German
- Ich ("I") → ch/(sch) Ich weiss. ("I know") → Schweiss (would translate, literally, to "sweat". A common source of some well known jokes)
- Du ("you", singular) → de/d - Weisst Du ("you know") → Weisste
- Wir ("we") → mer - Können wir ... ("can we") => Kö(n)mmer ..., Kennen wir! ("we know") → Ke(n)mmer!
- Das ("this/the") → (d)s - Das Pferd dort ("The horse over there") → 's Pferd dort'
- es ("it") → s - Es regnet ("It's raining") → s regnet
- Ist ("is") → is/s - ist das möglich ("is this possible") → isses möglich
- denn ("then, actually, anyway") → (d)n - Was ist denn los? ("What's up") → Wasn los?
A wide range of possible pronunciations can be found in the negatory 'nicht ("not") depending on the dialect region.
- Nicht ("not") → nich (mostly in Northern Germany)/nit (Cologne region)/net (southern hessian)/et (swabian)/ni (saxonian) - Können wir nicht einfach... ("Can't we simply ...") → Kömmer nich einfach...
See also Synalepha
Read more about this topic: Relaxed Pronunciation
Famous quotes containing the word german:
“Boys hide in lunging cubes
Crouching to explode,
Beyond the Atlantic skies,
With cheerful cries
Their barking tubes
Upon the German toad.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“That nameless and infinitely delicate aroma of inexpressible tenderness and attentiveness which, in every refined and honorable attachment, is contemporary with the courtship, and precedes the final banns and the rite; but which, like the bouquet of the costliest German wines, too often evaporates upon pouring love out to drink, in the disenchanting glasses of the matrimonial days and nights.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)