(September 8, 2015 at 11:17 pm)Alex K Wrote: The main difference between Ihr and ear for an American would probably be the rhotic r in "ear", where there is none in "Ihr". The rhotic r is one of the typical shibboleths for recognizing Americans speaking German (next to pronouncing ch as k)
For a non-rhotic Brit, it becomes harder, although the e in "ear" in England is probably closer to a schwa sound, while the i in "Ihr" is more like in english "liter".
Still, there is a subtle difference between the r in "Ihr" and the non rhotic ear, the latter being more open.
Also, the beginning has -I think- a noticeable glottal stop in German "Ihr", but ideally none in British "ear"
I've been focusing on practising my German R's for an entire year actually and I've finally managed to get the hang of them.
I still have trouble doing it with a word like 'Nord' though, which I was surprised to hear when listening to the radio driving in lower Saxony but I am getting there. Particularly easy with the Bavarian 'Kruzifix nochmal', mainly because my Dad was driven to saying it so many times when I was growing up. Or 'Raus ..!'
In fact anything beginning with a K. From there I moved onto words beginning with T like Trinkgeld and then with a D like with Dringend. I'm now beginning to see how the sound seems to emanate from the bottom of the mouth and related to how Germans would pronounce 'mal' or 'loch'. In fact my German teacher did say to me last year which started me trying to master the R sound that I shouldn't have a problem pronouncing it because I have no problem pronouncing loch or nicht.
I'm really trying to master the phenomes because it's important for me not to sound too much like a foreigner. I have a friend who has lived in Germany for many years and really knows the language but has an extremely strong English accent.
I've started using Duolingo recently and the woman's voice that is recorded uses hoch Deutsch. It's made me wonder if the German teacher in Munich was actually teaching me a Bavarian accent.
