Jump to content

How do you pronounce 'Pachelbel'?


Zetetic

Recommended Posts

This might seem like a ludicrous or laughable question, but 'Pack-el-Bell' (to rhyme with "Tackle-Bell") must surely be incorrect. This seems the most common English pronunciation, and is indeed what I've always said, but it doesn't sound remotely German.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, um. I'd say it's Pa-hell-bell, but the H in "hell" is strong and pronounced. Like the typical German "ch" sound which I can't find an example for in english. So, yeah, Pach would be pronounced like "Bach." Not "Pac" or any C/K sounding noise, no.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To make things absolutely clear, Pachelbel is pronounced as: [joˈhan ˈpaxɛlbl̩], [ˈpaxl̩bɛl], or [paˈxɛlbl̩]

I think the third variant, with stress on the second syllable, is the most common in German. Note that there's been some debate about this on the talk page of the Wikipedia article jujimufu took those transcriptions from, but it appears that all these three variants are supported by some publication that I'm not familiar with. AFAIK what is here written as [l̩] (a syllabic [l]) is often notated [əl], which might be easier to wrap your mind around... if someone with better knowledge of German phonology can comment on this, I'd appreciate to know if it really is [l̩] or [əl] (and one or the other is shorthand/simplification), or if they both exist in speech...

Also, doesn't ['jo:han] (as opposed to [jo'han]) occur as well, or is that just my Swedish bias?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, doesn't ['jo:han] (as opposed to [jo'han]) occur as well, or is that just my Swedish bias?

Yeah, ['jo:han] is the normal German pronunciation. I've personally never even heard [jo'han].

And I agree that [paˈxɛlbl̩] sounds like the most common way you'd pronounce the name in German without knowing anything about it (and I pronounce it exactly like that). I don't know which one is correct of course.

As for [l] versus [əl]: If you speak especially slowly and clearly, you might say [əl], but when speaking normally, you generally omit the [ə].

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 6 years later...
Composer283 said:

NOTE: Some people say it and it sounds like this: Pashelbel

That sounds kind of wierd, I prefer PaCHelbel 

 

 

Not wired at all, the English "sh" sound is the same as the French "ch" sound. So it could very well be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...