Krefeld Uerdingen and Dduisburg- Mundleheim den Rheim up to Wuppertal!"
— Quatsch. Ruhrgebiet-Kauderwelsch ist keineswegs als Hochsprache einzustufen...
— Quatsch. Ruhrgebiet-Kauderwelsch ist keineswegs als Hochsprache einzustufen...
Was " quatsch?" Lebst Du dort oder was? Meine Frau ist von Duisburg...Ich kenne sehr gut die Umgebungen und selbstverstandlich, kenne ich auch sehr gut, wie die Leute dort, sprechen...Es is wie ich erst gesagt habe!
In der Regel sagt man entweder "Was denkt ihr ueber den Meißener Dialekt" oder aber "Was haltet ihr von ..."
Hannover (all speakers) and Hamburg (speakers not older than 60 y.o.)
''Of course, all educated people in German-speaking countries speak both the Hochsprache and a regional dialect of some sort, with whatever degree of divergence it may have from that standardized language. ''
But in most parts of Northern Germany, the regional language (Plattdüutss) was replaced by Hochdeutsch, so they are no dialects of German language in North to mix with, that's why Northern Hochdeutsch (except from the region close to the Danish border) sounds more standard than Central & Southern Germany Hochdeusch (where local dialects are closely related to the Hochdeutsch, so they mix easily).
Furthermore, German pronunciation was based on the Northern model (Hannover, and to an extend: Hamburg) because the phonetic reformer was from there (from Hannover).
Hochdeusch is a mixture of Central & Southern German vocabulary, East German (Saxony) syntax and Northern phonetics/phonology.
Brennus : pourquoi certaines contributions sur ce sujet ont elles été supprimées ? Peux-tu motiver cette décision par autre chose qu'un silence embarrassé ? Merci.
Greg: Ce forum n'est pas une salle de bavardage. Si cela devient une salle de bavardage il y aura le chaos. J'espère que vous comprenez.