Wednesday 22 June 2011

Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch

2010 saw the publication of a new pronunciation dictionary of German - the Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch, which is a competitor for the well-established DUDEN Aussprachewörterbuch (now in its 6th ed. of 2005). According to its preface the new dictionary contains about 150.000 entries including a large number of word groups (e.g. Meistbegünstigungsklausel [~ most-favoured treatment clause], Dies Irae). The dictionary aims at a "Neukodifizierung der Standardaussprache" (p. vii). Unlike EPD or LPD the publisher (deGruyter) does not offer a CD-ROM with sound files of pronunciations for every word. What we are offered is a link to audio samples which are mentioned in the theoretical part of the dictionary.
This theory part is fairly long; it is divided in three main sections dealing with the
A. standard pronunciation in Germany
B. standard pronunciation in Austria and the
C. standard pronunciation in German-speaking Switzerland.


One of the most interesting chapters is section A.7.3.4, which deals with the germanisation of English names and words. This section (to be found on pp. 138-143) was written by William J Barry, former (1992 - 2008) Professor of Phonetics at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany.

There are three blog posts on this dictionary available here. They made me get hold of the book. The price is €39.95.

More on the dictionary in a future entry.

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