Versions: Sleep Little Prince

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: leeneia
Date: 07 Nov 21 - 04:22 PM

I think those are nylon strings, because if you stop the video at 35 seconds and look at the strings where they go over the nut, they look transparent.

I agree that lullabies should be soft. I remember my mother singing them softer and softer, until the baby went to sleep, listening.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 07 Nov 21 - 05:08 PM

@leeneia There's one problem, I'm sight challenged. I have no sight at all. That's why I say that I tell instruments apart just by listening to their tones.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 24 Nov 21 - 09:49 AM

@leeneia "until the baby went to sleep". I'm confused! Was the baby one of your siblings? Or was it you?

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 11:48 AM

Interestingly enough, I'm confused on the pronunciation of "schlafe". Some pronounce it "Shlah fay", while others pronounce it more like "Shlah fuh" (to rhyme with "luftwaffe"). Which one is right? I pronounce it with the latter rather than the former.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: Reinhard
Date: 16 Dec 21 - 12:23 PM

Yes, the second pronounciation is the usual one. The 'e' at the end is a schwa vowel as in 'the' or 'taken'.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 17 Dec 21 - 06:45 AM

@Reinhard Then I wonder why some people pronounce it "Shlah fay", as if it's more like Spanish than German? I'm making a version of this song for a very special friend of mine. My beautician, Cassie, whose aunt is from Germany, is having a baby soon, hopefully in the second week of January 2022. A little girl she's going to name Marley May Josephine, and I want to sing this lullaby to her little one. And no, I'm not going to make it shrill like an aria, as I don't like opera. My voice is meant for soft, tender tones, which are the things that lullabies are made of. At the end, I whisper, "Süße träume, kleines prinzesschen!". I could be wrong, but I think that would be approximately, "zoosa troyma, kline es prin tsess yen". Am I right that this approximately translates as, "Sweet dreams, little princess!"?

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 04 Jan 22 - 02:43 PM

@Reinhard If that's the case, then I wonder why some people pronounce it "Shlah fay", as if it's more like Spanish than German? I'm making a version of this song for a very special friend of mine. My beautician, Cassie, whose aunt is from Germany, is having a baby soon, on January 6, 2022. A little girl she's going to name Marleigh May Josephine, and I want to sing this lullaby to her little one. And no, I'm not going to make it shrill like an aria, as I don't like opera. My voice is meant for soft, tender tones, which are the things that lullabies are made of. At the end, I whisper, "Süße träume, kleines prinzesschen!". I could be wrong, but I think that would be approximately, "zoosa troyma, kline es prin tsess yen". Am I right that this approximately translates as, "Sweet dreams, little princess!"?

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: leeneia
Date: 07 Jan 22 - 12:18 PM

People pronounce it shlah fay if they haven't had any German classes.

Your pronunciation of the last phrase is close enough for someone who has not had classes. I hope little Marleigh is thriving.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Jan 22 - 12:15 AM

I've decided to explain more about the word "suesse." (When one can't type those two dots, one inserts an e after the vowel.) That u with two dots above is a "front vowel", or in German, an umlaut. It's a u, and it has two s's after it. That makes it short.

So here's what you do. You say the s like an English z. For the vowel you say short i as in pin, then you promptly round your lips slightly, so that the i is modified into a complicated-sounding new vowel.

These front vowels are heard in German, French, Scottish dialect and U.S. southern dialects, and probably in other languages. Come to think of it, I believe I've heard Bulgarians use them.

I wonder if they occur in Irish dialects.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: Monique
Date: 08 Jan 22 - 03:10 AM

How to pronounce the German "ü" and French "u" sound: 1 and 2. Video #1 is about German words and video #2 is about French words but the sound is exactly the same and both explanations may come handy.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 09 Jan 22 - 09:39 AM

@leeneia That seems quite interesting. So would the ü be pronounced something like the "eu" in "berceuse" (approximately pronounced "bear sirs"?

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Jan 22 - 12:30 AM

Google thinks that berceurse is bear suz, similar to suds, so that's no help. Monique's link is nice, but it's only talking about the long u umlaut. The long umlaut has ee in the back, but the short one has short i in the back.

Not every umlaut calls for rounded (or pursed) lips. Traueme is pronounced troy-meh. And Haendel (the composer) is Hendel. Spaet, the word for late, is schpate.

To finish the story, the long o umlaut has long ay in the back, and the short o umlaut has short e in the back. That's all of them, I think.

In Milwaukee, where I grew up, if you were named Schroeder, you were called Schrayder, because people remembered that long a in the back of the mouth. Also Koenig was Kay-nig.

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Annabelle
Date: 15 Jan 22 - 08:50 PM

@leeneia For example, "wunderschön, from what I hear, sounds like "voon-da-shern". Is your "Troy-meh" pronunciation supposed to be more like "troima", with the ? (schwa) as in "again" and "sofa"?

Subject: RE: Versions: Sleep Little Prince
From: GUEST,Dublin
Date: 03 Aug 25 - 05:34 PM

Sleep, sleep my pretty prince sleep.
Birds are resting and cows and sheep.
Silence fills gardens and streams.
Hush is the hum of the bees.
Nows the moons silverly rays, fall where the rippling wave plays,
But awake he will keep.
Slumber my prince down to sleep.

All at the castle are still.
All at the cottage and mill,
Stirring not even a mouse,
Slumber in very house.
But in the nursery lies, one who will not shut his eyes.
And awake he does keep
Slumber my prince down to sleep.

To sleep, to sleep.