German has uvular fricatives!

[pne]

Hm, up till now I thought that German /x/ was [x]... but after listening to this page, I'm convinced that it's actually [X] (and that my /r/ is [R], not [G]).

(Also, my attempts at rhotic trills seem to be closer to an [R\] (uvular trill) than to an [r] (alveolar trill). Heh. My trills suck, and I blame my frenulum.)

Comments

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

I think it varies dialectically. AIUI, for instance, the Yiddish accent has /x/ for both the ich-laut and the ach-laut. Some have /x/ and some /X/ for the ach-laut. I think thought, that all the dialects that separate ich-laut from ach-laut have /C/ for the ich-laut. Having said that, ISTR my German teacher in school had something more like /S/ or maybe /C_+/.

[S] vs [C]

[pne.livejournal.com]

Having said that, ISTR my German teacher in school had something more like /S/ or maybe /C_+/.

*nods* There are even some areas which merge [S] and [C] into [S] (for them, "Kirche" and "Kirsche" sound the same); they have to learn which word is spelled which way.

These people tend to hypercorrect when they attempt to speak standard German and say things such as "fricher Fich" for "frischer Fisch".

Re: [S] vs [C]

[tungol.livejournal.com]

My sister did a 3-month exchange to Worms in her second-last year of high school, and apparently they merge [S] and [C] there. She generally pronounces the same, though she can hear and produce the difference.