Accent
The most notable distinguishing feature of the dialect is that the letters o and u are pronounced as centralized vowels ( and, which are also used in Swedish, for instance). Speakers of other German dialects that do not have these sounds tend to perceive these sounds as being ö and ü respectively. For example, they hear 'out' as if written aüs (Standard aus ) and 'grandma' as if written Öma (Standard Oma ). Front rounded vowels are pronounced as non-rounded (ö =, ü = ). Final -er is pronounced, which speakers of other German dialects tend to hear as ; e.g. 'higher' (Standard höher) is misheard as if written he(h)o.
The Upper Saxon dialects outside the Ore Mountains can be easily recognized by the supposed "softening" (lenition) of the voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/. Speakers of other dialects hear these as if they were "b", "d" and "g" respectively. In reality, these are merely non-aspirated versions of the same /p/, /t/ and /k/, a widespread feature among Central German dialects, as opposed to strongly aspirated, and in dominant German dialects.
Read more about this topic: Upper Saxon German
Famous quotes containing the word accent:
“An accent mark, perhaps, instead of a whole western accent—a point of punctuation rather than a uniform twang. That is how it should be worn: as a quiet point of character reference, an apt phrase of sartorial allusion—macho, sotto voce.”
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“I lost my ridiculous accent without acquiring another”
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