Re: German style orthography

Quoting "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...>:

> On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:59:28 +0100, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:
>
> >This, alas, is no longer true in the age of Neudeutsch - sufficient numbers
> >of speakers retain initial [s] in loans like _Sex_ ([sEks], contrasting
> >with _sechs_ [zEks]) that Duden recognizes it.
>
> What a surprising minimal pair! I also have initial /s/ in certain loans,
> e.g. _Cidre, Cedille, City_, but certainly not in _Sex_ (which to me is
> homophonous to _sechs_ "six"), but now that you mention it I think I
> remember I've heard this pronunciation on the media from Germany.
Don't blame me, blame my German teacher (a native of East Berlin), who pointed
it out to me! :)

I know it's a bit "bad", since the [sEks] pronunciation is far from universal -
indeed, if ordering in the Duden is of significance, [zEks] would appear to be
the commoner pronuncation - but I couldn't think of any actual minimal pair
involving a better example like _City_.

I notice that Duden gives [sEnt] as the only pronuncation of _Cent_. I've always
been saying [tsEnt], and unless my memory and/or perception is playing tricks on
me - which is certainly possible - so have the Germans I've known. What does the
list's germanophones say?

                                                 Andreas

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