Why do I keep saying 'Hämburg'?

I am not a native German speaker, so sometimes when I speak German my pronunciation is slightly off. But the strange thing is that what Germans tell me they hear me saying is not what I'm actually saying.

To understand what's going on, we have to dip our toes into the world of phonetics and try to make some kind of sense of vowel sounds in English and German.

Chapters:
00:00 Hämburg?
01:10 The International Phonetic Alphabet
02:00 The vowel chart
02:46 Putting them together
03:06 English and German vowels
03:41 Theory and reality
04:23 Individual pronunciations
05:10 Narrowing it down
05:44 Regions, not points
06:09 Substitutions

Music:
"Style Funk" and "Hot Swing"
Creative Commons Attribution licence

---------

Support me on Patreon for access to bonus content and more:

Send letters and postcards to:

Rewboss
Postfach 10 06 29
63704 Aschaffenburg
Germany

Please don't send parcels or packages, or anything that has to be signed for.

---------

My website:

My blog:

My Twitter feed:

My Facebook profile:

[rewboss]

Linguists: Yes, I made a couple of errors in the first half of the video. Fortunately they don't undermine my point, and they give me an idea for a possible future video... so... on balance, no harm done.

[lordcola-]

When you said Hamburg in the very beginning I did not hear it, but the next two times, once when you only said the syllable Ham and then then next time you said Hamburg, I could totally hear the "häm".

[rzeka]

I think there's 2 things happening here:
1. Your pronounciation of the German phoneme /a/, to my ears, is very close to the English /æ/ (a good example is 5:27, your /masə/ sounds like [mæsə]). Since Standard German doesn't have /æ/, speakers tend to hear it as /ɛ/, which is why they say it sounds like "Hämburg".
2. Since Standard German doesn't have /ʌ/, speakers tend to hear English /ʌ/ as German /a/, so to them /hʌm/ would be /ham/. That's why they suggest "humburg" as a pronounciation guide for "Hamburg".

As a pronounciation guide for "Hamburg", I would suggest "harm-burk" for RP speakers and "homm-buok" for GA speakers.

BTW it's curious that you transcribe "Rewboss" with /ʊ/ because to me it very clearly has /u/. But then again, my /ʊ/ is basically [ɯ̽] so I'm not the best person to judge that.

[PinkLittleElephant]

Not being able to hear the difference in a foreign language has to do with brain and speech development. At some stage in childhood, it narrows down to the sounds it encounters. That is why learning a new language as an adult, most people have an accent because they can't perceive the sound differences in the foreign language.

[Naveication]

I (as a german speaker) noticed this for the words: flash and flesh... I can hear the difference, but my mouth cant for the life of me pronounce them differently, whenever i try to say flash it sounds like flesh... Got me into an akward situation in the past when i was talking about a flashlight once, so I'll never forget this :D

[RobWords]

I've discussed with German friends the fact that they will pronounce "man" in a way that sounds more like "men" to me, despite the fact the vowel sounds in Mann and Männer don't seem all that different to the English equivalents. This video seems to explain that, so thanks.

[mizapf]

I think one of the most important points is that the a/ä difference in German has a grammatical effect, like "hatte" (had, past tense) vs. "hätte" (had/would have, conditional), or "Vater" vs. "Väter" (father / fathers). Hence, it is really important to tell those two apart in German, and probably also the reason why we indicate the different pronunciation with an Umlaut.

[kjwenger]

I absolutely love brit. linguists/speakers disecting language ... Dr Geoff Lindsey, Rob Watts, and you make for excellent education and entertainment. My ears smile and my brain goes floof. In my area you walk 3km and boom, a significant vowel shift hits you. Pronounce Hamburg any way you like, you have my blessing. But please keep such kind of content coming.

[Parciwal_Gaming]

As a german from Brandenburg close to berlin, your Hamburg sounds fine. A little accent but that impression could come from the english words around it.

[DieinnereStimme]

As a South-German:
In the beginning as you said "Hum", it sounded 1:1 like a (South-)German says Hamburg ☝🏻

[omikrondraconis]

Wow. I am a German native speaker with halfway decent second language skills in English, and while trying to learn some Norwegian, something like that is one of my biggest hang-ups. There are several vowels that would fall into the range that the German language would depict with an a and telling them apart requires a level of concentration similar to trying to locate a mouse in the ceiling just by the sounds it makes. Also, related language or not, Dutch has consonants that are close to impossible to replicate for me. Language is so much more than just grammar and a mental dictionary!

[Gabby-bot]

Lovely video. I was raised on goats milk and phonics, and also got the latter at university here in Norway. Don't speak much german, (which language I also love) but fluent in norwegian, as well as my lingo mater, american, ('west coast standard'). And now you know why I subscribed to your channel, which I enjoy immensly.

[justarandomgothamite]

As a certified Hamburger (no really it's on my birth certificate and everything) I'm always impressed by your pronounciation! I can barely tell a difference if any. If anything, it always throws me off to hear the german pronounciation in english!

[mantis]

As a German native speaker I didn't even hear the mentioned pronunciation "errors" at first.

Not because there where none, but because I am so used to listening to English that you speaking German words with an English pronunciation seemed normal in the English thinking mind...😊😂😂

[Pfaeff]

German here. The way you said "hum" in the beginning sounds exactly how I would pronounce the "Ham" in Hamburg in german.

[Scytherman]

I wouldn't have noticed it without you calling it out, but yeah, i hear it now. It really does sound like Hämburg.

[Ssarevok]

Not being able to hear sounds when it's not in your native language isn't just vowels. When I try to get my American friends to stay my name, they don't register my Dutch uvular R as a valid sound. It's really cofusing to explain it to them.
Edit: as pretty much a native German speaker, I hadn't actively noticed the incorrect Hamburg pronounciation, but I think that more likely a consequense of subconsciously assuming that's your British accent showing through.
Edit2: Listening the video again: as a native Dutch/German speaker and very good English speaker, I'm gonna disagree that Ham in German rhymes with English Hum, but it's close enough for explaining stuff like that (or for using in a forced rhyme if you have to).

[Alexrocksdude_]

Glad to see this turning into a linguistics channel! I always wondered why umlaut pronunciation was used when many german speakers speak english.

[ingovb]

Again a very well-informed and interesting video on language, linguistics and the intricate differences in real life. Thanks a lot! (And... I cannot argue that I always heard a difference, though luckily I did between men and man as you pronounced it - but you really put effort in making it clear, too :)

[uweinhamburg]

I live in Hamburg and have for all my life - your German pronunciation of Hamburg is perfect - no problem at all.