German diction for singers: glottal stop, ich-Laut and ach-Laut, final devoicing and r

German diction for singers follows the stage standard, Bühnenaussprache. In 1898 theatre directors and Germanists met in Berlin to settle a uniform German stage pronunciation, and Siebs’s Deutsche Bühnenaussprache grew out of that meeting¹². Everyday speech differs on the r and the glottal stop, so each rule below is labeled sung or spoken. The wider diction section covers the other languages.

Vowels

As a general rule, long vowels are closed and long¹¹. Length follows spelling within the word element: a is long before h or one consonant, and short before two or more consonants¹¹. German vowels are pure: the sound does not change during the course of the vowel, as the Stanford pronunciation guide for singers teaches⁸.

Diphthongs and the reduced vowel:

German has several diphthongs⁸. Standard German pronunciation rests on a de facto standard documented in reference works⁴. The pronunciation Germans usually consider closest to the standard is that of Hanover⁴. Siebs set as his norm the northern German pronunciation of the High German spellings¹².

Spelling and sound: e, i and ä

Short e is very like the English short e in best, as in Rest and denn⁸. Long e is similar to the Italian closed e of che⁸. Unstressed e often turns into a schwa, as in gegeben and Auge⁸. Short i is pronounced like the English i in mitt, as in dich, mit and ist⁸. Long i is almost always spelled ih or ie, as in ihn, wie and liegen⁸. Long ä makes the same sound as long e, and short ä the same sound as short e⁸.

The umlaut ö

Nothing quite like ö exists in English⁸. Form the German long e, then round the lips as for o⁸.

Schwa

The schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables⁴. The German schwa is used only when e is unstressed¹¹.

The two ch sounds

German has two ch sounds, and neither exists in English, French or Italian¹¹. The ich-Laut is the voiceless palatal fricative [ç], as in ich⁴. The ach-Laut is the voiceless velar fricative [x], as in ach⁴. They are allophones of one sound in the language⁴, but the ach-Laut itself splits into two allophones, [x] and [χ], depending on the preceding vowel⁴.

Back vowels a, o and u precede [x]; i, e, y, ä, ü, ö and consonants precede [ç]¹¹. Teachers call the ich-Laut a cat hiss: if the tongue arch touches the hard palate, a [k] results¹¹. They call the ach-Laut preparing to spit: if the arch is too far forward, it becomes an ich-Laut¹¹. The ich-Laut is not the same as [ʃ]¹¹.

After the front vowels e and i, ch is similar to the h sound in huge, drawn out in time⁸. After the back vowels o, a and u, the air flow sits further back in the mouth⁸.

Final devoicing

Sung. Sung German devoices b, d and g at the end of a word element: final b is [p], final d is [t] and final g is [k]¹¹. Tag is [ta:k] and Hand is [hant]¹¹. The rule follows the word element, not the whole word: in Abbild the first b ends a prefix and becomes [p], and the second b begins the root and stays [b]¹¹. When a final vowel drops, as in hab’ for habe, the b keeps its voiced value¹¹. Final b is pronounced like p, as in ab⁸.

Everyday speech. The classical analysis, described in a mismatch negativity study, has the voiced values turn voiceless in a syllable coda¹⁰. The change takes place obligatorily in a set of core environments that include the word-final position¹⁰. It makes homophones of such pairs as Rad and Rat³. In the nominative form, without the genitive suffix, both are pronounced identically as [ra:t]¹⁰.

Standard German keeps g as [g] inside a word and [k] at the end. Pronouncing the g as [ç] or [x], so that Tag ends in an ach-Laut, is dialect in central and northern Germany¹². Regional context: the German varieties of the north, and many pronunciations of standard German, involve voice in the fortis-lenis distinction³. In southern varieties the lenis obstruents are voiceless⁴. Norwegian and Swedish do not have final devoicing³.

The glottal stop

Sung. Words and word elements that begin with a vowel are articulated by closing the vocal folds (the glottis) and gently blowing them apart on the onset of the vowel¹¹. The glottal onset is also called the glottal stroke¹¹. German and English use breaks, lifts and aspirate sounds, unlike the legato Romance languages¹¹. Where a word element ending in a consonant meets one that starts with a vowel, as in herein, use a glottal stroke and keep the consonant with the first syllable¹¹.

Everyday speech. A glottal stop is a consonantal sound produced by obstructing airflow in the glottis⁷. In German it occurs in careful speech before word stems that begin with a vowel⁴.

The r

Sung. Siebs preferred the alveolar tongue-tip r and opposed the uvular r that had become fashionable from French¹². The uvular r often used in spoken German does not work for singing, and the American English r is never appropriate⁸. The handbook transcribes initial, medial, intervocalic and final r in a word element as the flipped [ɾ]¹¹. After a vowel in a word element it gives [ɚ] or [ʁ], an r-colored vowel¹¹. At the end of a syllable an r may be hardly pronounced at all, or it turns into a schwa, as in der⁸.

Everyday speech. The German r can be uvular, alveolar or even dental⁴. Its place of articulation varies from uvular to velar depending on the vowel context⁴. The uvular r can be reduced to an approximant in an intervocalic position⁴, and it is devoiced after voiceless plosives and fricatives⁴. The uvular r has gained ground and predominates today¹². The moderate standard, the gemäßigte Hochlautung, allows the r to vocalize¹².

Other consonants

The German consonant system has an average number of consonants compared with other languages⁴. One of the more noteworthy consonants is the unusual affricate pf⁴. Consonants in clusters are all pronounced⁸.

Pronouncing sp and st with sh inside and at the end of words, as in Last and hast, is dialect, not standard¹².

Stage German versus everyday speech

Spoken pronunciation is not always the same as sung pronunciation¹¹. Siebs’s rules were meant from the outset as pronunciation for the stage¹². Siebs ruled out moving stage pronunciation mechanically into everyday speech¹².

Common mistakes for English speakers

• English sh for the ich-Laut. The ich-Laut is not [ʃ]¹¹.
• One ch for every word. There are two: [ç] and [x]¹¹.
• A ch for final g. Standard German keeps final g as [k]; [ç] or [x] for g is dialect¹².
• Voiced finals. Final b, d and g are [p], [t] and [k] in a word element¹¹.
• Devoicing a b that begins a root. In Abbild only the first b devoices¹¹.
• Skipping the glottal stroke before words and word elements that begin with a vowel¹¹.
• The uvular or American r. Neither carries in singing⁸.
• Sh before p or t inside a word. Last and hast keep s¹².
• A schwa that disappears. Unstressed e often turns into a schwa⁸.
• Lazy consonants. You cannot get away with lazy American English habits in German⁸.

William Odom and German for Singers

William Odom is professor of German language and music diction at the University of Southern Mississippi⁹. He authored the first edition of German for Singers, which appeared in 1981⁹. German for Singers: A Textbook of Diction and Phonetics has been the standard for German lyric diction instruction for more than 40 years⁹. The third edition was updated to reflect current International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) usage⁹.

The third edition adds Austrian baritone Benno Schollum, who studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and Christina Balsam Curren, who has taught at the Eastman School of Music since 1989⁹. The book puts difficult sounds first so that students have adequate time to practice them⁹. It includes consonant and vowel charts for English and German⁹.

Next steps

The symbols are laid out in IPA for singers, and Italian diction gives the contrast for German consonants. The Northern Colorado lyric diction handbook and the Strani jezici study of German pronunciation standards are the sources behind the sung rules. For scores, see Der Rosenkavalier and Fidelio.