German orthography

German orthography, although largely phonemic, shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogic to other spellings rather than phonemic. Nevertheless, the pronunciation of almost every word can be derived from its spelling, once the spelling rules are known.

History of German orthography

Middle Ages

The oldest known German texts date back to the 8th century. They are written mainly in monasteries in different local dialects of Old High German. In these texts, the letter "z" along with combinations such as "tz", "cz", "zz", "sz" or "zs" was chosen to transcribe the sounds /ts/ and IPA|/s(ː)/. This is ultimately the origin of the modern German letters "z", "tz" and "ß" (an old "sz"-ligature). After the Carolingian Renaissance, however, during the reigns of the Ottonian and Salian dynasties in the 10th century and 11th century, German was hardly ever written any more, the literary language being almost exclusively Latin.

Only in the High Middle Ages, during the reign of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, there was again significant production of German texts. Around the year 1200, there was a first tendency towards a standardized Middle High German language and spelling, based on the Franconian-Swabian language of the Hohenstaufen court. However, that language was only used in the epic poetry and minnesang lyric of the knight culture. These early tendencies of standardization ceased in the interregnum after the death of the last Hohenstaufen king in 1254. Certain features of today's German orthography still date back to Middle High German: The use of the trigraph "sch" for IPA|/ʃ/ and the occasional use of "v" for /f/ because around the 12th and 13th century, prevocalic /f/ was voiced.

In the following centuries, the only variety that showed a marked tendency to be used across regions was the Middle Low German of the Hanseatic League, based on the variety of Lübeck and used in many areas of Northern Germany and indeed northern Europe in general.

Early modern period

Until the 16th century, a new interregional standard developed on the basis of the East Central German and Austro-Bavarian varieties. This was influenced by several factors:

*Under the Habsburg dynasty, there was a strong tendency to a common language in the chancellery.
*Since Eastern Central Germany had only been colonized during the High and Late Middle Ages in the course of the Drang nach Osten by people from different regions of Germany, the varieties spoken were compromises of different dialects.
*Eastern Central Germany was culturally very important, with the universities of Erfurt and Leipzig and especially with the Luther Bible translation which was considered exemplary.
*The invention of printing led to an increased production of books, and the printers were interested in using a common language in order to sell their books in an area as wide as possible.

In the Mid 16th century, when, during the Counter-Reformation, Catholicism was reintroduced in Austria and Bavaria, the Lutherian language was rejected. Instead, a specific Southern interregional language was used, based on the language of the Habsburgian chancellery.

In Northern Germany, the Lutheran East Central German replaced the Low German written language until Mid 17th century. In the early 18th century, the Lutheran standard was also introduced in the Southern states and countries, Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland, due to the influence of Northern German writers, grammarians such as Johann Christoph Gottsched or language cultivation societies such as the Fruitbearing Society.

19th century and early 20th century

Even though by mid 18th century, one norm was generally established, there was no institutionalized standardization. Only with the introduction of the compulsory education in late 18th and early 19th century was the spelling further standardized, though at first independently in each state, due to the political fragmentation of Germany. Only the foundation of the Prussian German Empire in 1871 allowed for further standardization.

In 1876, the Prussian government instituted the 1st Orthographic Conference in order to achieve a standardization for the entire German Empire. However, its results were rejected, among others by Prime Minister of Prussia Otto von Bismarck.

In 1880, Gymnasium director Konrad Duden published the "Vollständiges Orthographisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache" (‘Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language’), known simply as Duden. In the same year, the Duden was declared to be authoritative in Prussia. Since Prussia was by far the largest state in the German Empire, its regulations also influenced spelling elsewhere, for instance, in 1894, when Switzerland recognized the Duden.

In 1901, the interior minister of the German Empire instituted the 2nd Orthographic Conference. It declared the Duden to be authoritative, with a few innovations. In 1902, its results were approved by the governments of the German Empire, of Austria and of Switzerland.

In 1944, the Nazi German government planned to reform the orthography. However, due to the war, this reform was never implemented.

After 1902 German spelling was essentially decided "de facto" by the editors of the Duden dictionaries. After World War II, this tradition was followed with two different centers: Mannheim in West Germany and Leipzig in East Germany. By the early 1950s, a few other publishing houses had begun to attack the Duden monopoly in the West by putting out their own dictionaries, which did not always hold to the “official” spellings prescribed by Duden. In response, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings to be binding as of November, 1955.

The Duden editors used their power cautiously, because they considered their primary task to be the documentation of usage, not the creation of rules. At the same time, however, they found themselves forced to make finer and finer distinctions in the production of German spelling rules, and each new print run introduced a few reformed spellings.

German spelling reform of 1996

The new orthography is only obligatory in schools. According to the decision of July 14, 1998, of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany [ [http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs19980714_1bvr164097.html Bundesverfassungsgericht, Urteil vom 14. Juli 1998, Az.: 1 BvR 1640/97] ] outside the schools everybody can write as before, because there is no law ruling orthography. The majority of Germans use the traditional German orthography. Therefore it is necessary to differentiate between the new and the traditional orthography. The result is a general insecurity and a "Beliebigkeitsschreibung", that is, idiosyncratic spelling, for example "traditional": "Schloßstraße", "new": "Schlossstraße", but wrong: "Schlossstrasse" or "Schloßstrasse".

Features of German spelling

Vowel length

Even though vowel length is phonemic in German, it is not consistently represented. However, there are different ways of identifying long vowels:

*A vowel in an open syllable (a free vowel) is long, for instance in "ge-ben" ('to give'), "sa-gen" ('to say').
*The digraph "ie" usually represents long IPA|/iː/, for instance in "Liebe" ('love'), "hier" ('here'); occasionally it represents IPA|/iː.ə/ as in the plural noun "Knie" IPA|/kniː.ə/ ('knees') (cf. the singular "Knie" IPA|/kniː/). This use is a historical spelling based on the Middle High German diphthong IPA|/iə/ which was monophthongized in Early New High German. It has been generalized to words that etymologically never had that diphthong, for instance "viel" ('much'), "Friede" ('peace') (Middle High German "vil", "vride").
*A silent "h" indicates the vowel length in certain cases. That "h" derives from an old IPA|/x/ in some words, for instance "sehen" ('to see') "zehn" ('ten'), but in other words it has no etymological justification, for instance "gehen" ('to go') or "mahlen" ('to mill').
*The letters "a", "e", "o" may be doubled in a few words, for instance "Saat" ('seed'), "See" ('sea'/'lake'), "Moor" ('moor').
*A doubled consonant after a vowel often indicates that the vowel is short, while a single consonant indicates the vowel is long, e.g. _de. "Kamm" ('comb') has a short vowel IPA|/kam/, while _de. "kam" ('came') has long vowel IPA|/kaːm/.

Double or triple consonants

Even though German does not have phonemic consonant length, there are many instances of doubled or even tripled consonants in the spelling. A single consonant following a checked vowel is doubled if another vowel follows, for instance "immer" ‘always’, "lassen" ‘let’. These consonants are analyzed as ambisyllabic because they constitute not only the syllable onset of the second syllable, but also the syllable coda of the first syllable, which must not be empty because the syllable nucleus is a checked vowel.

By analogy, if a word has one form with a doubled consonant, all forms of that word are written with a doubled consonant, even if they do not fulfill the conditions for consonant doubling; for instance, "rennen" ‘to run’ → "er rennt" ‘he runs’; "Küsse" ‘kisses’ → "Kuss" ‘kiss’.

Triple consonants affect only the spelling, not the pronunciation. They occur when words are written together, as in "Schifffahrt" (‘shipping’) from "Schiff" and "Fahrt", "Sauerstoffflasche" (‘oxygen bottle’) from "Sauerstoff" and "Flasche". Before the spelling reform of 1996, only two consonants were written if the sequence was followed by a vowel (e.g. "Schiffahrt" but "Sauerstoffflasche"). If hyphenated at the end of a line, all three consonants were always written (e.g., "Schiff-fahrt" and "Sauerstoff-flasche"). The new spelling of both words is "Schifffahrt" and "Sauerstoffflasche", with triple consonants in all contexts.

Typical letters

ei: This digraph represents the diphthong IPA|/a͡ɪ/. The spelling goes back to the Middle High German pronunciation of that diphthong, which was IPA| [e͡i] . The spelling "ai" is only found in very few words.

eu: This digraph represents the diphthong IPA| [ɔ͡ʏ] which goes back to the Middle High German monophthong IPA| [yː] represented by "iu".

ß: This letter alternates with "ss". "For more information, see:" ß.

st, sp: At the beginning of the main syllable of a word, these digraphs are pronounced IPA|/ʃt, ʃp/. In the Middle Ages, the sibilant that was inherited from Proto-Germanic /s/ was pronounced as an alveolo-palatal consonant IPA| [ɕ] or IPA| [ʑ] , unlike the voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] that had developed in the High German consonant shift. In the Late Middle Ages, certain instances of IPA| [ɕ] merged with [s] , but others developed into IPA| [ʃ] . This change to IPA| [ʃ] was represented in certain spellings, for instance "Schnee" ‘snow’, "Kirsche" ‘cherry’ (Middle High German "snê", "kirse"). The digraphs "st", "sp", however, remained unaltered.

v: The letter "v" occurs only in a few native words. In these native words, it represents /f/. This goes back to the 12th and 13th century, when prevocalic /f/ was voiced to /v/. That voicing was lost again in the late Middle Ages, but the "v" still remains in certain words, for instance in "Vogel" (compare Scandinavian "fugl" or English "fowl") ‘bird’ (hence the letter "v" is sometimes called "Vogel-fau"), "viel" ‘much’.

w: The letter "w" represents the sound /v/. In the 17th century, the former sound [w] became [v] but the spelling remained the same. An analogous sound change had happened in Late Antique Latin.

z: The letter "z" represents the sound IPA|/t͡s/. This sound, a product of the High German consonant shift, was written with "z" since Old High German in the 8th century.

Foreign words

In many cases, the foreign spellings are retained, for instance "ph" IPA|/f/ or "y" IPA|/yː/ in words of Greek origin (as in "Physik").

Grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences

This section lists German letters and letter combinations, and how to pronounce them transliterated into the International Phonetic Alphabet. This is the pronunciation of Standard German. Note that the pronunciation of standard German varies slightly from region to region. In fact, it is possible to tell where most German speakers come from by their accent in standard German (not to be confused with the different German dialects).

Foreign words are usually pronounced approximately as they are in the original language.

Consonants

One pronounces double consonants as single consonants, except in compound words.

*b: at end of syllable: IPA| [p] ; otherwise: IPA| [b] or IPA| [b̥]
*c: before ä, e, and i: IPA| [ʦ] ; otherwise: IPA| [k]
*ch: after a, o, and u: IPA| [x] ; after other vowels or consonants or initially: IPA| [ç] ; the suffix -chen always IPA| [ç]
*chs: IPA| [ks] within a morpheme (e.g. "Dachs" IPA| [daks] "badger"); IPA| [çs] or IPA| [xs] across a morpheme boundary (e.g. "Dachs" IPA| [daxs] "roof (genitive)")
*d: at end of syllable: IPA| [t] ; otherwise: IPA| [d] or IPA| [d̥]
*dsch: IPA| [ʤ] or IPA| [d̥ʒ̊] (used in loanwords and transliterations only)
*dt: IPA| [t]
*f: IPA| [f]
*g: in the ending -ig: IPA| [ç] or IPA| [k] (Southern German); at the end of a syllable: IPA| [k] ; otherwise: IPA| [g] or IPA| [g̊]
*h: before a vowel: IPA| [h] ; when lengthening a vowel: silent
*j: IPA| [ʒ] in loanwords; otherwise: IPA| [j]
*k: IPA| [k]
*l: IPA| [l]
*m: IPA| [m]
*n: IPA| [n]
*p: IPA| [p]
*pf: IPA| [pf] in all cases with some speakers; with other speakers IPA| [f] at the beginning of words (or at the beginning of compound wordsʼ elements) and IPA| [pf] in all other cases
*ph: IPA| [f]
*ng: usually: IPA| [ŋ] ; in compound words where the first element ends in "n" and the second element begins with "g": IPA| [ŋg] or IPA| [ŋg̊]
*qu: IPA| [kv] or IPA| [kw] in a few regions
*r: the standard German pronunciation of "r" varies a lot regionally:
**IPA| [ʁ] before vowels, IPA| [ɐ] otherwise; or
**IPA| [ɐ] after long vowels, IPA| [ʁ] otherwise; or
**IPA| [r] in all cases
*s: before and between vowels: IPA| [z] or IPA| [z̥] ; before consonants or when final: IPA| [s] ; before p or t at the beginning of a word or syllable: IPA| [ʃ]
*sch: IPA| [ʃ]
*ss: IPA| [s]
*ß: IPA| [s]
*t: IPA| [t]
*th: IPA| [t]
*ti: in -tion, -tiär, -tial, -tiell: IPA| [ʦj] ; otherwise: IPA| [ti]
*tsch: IPA| [ʧ]
*tz: IPA| [ʦ]
*v: in foreign borrowings: IPA| [v] ; otherwise: IPA| [f]
*w: IPA| [v]
*x: IPA| [ks]
*z: IPA| [ʦ]

hort vowels

Consonants are sometimes doubled in writing to indicate the preceding vowel is to be pronounced as a short vowel. One-syllable words are pronounced with long vowels, with some exceptions such as "an", "das", "es", "in", "mit", and "von". The "e" in the ending "-en" is often silent as in "bitten" "to ask, request". The ending "-er" is often pronounced IPA| [ɐ] , but in some regions, people say IPA| [ʀ̩] or IPA| [r̩] . The "e" in the ending "-el" is pronounced short as in the English word "funnel" in spite of the single consonant on the end. This ending occurs in words such as "Tunnel" "tunnel" or "Mörtel" "mortar" or in proper names such as "Fennel".

*a: IPA| [a] as in Wasser "water"
*ä: IPA| [ɛ] as in Männer "men"
*e: IPA| [ɛ] as in Bett "bed"; unstressed IPA| [ə] as in Ochse "ox"
*i: IPA| [ɪ] as in Mittel "means"
*o: IPA| [ɔ] as in kommen "to come"
*ö: IPA| [œ] as in Göttin "goddess"
*u: IPA| [ʊ] as in Mutter "mother"
*ü: IPA| [ʏ] as in Müller "miller"
*y: IPA| [ʏ] as in Dystrophie "dystrophy"

Long vowels

A vowel usually has a long sound if the vowel in question occurs:
* as the final letter (except for "e")
* followed by a single consonant as in bot "offered"
* before a single consonant followed by a vowel as in Wagen "car"
* doubled as in Boot "boat"
* followed by an h as in Weh "pain"

Long vowels are generally pronounced with greater tenseness than short vowels.

The long vowels map as follows:
*a, ah, and aa: IPA| [aː]
*ä, äh: IPA| [ɛː] or IPA| [eː]
*e, eh, and ee: IPA| [eː]
*i, ie, ih, and ieh: IPA| [iː]
*o, oh, and oo: IPA| [oː]
*ö, öh: IPA| [øː]
*u and uh: IPA| [uː]
*ü and üh: IPA| [yː]
*y: IPA| [yː]

Diphthongs

*au: IPA| [aʊ]
*eu and äu: IPA| [ɔʏ]
*ei, ai, ey, and ay: IPA| [aɪ]

ee also

*German alphabet
*German phonology
*Antiqua-Fraktur dispute
*Spelling
*Punctuation
*English spelling
*Dutch orthography

Footnotes