In standard German pronunciation, the reduction vowel "schwa" [ə] in the unstressed ending syllable <-en> is deleted in most cases, resulting in assimilation of the to [m] or [ŋ], depending on the sound preceding the ending, as with "legen" [lˈeːgŋ̩] or "leben" [lˈeːbm̩ ]. The <-en>-ending is extremely common in German and leads to various pronunciation deviations in Japanese learners of German, from pronouncing the schwa as lenis E [ɛ] to disrupting the speech rhythm and sentence accent, often leading to fossilization. This beckons the question whether it is justified to always teach and practice the pronunciation of the <-en>-ending with elided schwa, even though this is not in accordance with the codification given by the relevant pronunciation dictionaries. I used MAXQDA to analyze 5,186 occurrences from 300 minutes of audio and video material of read and spontaneous speech from public radio, podcasts and tv programs to determine how often and after which sounds the schwa is actually pronounced. The focus was on vowels and the consonants [m], [n], [ʁ] and [ʝ], after which the shwa is not elided, according to the two main pronunciation dictionaries DAW (Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch) and the Duden Aussprachewörterbuch.
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