Bühnendeutsch


Bühnendeutsch or Bühnenaussprache is a unified set of pronunciation rules for the German literary language used in the theatre of the German Sprachraum. Established in the 19th century, it came to be considered pure High German.
An artificial standard not corresponding directly to any dialect, Bühnendeutsch is mostly based on the Standard German as spoken in Northern Germany. For example, the suffix is pronounced.

Sonorants

Three acceptable realizations of

Until 1957, only two pronunciations were allowed: an alveolar trill and an alveolar tap. After 1957, a uvular trill was also allowed. A voiced uvular fricative, used extensively in contemporary Standard German, is not allowed. Therefore, rot can be pronounced, and but not.

Lack of -vocalization

The vocalized realization of found in German or Austrian Standard German corresponds to in Bühnendeutsch so für 'for' is pronounced rather than.
Whenever the sequence is vocalized to in German or Austrian Standard German, Bühnendeutsch requires a sequence so besser 'better' is pronounced rather than.
In contemporary Standard German, both of these features are found almost exclusively in Switzerland.

No schwa-elision

Contrary to Standard German, cannot be elided before a sonorant consonant so Faden 'yarn' is pronounced rather than the standard.

Fronting of word-final schwa

In loanwords from Latin and Ancient Greek, the word-final is realized as a short, tense so Psyche 'psyche' is pronounced rather than the standard.

Obstruents

Syllable-final fortition

As in Standard Northern German, syllable-final obstruents written with the letters used also for syllable-initial lenis sounds are realized as fortis so Absicht 'intention' is pronounced , but Bad 'bath' is pronounced.
The corresponding standard southern pronunciations contain lenis consonants in that position: and, respectively.

Strong aspiration of

The voiceless plosives are aspirated in the same environments as in Standard German but more strongly, especially to environments in which the Standard German plosives are aspirated moderately and weakly: in unstressed intervocalic and word-final positions. That can be transcribed in the IPA as. The voiceless affricates are unaspirated, as in Standard German.

Complete voicing of lenis obstruents

The lenis obstruents are fully voiced after voiceless obstruents so abdanken 'to resign' is pronounced. That is in contrast with the Standard Northern pronunciation, which requires the lenis sounds to be devoiced in that position:. Southern standard accents generally realize the lenis sounds as voiceless in most or all positions and do not feature syllable-final fortition:.