Editing German language (section)

===Vowels===

German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in ''short'' and ''long'' varieties, as detailed in the following table:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! A !! Ä !! E !! I !! O !! Ö !! U !! Ü
|-
! short
| /a/ || /ɛ/ || /ɛ/, /ə/ || /ɪ/ || /ɔ/ || /œ/ || /ʊ/ || /ʏ/
|-
! long
| /aː/ || /ɛː/ || /eː/ || /iː/ || /oː/ || /øː/ || /uː/ || /yː/
|}
Short /ɛ/ is realized as [ɛ] in stressed syllables (including [[secondary stress]]), but as [ə] in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short /ɛ/ can be spelled either with ''e'' or with ''ä'' (''hätte'' 'would have' and ''Kette'' 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open /ɛː/ sound of long Ä; in some varieties of standard German, /ɛː/ and /eː/ have merged into [eː], removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like ''Bären/Beeren'' 'bears/berries' or ''Ähre/Ehre'' 'spike (of wheat)/honour' become homophonous.

In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed /ɛr/ is not pronounced [ər], but vocalised to [ɐ].

Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist:
* If a vowel (other than ''i'') is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. ''Hof'' [hoːf]).
* If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ''ff'', ''ss'' or ''tt''), ''ck'', ''tz'' or a [[consonant cluster]] (e.g. ''st'' or ''nd''), it is nearly always short (e.g. ''hoffen'' [ˈhɔfən]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preceding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled, in other words this is not a [[feeding order]] of [[gemination]] and then [[vowel shortening]].
Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. ''hat'' [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; ''Mond'' [moːnt], '[[moon]]' is long despite the second rule). For an ''i'' that is neither in the combination ''ie'' (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the ''o'' in the [[Noun#Proper nouns and common nouns|proper name]] "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the ''e'' in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word ''Städte'' 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel [ˈʃtɛtə] by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel [ˈʃtɛːtə] by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ''ch'' can be short (''Fach'' [fax] 'compartment', ''Küche'' [ˈkʏçe] 'kitchen') or long (''Suche'' [ˈzuːxə] 'search', ''Bücher'' [ˈbyːçər] 'books') almost at random. Thus, ''Lache'' is homographous: (Lache) [laːxe] 'puddle' and (lache) |[laxe]}} 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.).

German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, äu, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! spelling
| ai, ei, ay, ey || au || äu, eu
|-
! pronunciation
| /aɪ̯/ || /aʊ̯/ || /ɔʏ̯/
|}
Additionally, the digraph ''ie'' generally represents the phoneme {{IPA|/iː/}}, which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, an {{IPA|/r/}} at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised {{IPA|/r/}} is not considered a diphthong: Bär {{IPA|[bɛːɐ̯]}} 'bear', er {{IPA|[eːɐ̯]}} 'he', wir {{IPA|[viːɐ̯]}} 'we', Tor {{IPA|[toːɐ̯]}} 'gate', kurz {{IPA|[kʊɐ̯ts]}} 'short', Wörter {{IPA|[vœɐ̯tɐ]}} 'words'.

In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a [[glottal stop]] {{IPA|[ʔ]}}.