Introduction to Lyric German Diction 

Hi Analee, you are correct that in spoken German the /r/ is the uvular [ʀ]. This video was created to teach Lyric or Sung German for classical/opera singers, which does not use the uvular [ʀ], as it is not a singer friendly sound. It is replaced with the more "forward" and singer-friendly flipped or rolled [r]. The microphone was having difficulty picking up some of the flipped [ɾ] sounds. For fear of not getting picked up at all, sometimes the [r] does, unintentionally, get slightly overdone.

There are two kinds of German pronunciation: 1. die deutsche Bühnenaussprache 2. Deutsche Hochsprache The first type of German pronunciation is old. The stage pronunciation was standardized by Theodor Siebs in 1898. Only alveolar trill r or Spanish r [r] was allowed in it. After 1957, the French r was allowed to be used in the stage pronunciation. But...the historically original pronunciation for both German and Dutch is an alveolar trill, German being called 'High German' or 'High Dutch', Dutch being called 'Low German' or 'Low Dutch' long time ago. The second type of pronunciation is newer and is employed by many people today...but not all of them. In the second type of pronunciation, however, uvular trill or French r [ʀ] is used...moreover, a vocalized r [ɐ] which is like the sound-a is used. This "a" sound is found at the end of words and before consonants.

There have been two types of German pronunciation: "die deutsche Bühnenaussprache" (=stage pronunciation) and "Deutsche Hochsprache". In "die deutsche Bühnensprache", only alveolar trill [r] is allowed. So, the word "der", "Ohr", "wahr"...are pronounced as [deːr oːr vɑːr]. This is an older type of German pronunciation. Only Roy Black and Heino are examples of German men employing this Spanish-r when speaking or singing German. Today, people of Germany speak German with a "Deutsche Hochsprache" accent...so they use the vocalised "r" at the end of words and often before consonants. German-speaking people in Switzerland and Austria use Spanish-r.

There are two kinds of German pronunciation: 1. die deutsche Bühnenaussprache 2. Deutsche Hochsprache The first type of German pronunciation is old. It was standardized by Theodor Siebs in 1898. Only alveolar trill r or Spanish r was allowed in it. The second type of pronunciation is newer and is employed by many people today...but not all of them. In the second type of pronunciation, however, uvular trill or French r is used...moreover, a vocalized r which is like the sound-a is used. This "a" sound is found at the end of words and before consonants.

Thank you for your input.

Pronunciation varies in different German dialects (Also in English dialects). But in common "standard German" "mein" sounds nearly like the English "mine". Furthermore, in German, we normaly don't glide from one vowel to the next and we pronunce our diphthongs much shorter as it's usual in English. So the English "mine" sounds to Germans like "maaiiin". If you pronunce the diphthong/ vowel in "mine" and "mein" with the same duration, it would sound the same.

You are correct that dialect and accents vary. However, for stage pronunciation and for classical singers getting an approximation or "nearly the same" is not good enough. This video was made for classical singers. For the purposes of everyday speech interchanging an American diphthong with the German equivalent or visa versa wouldn't prevent comprehension. However, for classical (opera) singers these distinctions in sound are important; sounding authentic is as important as being understood.

Pochi The IPA on Wikipedia describes a diphthong from /a/ to the German /ɪ/ (which of course is substantially retracted and slightly rounded). I find this is the best transcription I've come across. Describing it as /ae/ retains a lot of the fronting and /e/ has much wider lips than the way Germans (and I) pronounce it in my experience.

NO WAY anyone will sound "authentic" (you mean "like a native") following this misleading advice!

Care to elaborate?