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To: Verginius Rufus

The lack of the “th” sound in German (”hello mudduh, hello faddah”) isn’t new, just the standard spelling changed. “Z” comes out “tz” when pronounced. English of course drives most people crazy I’m sure. :^)

I watch this guy for a few minutes every now and then, hoping to get the gist (hoping he gets to the point iow) before his lack of “th” runs me off.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ZONEofTECH


47 posted on 04/26/2020 12:12:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Many European languages lack a "th" sound. It doesn't help that English has two "th" sounds which are spelled the same way (the "th" in "thin" is a different sound than the "th" in "the"). When you learn a second language as an adult it can be hard to acquire the right pronunciation of sounds that are not used in your mother tongue.

The consonant correspondences between English and German can be interesting and they fall into patterns. English "th" is often a "d" in German ("the" vs. "der"/"die"/"das"; "think" vs. "denken," etc.), but an English "t" is often "z" in German ("two" vs. "zwei," "tongue" vs. "Zunge," "to" vs. "zu," "tug" vs. "Zug," etc.), English "d" vs. German "t" ("dale" vs. "tal," "daughter" vs. "Tochter," "day" vs. "Tag," "dead" vs. "tot," etc.) and English "v" vs. German "b" ("harvest" vs. "Herbst," "seven" vs. "sieben," "knave" vs. "Knabe," etc.). Of course sometimes the cognate words have shifted meaning over the centuries.

49 posted on 04/26/2020 12:34:16 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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