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Part 1: The German language bears many similarities to other Germanic languages, such as Dutch and Afrikaans. Standard German is spoken with a uvular R, although the alveolar pronunciation is used in many of the standard German varieties in Southern Germany (ôGuttural Rö). In both varieties of ôR,ö the ôR is often vocalized at the ends of syllables (ôGuttural Rö). In Dutch and the Low German dialects, use a uvular R, but the High Germanic languages use an alveolar trill in the Upper dialects and a uvular R in the Middle dialects (ôGuttural Rö). The Afrikaans language uses an alveolar trill R in most regions except for the rural regions around Cape Town, where a uvular R is used (ôGuttural Rö).

German consonants can be either voiced or voiceless. German often uses the voiceless glottal stop, especially in front of words or parts of words that begin with a vowel: (club / organization) (changed), <[º]eine> <[º]alte> <[º]Eiche> (an old oak tree) (ôGerman Phonetics for Speakers of American English,ö 6). Stopsùalso called ôplosivesöùinclude: [p] (to blow), [b] (to pray), [t] (to carry), [d] (to thank), [k] (to chew), and [g] (to go) (ôGerman Phonetics for Speakers of American English,ö 8). Fricatives include: [f] (to feel), [v] (to vote), [s] (to eat), [z] (silk), [ò] (school), [h] (hat); [j] (yes), [t] (I) and [x] (stream) (ôGerman Phonetics for Speakers of American English,ö 8). Nasal consonants include the letters , and , which signify the phoneme [n].

There are nine basic types of vowels in Germanùfront, back, open, closed, long, short, rounded, unrounded, and central:

The front vowels are: [i:], [w], [y:], [ó], [e:], [e], [e:] [°:], [oe] and [a]. [i:] and [y:] are the most closed of these vowels and [a] is the

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