this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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It's the same in German: /mɛʁˈt͡seːdəs/
Despite what other commentators say who are evil and eager to spread lies about the German language
However, in Spanish, which is the name's language of origin despite being a German car, they're the same. All e as in red. Mercedes.
True, it's a common female name, or was idk. Iirc the car is named after the daughter of the inventor. The German pronunciation is the butchered version of the Spanish first name so I'm on no moral high ground
Not the inventor and it's a bit more complicated. Emil Jellinek was selling Daimler cars, and had them participate in races for publicity. His daughter was called Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Jellinek. The historical record is a bit unclear, either he used her name as a pseudonym for a racer, or he christened one of the cars after her. In any case they won that race, gaining the name some notority which he and the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft used for further marketing later on.
Phonetical consistency...
Nunca lo entenderías...
Märzehdis
On a phonetic level, some specialist will be able to discern the different E-sounds, but they're still very similar. It's definitely not like the English pronunciation where it's completely different sounds.
It's basically the three E sounds we have in German (short, long and "unstressed") but I see that to the untrained ear, this isn't obvious
E is super flexible in German
e, ae, oe, ue, eu, ie, ei, ee all make distinct consistent sounds
The difference is so narrow that I wouldn't notice any difference apart from the length, the first and last e are very slightly shorter than the middle e. And of course you have the usual going-down-with-your-voice-at-the-end-of-the-word
Yes, we often call them "long" and "short" E but the short E is actually halfway to A. It's a different vowel even though it's written the same. The last E is the vowel we often have in unstressed syllables like gekommen, same in English upon, about. We write it as E but it's basically the most relaxed vowel possible.
Look at this vowel chart to see and hear the differences.
Wouldn't e halfway to a be ä
The short e in Mercedes is much closer to e than to ä
Yesn't.
E and Ä are basically the same sounds but you use the letter Ä to indicate that the root word has an A. Fähre is derived from fahren so it has Ä but it's the same sound as the first E in Mercedes.
At least in Austria the first e in Mercedes is much closer to e than to ä.
On the other hand many actual ä are also much closer to e than to ä in Austria so ig it might be different in Germany.