ENGLISH SOUNDS IN GERMAN: LISTENERS’ CHOICES

Julia Abresch
Institute of Communication Sciences, University of Bonn

ID 1621
[full paper]

To figure out, whether native German speakers tend to prefer English xenophones or their nativised German counterparts in the pronunciation of Anglicisms and English proper names, a preference test was carried out. Listeners had to rank the different varieties in a web-based test. The results show clearly that two groups of sounds can be made out: sounds which listeners like to hear in their original English pronunciation and those which are expected to be substituted by native equivalents.