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"?