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The Singer’s Guide
to German Diction
The Singer’s
Guide to
German
Diction

Valentin Lanzrein
and

Richard Cross

1
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with
the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning
reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the
Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lanzrein, Valentin, author. | Cross, Richard, author.
Title: The singer’s guide to German diction / Valentin Lanzrein and Richard Cross.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016037860| ISBN 9780190238407 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780190238414 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Singing—Diction. | German language—Pronunciation.
Classification: LCC MT883 .L36 2016 | DDC 783/.043—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016037860

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Paperback printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
Contents

Preface  xi

Acknowledgments  xiii

About the Companion Website  xv

■ ■ PART I: FUNDAMENTALS

1. Introduction  3

A Brief History of the German Language: Where It Came From  3

International Phonetic Alphabet  6

2. Word Structure  11

2.1. Word Stem  12

2.2. Prefixes  13

2.3. Suffixes  16

2.4. Grammatical Endings  17

2.5. Compound Words  20

2.6. Word Stress  20

vi ■ Con te n ts

■ ■ PART II: VOWELS

3. Introduction to Vowels  27

Vowel Chart  28

Vowel Length  29

Neutral Vowels—Schwa and Vocalic-R  30

Vowel Onset—Glottal Separation  30

4. Monophthongs I: Tongue Vowels  33

4.1. Long and Closed [iː], Non-Syllabic [i ̯], Short and

Open [ɪ]  34

4.2. Long and Closed [eː], Long and Open [ɛː], Short and
Open [ɛ], Schwa [ə]  41

4.3. Long and Open [ɑː], Short and Closed [a]  52

5. Monophthongs II: Lip Vowels  59

5.1. Long and Closed [oː], Short and Open [ɔ]  60

5.2. Long and Closed [uː], Short and Open [ʊ]  67

6. Monophthongs III: Mixed Vowels  75

6.1. Long and Closed [øː], Short and Open [œ]  76

6.2. Long and Closed [yː], Short and Open [ʏ]  85

7. Diphthongs  95

7.1. Diphthongs [a͡e], [ɑ͡o], and [ɔ͡ø]  97

■ ■ PART III: CONSONANTS

8. Introduction to Consonants  107

Voicing  107
 Con tents ■ vii

Places of Articulation  107

Manner of Articulation  108

Consonant Length  111

9. Fricatives  113

9.1. Labiodental Fricative [f] and [v]  115

9.2. Alveolar Fricative [s] and [z]  120

9.3. Pre-Palatal Fricative [ʃ] and [ʒ]  124

9.4. Palatal Fricative [ʝ], [ç], and Velar Fricative [x]  130

9.5. Glottal Fricative [h]  138

9.6. Glottal Separation [ǀ]  140

10. Plosives  145

Aspiration  145

Devoicing  146

10.1. Bilabial Plosives [p] and [b]  146

10.2. Alveolar Plosives [t] and [d]  153

10.3. Velar Plosives [k] and [ɡ]  160

11. Nasals  169

11.1. Bilabial Nasal [m]  170

11.2. Alveolar Nasal [n]  171

11.3. Velar Nasal [ŋ]  173

12. Lateral and Trills  181

12.1. Alveolar Lateral [l]  183

12.2. Alveolar Trills [r] and [ɾ], Vocalic-R [ɐ], and

Uvular Trill [ʀ]  187
viii ■ Con te n ts

13. Affricates  197

13.1. Affricates [p͡s], [p͡f], [t͡s], [t͡ʃ], [k͡s], and [k͡v]  198

■ ■ PART IV: ADVANCED DICTION PROBLEMS

14. Exceptions, Vagaries, and Problem Words  211

14.1. Vowel Length Exceptions  211

14.2. Final -ie in Words of Non-Germanic Origin  220

14.3. Eszett (ß) and Vowel Length  221

14.4. Vowel Length Preceding x  222

14.5. Prefixes dar-, her-, hin-, vor-  222

14.6. Consonant plus l, n, or r  222

14.7. Ending -ig  224

14.8. Consonant Combination ch  225

14.9. Diminutive Ending -chen  227

14.10. Foreign-Origin Words  229

14.11. No Rhyme or Reason  230

15. Sounds from Foreign Loanwords  233

15.1. French Nasalized Vowels [ɛ̃], [ɑ̃], [õ], [œ̃ ]  234

15.2. French Semi Vowel Glides [w], [ɥ]  236

16. German Latin  237

Vowels  239

Consonants  249

The Ordinary of the Mass in German Latin  258

An Excerpt from Carl Orff ’s Carmina Burana in German Latin  264

 Con tents ■ ix

Appendix  269

Alphabetical Index of German Spellings  269

List of Difficult Words, Names, and Exceptions  278

Glossary  283
Notes  287
Bibliography  289
Index  291
Preface

This book is intended as a companion for singers, teachers, and anyone who wishes to
articulate German correctly. The textbook format with extensive exercises and work-
sheets makes it usable in both undergraduate and graduate level lyric diction classes.
Easy-to-navigate reference sections make it a useful tool for advanced work in art song
and opera.
We find that most German diction books are about pronunciation only and teach
little about how to sing the language. Lyric diction is not just pronunciation but a combi-
nation of proper pronunciation and clear enunciation that will carry the intended
­meaning to the ear of the listener. In this book we have chosen a format in which these
two elements of good diction will be presented side by side in two parallel but interde-
pendent columns. Both elements of good diction, pronunciation and enunciation, are
presented simultaneously rather than sequentially.
Language diction is a practical skill. People speak their native language without par-
ticular attention to the formation of the sounds. However, in a new language one needs a
guide for the formation of new sounds. Sometimes it is enough to know that a sound is
very similar to a sound in one’s own language. But often the sound in the new language is
different enough so that relating it to a similar sound in the known language is not close
enough to sound authentic. Therefore, we have offered guides for the position and move-
ment of the articulators so that the correct and authentic sound will be produced. Each
section of this book is followed by extensive articulation exercises to help in the practical
application of the newly acquired skills.
We hope that our readers will find this book a useful companion throughout a career
of singing and teaching.

■ xi
Acknowledgments

We want to thank all of our brilliant students at the DePauw University School of Music,
The Juilliard School, the Soochow University School of Music (China), the University of
North Carolina, and the Yale School of Music, who over the years allowed us to put to test
our ideas and methods. Thanks also to Jennifer Casey Cabot and her students at the
University of Maryland at College Park for class testing the manuscript and providing us
with useful feedback.
We wish to especially thank Wonjung Kim for the design of all the anatomical illustra-
tions in this book. We thank Margo Garrett and W. Stephen Smith for their encourage-
ment; Gary Arvin, Inge Aures, Matthew Balensuela, Douglas Dickson, and other readers
who contributed to this book with their generous comments and suggestions; and the
team at Oxford University Press—executive editor Suzanne Ryan, senior editor Norm
Hirschy, editorial assistants Andrew Maillet and Victoria Kouznetsov, and senior produc-
tion editor Amy Whitmer—for their hard work in making this book available to a larger
audience.
Finally, we want to thank our spouses and children for their patience, sacrifice, and
encouragement.

■ xiii
About the Companion
Website

Oxford has created a website to accompany this book, where you will find our chapter,
Lyric Diction in Musical Context. In this chapter we explore some of the options that a
singer must employ to project text in extreme tessitura and how to clear some of the other
hurdles that German might put in the singer’s path. Also available on the companion web-
site are worksheets for IPA transcription practice, audio recordings of all the oral exer-
cises in Parts II and III, as well as additional musical exercises with audio examples from
the German solo vocal literature recorded by leading artists in the field. Examples availa-
ble online are indicated in the text with Oxford’s symbol

www.oup.com/us/singersguidetogermandiction

■ xv
The Singer’s Guide
to German Diction
■
1
FUNDAMENTALS
■ ■ CH A P T ER 1

INTRODUCTION

■ ■ A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE: WHERE

IT CAME FROM

The German language as it is spoken today has evolved from the same roots as all of the
European languages except Finnish and Hungarian. Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish,

Indo-European

Asian Languages European Languages Tocharian Languages

Armenian Albanian
Indian Baltic
Iranian Celtic
Hellenic (Greek)
Italic (Latin)
Slavic
Germanic
First Consonant Shift

North-Germanic
East-Germanic West-Germanic
(Scandinavian)
Danish Gothic
Icelandic Second
Norwegian Consonant
Swedish Shift

Low German High German

Dutch Yiddish
English Modern High German
Flemish
Frisian
Modern Low German

■3
4 ■ F UN DA M E N TA LS

all the Slavic languages, German, English, Dutch, the Scandinavian languages, and some
Asian languages all belong to the Indo-European (sometimes called the Indo-Germanic)
family of languages.
It is thought that the first Indo-European language originated in Asia Minor on the
southern end of the Caspian Sea as early as 2500 bce. From there, the speakers of this
language migrated northwest to Europe, northeast to establish the Tocharian languages,
and east to India.
The Indo-European roots are from a language long lost in antiquity. They have been
extrapolated by scholars from modern languages and from the earliest writings in Germanic
and other languages. Particularly valuable in this study is Julius Pokorny's Indogermanisches
Etymologisches Wörterbuch, in which he lists the Indo-Germanic roots of 85 languages.
In this way scholars have been able to track the evolution of these languages.
The linguistic transformation that distinguishes the Germanic languages from other
languages in this “family” is what is called the First Consonant Shift, or Lautverschiebung.
Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), the older of the two brothers who authored the famous
Grimm's Fairytales, recognized and codified the first of two consonant shifts. It is therefore
also called Grimm's law. This first shift may have occurred as early as 500 bce. In this shift
the voiced plosives b, d, and g become unvoiced p, t, and k.

First Consonant Shift or Grimm’s Law (500 bce): b, d, g Become p, t, k

Indo-European Root Latin Gothic Old Germanic

bheu bucca puggs pocca (anglosaxon)
duo duo twai twa/twai
gneu genu kniu Knio

The term High German comes from the Second Consonant Shift, which transpired before
700 ce in the geographically higher regions of Germanic language speakers, i.e., the mountain-
ous regions of the Alps and the southern Germanic lands as far North as Cologne and Frankfurt
am Oder. However, the “shift” did not reach as far as the coastal lowlands, leaving “Platt”
or Low German, Dutch, Flemish, and English, which do not ­reflect this transformation.
In the Second Consonant Shift the sounds, p, t, and k become High German pf, z [t͡s], and ch.

Second Consonant Shift (500–600 ce): p, t, k Become pf, z, ch

English Dutch Low German High German

plough ploeg Ploog Pflug
forty veertig veertig vierzig
make maken moaken Machen
 Introduction ■ 5

Modern High German has evolved from what is called Old High German, spoken
from the seventh century until the eleventh century, followed by Middle High German,
spoken from c. 1050 to 1350. This was the period of the early lyric poets, called the min-
nesingers, who wrote in the vernacular German rather than Latin. Early New High German
was spoken from c. 1350 to 1650 and finally evolved into present-day New High German.
There can be no doubt that Luther's translation of the Latin Bible into German, pub-
lished in 1534, was the most powerful influence in the development of modern German
and gradually led to the standardization of the Hochdeutsch that is spoken today. There
were, however, many other very important events and forces, both literary and political,
that contributed to the development and standardization of High German. The heroic
poem Nibelungenlied was influential in literature and in the development of the German
language. Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and many others were
leading poets of the minnesingers. They composed heroic epic poems as well as lyric
poetry in Middle High German.
In 1439 Johannes Gutenberg (1398–1468) introduced moveable type printing in
Europe. This, with the Luther Bible, was the beginning of mass communication and the
development of a standard language that could be understood in all parts of the German-
speaking world. Meistersinger guilds encouraged the writing of poems as well as singing.
By 1500, however, restrictive rules had stifled creativity among them. This is the theme of
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner. Hans Sachs broke formal guild tradi-
tions and became a leading poet and famous Meistersinger. His praise of Luther caused
him political trouble until the local government finally became sympathetic to Luther’s
doctrine.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), considered Germany's greatest writer,
exhibited a versatility and enjoyed a popularity that served to set a standard for German
literary language. There was great political unrest from 1830 to 1848 resulting in social up-
heaval and change. The ensuing easing of censorship resulted in massive increases of
printed material and contributed to standardization. In 1871 the German duchies were
unified into one country, and all the states had one official language—Hochdeutsch (High
German). Konrad Duden wrote the Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German
Language in 1880 in an effort to standardize written German. Theodor Siebs, author of
Deutsche Bühnensprache, philologist and linguist, strove for a standard of spoken German,
free of dialect and regional influences. The first edition appeared in 1898. After several revi-
sions, in 1969 the title was changed to Deutsche Aussprache and standard International
Phonetic Alphabet transcription was added to both the main body of the work and to the
dictionary, which is also used as a source for this book. In 1996 Dudenverlag published a
newly edited and enhanced edition of rules of spelling and usage, removing many illogical
exceptions and clarifying syllable separation and comma placement, etc.
6 ■ F UN DA M E N TA LS

German Language Chronology

500 bce First Consonant Shift: Division between Germanic Languages
and other European Languages
500–600 ce Second Consonant Shift: Division between High German and
Low German
600–1050 Old High German: Existing written documents from this era, e.g.,
Das Hildebrandslied
1050–1350 Middle High German: Beginnings of literature in German rather
than Latin, e.g., Nibelungenlied, and early lyric poetry by
minnesingers, e.g., Wolfram von Eschenbach (c. 1160–1220),
Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–1230)
1350–1650 Early New High German: Period of Meistersinger Guilds, e.g.,
Hans Sachs (1494–1576)
1534 Martin Luther (1483–1546) publishes German Bible translation
1650–present New High German: First German novel, i.e., Grimmelshausen’s
Simplicius Simplicissimus (1668)
1774 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) publishes Die
Leiden des jungen Werthers
1871 Unification of German duchies1880 Konrad Duden
(1829–1911) publishes Complete Orthographic Dictionary
1898 Theodor Siebs (1862–1941) publishes Deutsche Bühnensprache
1996 Language Reform: Dudenverlag publishes new rules

■ ■ INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a system for transcribing the sounds of lan-
guage was beginning to be developed by phonetics and linguistics scholars so that speak-
ers of other languages could read and understand the phonemes (sounds) needed to
form the words as they are spoken. Until this alphabet was standardized, linguists and
lexicographers had to make do with whatever system they could invent for the publica-
tion or dictionary at hand. This varied with each dictionary and was extremely confusing.
The standardized system of transcription is called the International Phonetic
Alphabet, or IPA. The symbols are easily learned, and we can use IPA to indicate what
sounds or phonemes are used in forming the sounds of any language. Most languages use
more sounds than the regular spelling can represent with individual symbols. The Roman
alphabet, which is used for the spelling of many Western languages, has only a limited
number of symbols so that many of the symbols are used for more than one sound, e.g.,
bough, rough. In IPA, each sound is represented with a single symbol. Each sound can be
 Introduction ■ 7

further altered with diacritical marks that enable the transcription of fine nuances, e.g.,
vowel length, aspiration, and word stress. It is, of course, an imperfect system be-
cause there are phonemes in speech that cannot be transcribed no matter how detailed
the system may be. The transcription cannot actually produce the sounds. The reader
must do that. The element between the eye and the voice is the ear. Therefore, ultimately
everything that is transcribed must be defined by being audibly spoken. We use IPA in
this book to indicate pronunciations and urge the student to listen to native speakers
and singers to note the finest details of good pronunciation and enunciation of High
German.
The standard pronouncing dictionaries for German are Siebs, Deutsche Aussprache: Reine
und Gemäßigte Hochlautung mit Aussprachewörterbuch and Duden: Das Aussprachewörterbuch.
If you consult more than one pronouncing dictionary, you will notice that there is some
disagreement about the pronunciation of some words and the representation of certain
sounds in IPA. Before we begin using IPA, it would be wise to explain which symbols we
use that might differ from those in other books. For the most part, we have followed the
IPA found in Siebs, Deutsche Aussprache. Whereas Duden and others strive to represent
German as it is commonly spoken, Siebs offers guidelines for German as it should sound
on the stage, i.e., lyric diction. Specifically, we have chosen the following IPA symbols:
[a͡e], [ɔ͡ø], and [ɑ͡o] for the diphthongs in mein, Freude, and Haus. We use the symbol [ ͡ ] to
connect the sounds in diphthongs as above, in affricates as [t͡s] and [k͡ s], and double con-
sonants as [t ͡d]. The symbol [ʝ] is used for the voiced palatal fricative in ja and jene. The
glottal separation (glottal stop) is indicated with the symbol [ǀ].
The following table shows the German sounds and their IPA symbols. Sounds can be
categorized in many ways. In this table we include the most common categorization of
the sounds in the order in which they are introduced in this book and further explained
in each individual section (Chapters 3–13). In order to give a complete overview, we also
include the nasal vowels and the semi vowel glides, even though they are only used in a
few French loanwords (Chapter 15).

Sounds of the German Language

IPA
Category Symbol German Example English Comparison
Monophthongs [iː] Liebe [ˈliːbə] (love) bee
[i ̯] Lilie [ˈliːli ̯ə] (lily) similar to j-glide in view
[ɪ] Licht [lɪçt] (light) zip
[eː] Leben [ˈleːbən] (life) hay
8 ■ F UN DA M E N TA LS

IPA
Category Symbol German Example English Comparison
Monophthongs [ɛ] Herz [hɛrt͡s] (heart) heaven
(cont.)
[ɛː] Räder [ˈrɛːdɐ] (wheels) a long [ɛ]
[ə] Erde [ˈeːrdə] (earth) heaven
[ɑː] Tag [tɑːk] (day) father
[a] Ratte [ˈratə] (rat) night
[ɐ]1 Vater [ˈfɑːtɐ] (no comparable
example)
[oː] Rose [ˈroːzə] (rose) like long o in boat
[ɔ] Wonne [ˈvɔnə] (delight) bought
[uː] Blume [ˈbluːmə] (flower) soon
[ʊ] Mutter [ˈmʊtə] (mother) put
[øː] Flöte [ˈfløːtə] (flute) (no comparable
example)
[œ] Götter [ˈɡœtɐ] (gods) (no comparable
example)
[yː] Tür [tyːɐ] (door) (no comparable
example)
[ʏ] Küche [ˈkʏçə] (kitchen) (no comparable
example)
Nasal Vowels2 [ɛ̃] cousin [kuˈzɛ̃] (cousin) (no comparable
example)
[ɑ̃] orange [oˈɾɑ̃ʒə] (orange) (no comparable
example)
[õ] jargon [ʒarˈɡõ] (jargon) (no comparable
example)
[œ̃ ] Parfum [parˈfœ̃ ] (parfume) (no comparable
example)
Diphthongs [a͡e] Hain [ha͡en] (grove) similar to i in mine
[ɑ͡o] Maus [mɑ͡os] (mouse) similar to ou in mouse
[ɔ͡ø] Freude [ˈfrɔ͡ødə] (joy) similar to oy in boy
 Introduction ■ 9

IPA
Category Symbol German Example English Comparison
Fricatives [f] Fenster [ˈfɛnstɐ] (window) fish
[v] Wasser [ˈvasɐ] (water) voice
[s] Ross [rɔs] (horse) song
[z] Sonne [ˈzɔnə] (sun) zoo
[ʃ] Schuh [ʃuː] (shoe) hush
[ʒ] Genie [ʒeˈniː] (genius) vision
[ʝ] Jäger [ˈʝɛːɡɐ] (hunter) y in you with friction
[ç] Licht [lɪçt] (light) (no comparable
example)
[x] Bach [bax] (brook) loch (Scottish)
[h] Haus [hɑ͡os] (house) house
Plosives [ǀ]3 ihrem Aug’ [ˈǀiːɾəm ǀɑ͡ok] vowel onset: on earth
(her eye)
[p] Platz [plat͡s] (place) Peter
[b] Burg [bʊrk] (castle) boy
[t] Tat [tɑːt] (act) table
[d] Dach [dax] (roof) dawn
[k] König [ˈkøːnɪç] (king) king
[ɡ] Garten [ˈɡartən] (garden) garden
Nasals [m] Morgen [ˈmɔrɡən] morning
(morning)
[n] Nacht [naxt] (night) night
[ŋ] Gesang [ɡəˈzaŋ] (song) song
Lateral [l] Lied [liːt] (song) light
Trills [r] Ruh [ruː] (rest) tongue trill
[ɾ] Haar [hɑːɾ] (hair) single tongue tap
10 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

IPA
Category Symbol German Example English Comparison
Affricates [p͡s] Psyche [ˈp͡syçe] (psyche) [p] immediately
followed by [s]
[p͡f ] Pforte [ˈp͡fɔrtə] (gate) [p] immediately
followed by [f]
[t͡s] Zauber [ˈt͡sɑ͡obɐ] (magic) [t] immediately
followed by [s]
[t͡ʃ] Deutsch [dɔ͡øt͡ʃ] (German) choose
[k͡s] Hexe [ˈhɛk͡sə] (witch) boxes
[k͡v] Quelle [ˈk͡vɛlə] (well) [k] immediately
followed by [v]
Semi Vowel [w] Toilette [twaˈlɛtə] (toilet) we
Glides4
[ɥ] Nuance [ˈnɥɑ̃sə] (nuance) like a nonsyllabic [y]
Other IPA [ː] Liebe [ˈliːbə] (love) indicates long vowel
Symbols
[h] Tor [thoːɾ] (gate) indicates aspiration of
plosives)
[ ̃] Orange [oˈɾɑ̃ʒə] (orange) indicates nasalization
[ˈ] Vogel [ˈfoːɡəl] indicates primary word
stress
[ˌ] Vogelgesang[ˈfoːɡəlɡəˌzaŋ] indicates secondary
word stress
■ ■ CH A P T ER 2

WORD STRUCTURE

A basic knowledge of German word structure, inflection, and word stress is necessary
for correct pronunciation. Many of the rules of pronunciation that you will find in this
book require the understanding of word elements, the ability to recognize them, and
how they are put together to form words.
German words may consist of several elements. The basic word element is the word
stem, also called root stem. The word stem may be supplemented with prefixes, suf-
fixes, and inflective (grammatical) endings, each of them comprising a separate ele-
ment. The following example illustrates how this works.

Prefix: Prefix: Word Stem: Suffix: Ending: Complete Word:

un be schreib lich e unbeschreibliche

[ʊn] [bə] [ˈʃrae
͡ p] [liç] [ə] [ʊnbəˈʃrae
͡ pliçə]

The word stem in the above example is -schreib- (to write). The prefix be- (de-) alters
the meaning to “describe” (to write about). The suffix -lich can be translated as “able to”
and the prefix un- is used like the English prefix “in-” or “un-” to make the word negative;
thus “unable to describe” or in one English word, “indescribable.” The inflective ending -e
has no impact on the meaning of the word but is needed for grammatical reasons to indi-
cate that the adjective relates to a noun with feminine gender; for example, eine unbesch-
reibliche Sehnsucht (an indescribable longing). The word Sehnsucht is the compound of
the verb sehnen (to long for) and the noun Sucht (mania) that translates as “longing.” Such
combinations are called compound words.
The word stress in simple words usually falls on the first syllable of the word stem,
and in compound words the stress falls on the first syllable of the first word stem, unbesch-
reibliche Sehnsucht [ʊnbəˈʃra͡eplɪçə ˈzeːnzʊxt]. The following sections will help you to iden-
tify the different kinds of word elements and the placement of word stress.
■ 11
12 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

■ ■ 2.1 WORD STEM

As you learned above, the basic element of a word is the word stem or root. Without any
knowledge of German vocabulary and grammar, it might be difficult to recognize the
word stem and you may need the help of a dictionary. As your vocabulary and your ability
to recognize word elements grow, it will become easier to determine the word stem. It will
also help to know that the stressed vowel of the word stem may change in inflected forms.
The following tables explain how the stem changes in verbs, plural forms of nouns and
adjectives, and in comparative forms.

Strong Verbs

In weak (regular) verb forms the stem remains unchanged (leben, lebte, gelebt), but
in strong (irregular) verbs the stressed vowel in the stem changes independent from
its ending (singen, sang, gesungen). There are approximately 200 strong verbs in German.
A few of the most common strong verbs are listed here as examples. For a complete list of
strong verbs, refer to a book of conjugations.

Infinitive 3rd Pers. Singular Simple Past Past Participle

leiden [ˈla͡edən] leidet [ˈla͡edət] litt [lɪt] gelitten [ɡəˈlɪtən]
steigen [ˈʃta͡eɡən] steigt [ʃta͡ekt] stieg [ʃtiːk] gestiegen [ɡəˈʃtiːɡən]
fliegen [ˈfliːɡən] fliegt [fliːkt] flog [floːk] geflogen [ɡəˈfloːɡən]
singen [ˈzɪŋən] singt [zɪŋt] sang [zaŋ] gesungen [ɡəˈzʊŋən]
sinnen [ˈzɪnən] sinnt [zɪnt] sann [zan] gesonnen [ɡəˈzɔnən]
sehen [ˈzeːən] sieht [ziːt] sah [zɑː] gesehen [ɡəˈzeːən]
sprechen [ˈʃprɛçən] spricht [ʃprɪçt] sprach [ʃprɑːx] gesprochen [ɡəˈʃprɔxən]
tragen [ˈtrɑːɡən] trägt [trɛːkt] trug [truːk] getragen [ɡəˈtrɑːɡən]
schlafen [ˈʃlɑːfən] schläft [ʃlɛːft] schlief [ʃliːf] geschlafen [ɡəˈʃlɑːfən]

Plural Forms of Nouns

In the plural of some nouns the stressed vowel in the stem changes its quality by adding
the umlaut (¨); thus a becomes ä, o becomes ö, u becomes ü, and au becomes äu.
 Word Structure ■ 13

Singular Plural
Vater [ˈfɑːtəɾ] Väter [ˈfɛːtəɾ]
Macht [maxt] Mächte [ˈmɛçtə]
Boden [ˈboːdən] Böden [ˈbøːdən]
Schloss [ʃlɔs] Schlösser [ˈʃlœsəɾ]
Bruder [ˈbruːdəɾ] Brüder [ˈbryːdəɾ]
Frucht [frʊxt] Früchte [ˈfrʏçte]
Baum [bɑ͡oːm] Bäume [ˈbɔ͡ømə]

Comparative Forms of Adjectives

The stressed vowel also changes quality by adding the umlaut in the comparative and su-
perlative of most monosyllabic adjectives.

Positive Comparative Superlative

nah [nɑː] näher [ˈnɛːəɾ] am nächsten [am ˈnɛːçstən]
stark [ʃtark] stärker [ˈʃtɛrkəɾ] am stärksten [am ˈʃtɛrkstən]
groß [ɡroːs] größer [ˈɡrøːsəɾ] am größten [am ˈɡrøːstən]
kurz [kʊrt͡s] kürzer [ˈkʏrt͡səɾ] am kürzesten [am ˈkʏrt͡səstən]

■ ■ 2.2 PREFIXES

Prefixes are elements added before the word stem to modify the meaning of the word.
Most prefixes precede verbs, but they can also be attached to other words (adjectives,
adverbs, nouns) or to another prefix. Some prefixes can stand by themselves as separate
words (separable prefixes). Others cannot and are always attached to a verb stem (insep-
arable prefixes). Some prefixes like erz- and ur- are only attached to nouns and adjectives.
Familiarize yourself with the following prefixes and their pronunciation, which does not
always conform to the general pronunciation rules.
Prefixes that do not separate from the word stem in conjugated verb forms (erzählen,
ich erzähle) are usually unstressed, and they remain unstressed when attached to a noun
or adjective.
14 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

Unstressed Prefixes

be- [bə] bedenken [bəˈdɛŋkən] to consider, to deliberate

ent- [ɛnt] entgegnen [ɛntˈɡeːɡnən] to reply
er- [ɛɐ] ertragen [ɛɐˈtrɑːɡən] to endure
ge- [ɡə] gehören [ɡəˈhøːɾən] to belong
ver- [fɛɐ] vergessen [fɛɐˈɡɛsən] to forget
zer- [t͡sɛɐ] zerschlagen [t͡sɛɐˈʃlɑːɡən] to smash, to destroy

Prefixes that are separable from the word stem are usually stressed in the infinitive,
vorziehen (to prefer) and retain the stress even when they are separated from the word
stem in some conjugated verb forms, ich ziehe vor (I prefer). When two normally stressed
prefixes are connected to further modify the meaning, the second prefix will retain the
stress, herein [hɛˈɾa͡en] (into), hereinkommen [hɛˈɾa͡enkɔmən] (to come in). The separable
prefixes da-, dar-, her-, vor-, and zu- often change the vowel length and/or the vowel
quality when they are followed by another prefix. For example the prefix her- is stressed
and pronounced with a long and closed e-vowel, [ˈheːɾ] when directly preceding a verb
stem, as in herbringen [ˈheːɾbrɪŋən], but short and open, [ˈhɛɾ] when followed by another
prefix that takes the word stress, as in herbei [hɛɾˈba͡e]. For clarity in the table of Stressed
Prefixes below, the prefixes that change pronunciation when followed by another stressed
prefix are marked with an asterisk (*). The unstressed pronunciation is listed following
the regular stressed pronunciation.

Stressed Prefixes

ab- [ˈap] ablehnen [ˈapleːnən] to reject

an- [ˈan] angeben [ˈanɡeːbən] to declare
auf- [ˈɑ͡of] aufziehen [ˈɑ͡of t͡siːən] to bring up
aus- [ˈɑ͡os] ausführen [ˈɑ͡osfyːɾən] to carry out
bei- [ˈba͡e] beigeben [ˈba͡eɡeːbən] to add or attach
da- * [ˈdɑː] dasein [ˈdɑːza͡en] to be there
[da] davorkommen [daˈfoːɾkɔmən] to come before
 Word Structure ■ 15

dar- * [ˈdɑːɾ] darbieten [ˈdɑːɾbiːtən] to present, to perform

[daɾ] darüberbreiten [daˈɾyːbəɾbra͡etən] to spread over
ein- [ˈa͡en] einreden [ˈa͡enreːdən] to persuade
erz- [ˈɛrt͡s] Erzengel [ˈɛrt͡sǀɛŋəl] Archangel
fort- [ˈfɔrt] fortsetzen [ˈfɔrtzɛt͡sən] to resume
her- * [ˈheːɾ] herbringen [ˈheːɾbrɪŋən] to bring here
[hɛɾ] hervorragen [hɛɾˈfoːɾ͡rɑːɡən] to stand out
hin- [ˈhɪn] hinsehen [ˈhɪnzeːən] to look there
los- [ˈloːs] losfahren [ˈloːsfɑːɾən] to drive away
mit- [ˈmɪt] mitgehen [ˈmɪtɡeːən] to go with
nach- [ˈnɑːx] nachdenken [ˈnɑːxdɛŋkən] to think about
nieder- [ˈniːdəɾ] niederlegen [ˈniːdəɾleːɡən] to lie down
ur- [ˈuːɾ] uralt [ˈuːɾǀalt] immemorial, ancient
vor- * [ˈfoːɾ] vorziehen [ˈfoːɾt͡siːən] to prefer
[foɾ] vorangehen [foˈɾanɡeːhen] to pass by
weg- [ˈvɛk] wegnehmen [ˈvɛkneːmən] to take away
zu- * [ˈ t͡suː] zuwenden [ˈ t͡suːvɛndən] to turn towards
[t͡su] zurückkehren [t͡suˈɾʏk͡keːɾən] to return

The meaning of words with the prefixes durch, um, über, and unter is defined not
only by the meaning of the prefix but also by the word stress: for example, the verb
überziehen [ˈyːbəɾt͡siːən], with a stress on the prefix means, “to slip over,” while über­
ziehen [yːbəɾˈ t͡siːən] with the stress on the word stem means “to overdraw.” The stressed
prefix is separable in conjugated verb forms, while the unstressed prefix is inseparable;
thus, er zieht ein Hemd über (puts a shirt on) versus er überzieht sein Konto (he over-
draws his bank account). Nouns that are derived from these prefixes usually keep
the stress pattern of the verb: Überzug [ˈyːbəɾt͡suːk] (cover), Überziehung [yːbəɾˈ t͡siːʊŋ]
(overdraft).
16 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

Prefixes That Can Be Stressed or Unstressed

durch- [ˈdʊrç] durchsetzen [ˈdʊrçzɛt͡sən] to prevail

[dʊrç] durchsetzen [dʊrçˈzɛt͡sən] to intersperse
um- [ˈʊm] umziehen [ˈʊmt͡siːən] to relocate, to change (clothes)
[ʊm] umziehen [ʊmˈ t͡siːən] to surround
über- [ˈyːbəɾ] überziehen [ˈyːbəɾt͡siːən] to cover
[yːbəɾ] überziehen [yːbəɾˈ t͡siːən] to overdraft
unter- [ˈʊntəɾ] untergehen [ˈʊntəɾɡeːən] to decline
[ʊntəɾ] untergehen [ʊntəɾˈɡeːən] to undergo

The prefixes wider-, miss-, in-, and un- follow an irregular stress pattern. They can be
stressed or unstressed depending upon the stem to which they are attached. Use a reliable
dictionary whenever you are in doubt about the stress of words with these irregular ­prefixes.

Prefixes with an Irregular Stress Pattern

wider- [ˈviːdəɾ] widerspiegeln [ˈviːdəɾʃpiːɡəln] to reflect

[viːdəɾ] widerlegen [viːdəɾˈleːɡən] to disprove
miss- [ˈmɪs] missverstehen [ˈmɪsfɛɐʃteːən] to misunderstand
[mɪs] misstrauen [mɪsˈtrɑ͡oən] to distrust
in- [ˈɪn] indiskret [ˈɪndɪskreːt] indiscreet
[ɪn] informieren [ɪnforˈmiːɾen] to inform
un- [ˈʊn] untreu [ˈʊntrɔ͡ø] unfaithful
[ʊn] unendlich [ʊnˈǀɛntlɪç] eternal

■ ■ 2.3 SUFFIXES

Like the prefix, the suffix is an element added to the word stem to modify the meaning
of the word. In contrast to the prefix that precedes the word stem, the suffix follows the
word stem or another suffix as in Wachsamkeit, which consists of the stem Wach- and
the suffixes -sam- and -keit. Suffixes are unstressed except for the suffix -ei (marked *),
which is always stressed, as in Träumerei [trɔ͡øməˈɾa͡e]. Remember that a suffix is a ­separate
­element. The suffix neither changes the pronunciation of the preceding element, nor is it
altered by the element that follows it. The vowel length and quality of the suffix itself
remain unchangeable. Familiarize yourself with the following suffixes and their pronunci-
ation. In particular, notice the long vowels in the suffixes -bar, -los, -sal, -sam, and -tum.
 Word Structure ■ 17

Suffixes

-bar [bɑːɾ] spürbar [ˈʃpyːɾbɑːɾ] perceptible

-chen [çən] Kindchen [ˈkɪntçən] small child
-haft [haft] herzhaft [ˈhɛrt͡shaft] hearty
-heit [ha͡et] Klugheit [ˈkluːkha͡et] cleverness
-ei * [ˈa͡e] Träumerei [trɔ͡øməˈɾa͡e] reverie
-in [ɪn] Königin [ˈkøːnɪɡɪn] queen
-ig [ɪç] wonnig [ˈvɔnɪç] lovely
-isch [ɪʃ] malerisch [ˈmɑːleɾɪʃ] picturesque
-keit [ka͡et] Tapferkeit [ˈtap͡fɐka͡et] bravery
-lein [la͡en] Mägdelein [ˈmɛːɡdəla͡en] little maiden
-lich [lɪç] fröhlich [ˈfrøːlɪç] happy
-ling [lɪŋ] Fremdling [ˈfrɛmtlɪŋ] stranger
-los [loːs] herzlos [ˈhɛrt͡sloːs] heartless
-mut [muːt] Wehmut [ˈveːmuːt] melancholy
-nis [nɪs] Bildnis [ˈbɪltnɪs] portrait, picture
-sal [zɑːl] Trübsal [ˈtryːpzɑːl] sadness
-sam [zɑːm] wachsam [ˈvaxzɑːm] wake, alert
-schaft [ʃaft] Landschaft [ˈlantʃaft] landscape,
countryside
-tum [tuːm] Heiligtum [ˈha͡elɪçtuːm] sanctuary
-ung [ʊŋ] Wertung [ˈveːɾtʊŋ] assessment, score
-wärts [vɛrt͡s] vorwärts [ˈfoːɾvɛrt͡s] forward

■ ■ 2.4 GRAMMATICAL ENDINGS

Inflective endings are added to words to further define their grammatical function in the
phrase. The inflection of verbs is called conjugation and indicates person, number,
tense, and mood. The inflection of nouns and adjectives is called declension and indi-
cates number, case, and gender.
18 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

Conjugation

Verb endings indicate the subject of the sentence and the time of the action. Verb endings
are always unstressed, and the e vowel is pronounced as schwa, [ə]. Dictionaries usually
list verbs only in the infinitive; therefore, you might have to refer to a book of conjuga-
tions when you have difficulties in identifying a verb in an inflected form. Verb infinitives
end with -en or -n. In weak (regular) verb forms, the stem remains ­unchanged when the
verb is conjugated. Most German verbs are weak and follow the pattern here.

Conjugation Table: Weak (Regular) Verb

Infinitive: hören [ˈhøːɾən] (to hear)

Past participle: gehört [ɡəˈhøːrt]
Personal
Pronoun: Present Tense: Simple Past: Subjunctive:
1st pers. sing. ich höre [ˈhøːɾə] hörte [ˈhøːrtə] höre [ˈhøːɾə]
2nd pers. sing. du hörst [ˈhøːrst] hörtest [ˈhøːrtəst] hörest [ˈhøːɾəst]
3rd pers. sing. er, sie, es hört [ˈhøːrt] hörte [ˈhøːrtə] höre [ˈhøːɾə]
1st pers. plur. wir hören [ˈhøːɾən] hörten [ˈhøːrtən] hören [ˈhøːɾən]
2nd pers. plur. ihr hört [høːrt] hörtet [ˈhøːrtət] höret [ˈhøːɾet]
3rd pers. plur. sie hören [ˈhøːɾən] hörten [ˈhøːrtən] hören [ˈhøːɾən]

In strong (irregular) verb forms the stem changes its quality in some forms of the
­conjugated verb. A table of a few irregular verbs was provided earlier. The endings of
the strong verbs follow the pattern in the following table.

Conjugation Table: Strong (Irregular) Verb

Infinitive: singen [ˈzɪŋən] (to sing)

Past participle: gesungen [ɡəˈzʊŋən]
Personal
Pronoun: Present Tense: Simple Past: Subjunctive:
1st pers. sing. ich singe [ˈzɪŋə] sang [zaŋ] sänge [ˈzɛŋə]
2nd pers. sing. du singst [zɪŋst] sangst [zaŋst] sängest [ˈzɛŋest]
3rd pers. sing. er, sie, es singt [zɪŋt] sang [zaŋ] sänge [ˈzɛŋə]
1st pers. plur. wir singen [ˈzɪŋən] sangen [ˈzaŋən] sängen [ˈzɛŋən]
2nd pers. plur. ihr singt [zɪŋt] sangt [zaŋt] sänget [ˈzɛŋet]
3rd pers. plur. sie singen [ˈzɪŋən] sangen [ˈzaŋən] sängen [ˈzɛŋən]
 Word Structure ■ 19

Most German Lieder are settings of poetry from the romantic or classic period.
Therefore, you will find conjugated verb forms that are no longer used in modern-day
German. Often verbs in the second person singular end on -est as in rauschest [ˈrɑ͡oʃəst]
and lauschest [ˈlɑ͡oʃəst] (Brahms/Brentano, O kühler Wald).

Declension

The relationship of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives within a phrase is shown by endings
that show gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter), number (singular or plural), and case
(nominative, accusative, dative, genitive). In words of Germanic origin, noun and adjective
endings are always unstressed and do not influence the pronunciation of the vowel in the
word stem. The e vowel in unstressed endings is always pronounced as schwa [ə]. For pro-
nunciation purposes, it is imperative that you recognize the declension endings -e, -em,
-en, -er, and -es. The following lines (all from Dichterliebe, Schumann/Heine) ­contain ex-
amples with adjectives and nouns using these endings.

-e Und grüne Bäume singen [ǀʊnt ˈɡryːnə ˈbɔ͡ømə ˈzɪŋən] (And green trees sing)
Es ist eine alte Geschichte [ǀɛs ǀɪst ˈǀa͡enə ˈǀaltə ɡəˈʃɪçtə] (It is an old story)
-em Aus wildem Marmorstein [ǀɑ͡os ˈvɪldəm ˈmarmɔrʃta͡en] (Out of rough marble)
Mit Bräutlichem Gesicht [mɪt ˈbrɔ͡øtlɪçəm ɡəˈzɪçt] (with a bride-like visage)
-en Aus alten Märchen winkt es [ǀa͡os ˈǀaltən ˈmɛrçən vɪŋkt ǀɛs] (Out of the old fairy
tales it beckons)
Zu deinen süßen Füßen [t͡su ˈda͡enən ˈzyːsən ˈfyːsən] (At your sweet feet)
-er Du trauriger, blasser Mann [duː ˈtrɑ͡oɾɪɡɐ ˈblasɐ man] (You sad, pale man)
Und rote Lichter rennen [ǀʊnt ˈroːtə ˈlɪçtɐ ͡ˈrɛnən] (And red lights rush about)
-es Mein übergroßes Weh’ [ma͡en ˈǀyːbəɾɡroːsəs veː] (My unbearable grief)
Es treibt mich ein dunkles Sehnen [ǀɛs tra͡ept mɪç ǀa͡en ˈdʊŋkləs ˈzeːnən] (A dark
longing drives me)

In German the present participle of a verb is often used as an adjective. It is formed

by adding a -d to the verb infinitive (blühen → blühend) followed by an adjective ending
(-e, -em, -en, -er, -es):Viel blühende Blumen . . . [fiːl ˈblyːəndə ˈbluːmən]; Erquickenden Gesang
[ǀɛɐˈkvɪkəndən ɡəˈzaŋ].
20 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

■ ■ 2.5 COMPOUND WORDS

German romantic poetry thrives on long words that are constructed out of several
shorter words. A wonderful example is the title of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic
Flute). Many compound words are composed of two nouns, such as Winterreise1
(Winter Journey); others may be composed with a verb and a noun, as in Sehnsucht
(longing), a noun and an adjective as in eiskalt (cold as ice), or an adverb and an adjec-
tive as in ­wunderselig2 (wonderfully blissful). Compound words can also be composed
of more than two words, such as Mindest/haltbarkeits/datum (expiration date). Some
are words used in everyday language, such as Vogelgesang (birdsong) and Todesangst
(fear of death); other, more complex words have a poetic value that is very difficult
to translate or might require a lengthy explanation, and the singer will need some
deeper knowledge of German in order to understand the meaning. In most cases, how-
ever, it is possible, with the help of a dictionary, to easily recognize and translate the
separate elements.

Diamanten/pracht3—compound of Diamant (diamond) and Pracht (splendor)

Mondes/glanz4—compound of Mond (moon) and Glanz (shine)
Väter/saal5—compound of Väter (ancestors) and Saal (hall)

■ ■ 2.6 WORD STRESS

As in English, stress in German is tonic, meaning that in spoken language, the pitch of the
voice rises slightly on stressed syllables. This applies to all words used in the German lan-
guage whether they are of Germanic or non-Germanic origin. Nevertheless, words of
non-­Germanc origin do not always follow the same stress pattern as words of Germanic
origin.
In IPA, the stress is indicated at the beginning of the stressed syllable. Simple words
(with one word stem) have only one stress, which is indicated with the symbol [ˈ] as in
Vogel [ˈfoːɡəl] and singen [ˈzɪŋən]. Compound words (with two word stems) have, in addi-
tion to the primary word stress, a secondary stress that is indicated with the symbol [ˌ] as
in Vogelgesang [ˈfoːɡəlɡəˌzaŋ].
The following general rules for word stress may be understood from the above de-
scriptions of word elements.
 Word Structure ■ 21

RULES FOR STRESS IN WORDS OF GERMANIC ORIGIN

The first syllable of the (first) word stem is stressed

■ in simple words when not preceded by a stressed prefix or followed by the suffix-ei:
Vogel [ˈfoːɡəl], singen [ˈzɪŋən], dunkel [ˈdʊŋkəl]
■ in compound words when not followed by the suffix -ei. (Secondary stress may be
applied on the first syllable of the second stem):
Vogelgesang [ˈfoːɡəlɡəˌzaŋ], Todesangst [ˈtoːdəsˌǀaŋst]

except the following units of time and holidays, where the primary stress is
on the second word stem: Jahrzehnt [jɑːɾˈ t͡seːnt] (decade), Jahrhundert
[jɑːɾˈhʊndərt] (centennial), Jahrtausend [jɑːɾˈtɑ͡ozənt] (millennium),
Pfingstsonntag [p͡fɪŋstˈzɔntɑːk] (White Sunday), Ostermontag [ˌoːstɐˈmoːntɑːk]
(Monday after Easter), Karfreitag [kɑːɾˈfra͡etɑːk] (Good Friday)

The stressed prefix is stressed

■ in all combinations:
vorsingen [ˈfoɾzɪŋən], herkommen [ˈheːɾkɔmən], nachdenken [ˈnɑːxdɛŋkən],
Aufzug [ˈɑ͡oft͡suːk], Ausgang [ˈɑ͡usɡaŋ]

except when followed by another stressed prefix, in which case the second
stressed prefix receives the stress: herein [hɛɾˈa͡en], einher [a͡enˈheːɾ],
hereinkommen [hɛɾˈa͡enkɔmən], einhergehən [a͡enˈheːɾɡeːən]

Note: The pronunciation of a prefix may change depending on whether it is stressed

or unstressed (see list of Stressed Prefixes).

The suffix -ei is stressed

■ in all combinations:
Träumerei [ˌtrɔ͡øməˈɾa͡e], Malerei [ˌmɑːləˈɾa͡e], Zuckerbäckerei [ˌt͡sʊkɐbɛkəˈɾa͡e]

It must be added here that stress can also change according to the intended meaning
by emphasizing one element over another. For example, in the noun, Kunstmalerei
[ˌkʊnstmɑːləˈɾa͡e] (art painting), the primary stress would normally fall on the suffix -ei.
However, if the speaker intends to distinguish “art painting” from regular painting one
might choose to emphasize “art” by putting the primary word stress on Kunst, thus
[ˈkʊnstmɑːləɾa͡e]. Another example is the word dahin, which changes its function and
meaning depending on what element takes the stress. If the first element (da-) takes the
stress, the word functions as an adverb meaning there: Gehe nicht dahin! [ˈdɑːhɪn] (“Do
not go there!”). If the second element (-hin) is stressed, it functions as an adjective and
means gone: Er ging dahin [daˈhɪn] (“He left”).
22 ■ F U NDA M E N TA L S

The following examples demonstrate how the stress changes to reflect different meaning.

Maler [ˈmɑːlɐ] (painter)

malen [ˈmɑːlən] (to paint)

bemalen [bəˈmɑːlən] (to paint on)

ausmalen [ˈɑ͡osmɑːlən] (to color in)
malerisch [ˈmɑːləɾɪʃ] (picturesque)
Malerei [ˌmɑːləˈɾa͡e] (painting)

Kunstmaler [ˈkʊnstˌmɑːlɐ] (artist painter)

Kunstmalerei [ˌkʊnstmɑːləˈɾa͡e] (art painting)
Kunstmalerei [ˈkʊnstmɑːləˌɾa͡e] (art painting)

The noun Maler and the verb malen have the stress on the first syllable of the word
stem. The prefix be- is unstressed, and the stress remains on the first syllable of the word
stem in bemalen. However, aus- is a stressed prefix and takes the stress in ausmalen. Like
most suffixes, the suffix -isch is unstressed, and the stress is on the word stem in malerisch.
In Malerei, however, the primary stress falls on the only stressed suffix, -ei.
Kunstmaler is a compound word, and the primary stress goes on the first syllable of
the first word stem. Kunstmalerei normally has the primary stress on the stressed suffix -ei,
but depending on the situation, one might also choose to stress the first word stem Kunst
(art) in order to emphasize the difference between regular painting and art painting, thus
Kunstmalerei.

Stress in Words of Non-Germanic Origin

No single rule can be given for stress in words of non-Germanic origin. The following
examples may serve to help recognize certain patterns.

■ Final -ie is usually stressed in words of Greek origin:

Harmonie [harmoˈniː]
Melodie [meloˈdiː]

■ Other words ending on -ie are stressed on the penultimate (second to last)
­syllable, and the -ie is pronounced [i ̯ə]. Most of these words are of Latin origin:
Arie [ˈɑːɾi ̯ə]
Lilie [ˈliːli ̯ə]
 Word Structure ■ 23

■ The word endings -ion, -ist, -tät, -phon, and -tiv, are stressed:
Motion [moˈ t͡si ̯oːn]
Komponist [kɔmpoˈnɪst]
Universität [univɛrsiˈtɛːt]
Xylophon [k͡syloˈfoːn]
Stativ [ʃtaˈtiːf]

■ Words of Greek origin ending on -ik usually have the stress on the penultimate
syllable:
Lyrik [ˈlyːɾɪk]
Tragik [ˈtrɑːɡɪk]

■ Other words, also of Greek origin, ending on -ik are stressed on the final syllable:
Mathematik [matemaˈtiːk]
Musik [muˈziːk]
■
2
VOWELS
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behind which, stretched full length on the floor, lay a huge Nubian
lion—the black lion of the deserts—the king of the lion tribe. Should
the lion roar or spring at the door, Carl realized with a flash, all was
lost. Amshied would be aroused from his sensual desires, and all
hope of rescue would disappear. To his amazement, the lion merely
yawned and blinked his eyes. Often had he seen just such a scared
human at the other side of his door. No need of hurrying, no need of
wasting breath. Sooner or later the feast would be his!
The two doors were connected at the top by an iron rod, so fixed that
when either door was slid open the other opened also. Carl saw at a
glance that he could slide the one door and get into the other room
before the lion had time to get out, for as soon as he was through he
could close the door against the lion. But, he reasoned, suppose the
lion did manage to squeeze through while he was getting into the
other room. Then if there was no other available exit out of the other
room, things would be worse than before. He would be trapped.
What could he do? Once more his gaze roamed about the room. His
eyes rested on the couch. Yes, that might answer. His fears for Sana
gave him speed. It was but the work of a moment to get that couch
and prop it upright against the door of the den. Fortunately for Carl
the workmanship of the door was none too good. Near the floor the
masonry had fallen away, exposing the bars of the framework.
Unmindful of the sniffing lion, Carl forced the chains nearest the door
through the bars, secured the chains and brought them through to
his side of the cage. The suddenness of his movements took the lion
unawares, and it made no move at Carl, but drew slightly back in
fright. The locks were snapped and Carl stood up to contemplate his
work. It might do? But he had his doubts. What would happen when
he opened the door to get at Amshied?
As he pondered for a moment, a cry came to his ears. Sana had
awakened from her stupor to find the grinning face of Amshied close
to hers.
With a smothered cry, Carl slid the door aside sufficiently to squeeze
through and sprang into the room.
The lust-ridden Berber had partly torn Sana’s clothing from her, and
was forcing his attentions upon her. The girl, horrified with fear, tried
to free herself from his grip.
But a whirlwind was upon him. He had no time to get to his feet nor
make any attempt to defend himself. With a fierce lunge Carl literally
threw himself upon Amshied, forcing him to the floor.
Although taken by surprise as he was, Amshied was no weakling.
Carl soon found this out when with a violent twist of his body
Amshied rolled over and clutched at Carl’s throat. With a trick
learned at school Carl broke the hold, but Amshied was endowed
with brute strength and he seized Carl around the body with both
arms. Together they rolled across the floor, bringing up with a thud
against the door.
They lay in deathlike embrace for a moment, panting from their
exertions. Carl realized that Amshied was more than his match so far
as mere strength was concerned. To overcome his antagonist he
would have to resort to trickery. Heaving a deep sigh, as if utterly
exhausted and unable to continue, he let his body relax. To his
delight, Amshied was fooled completely. Believing Carl to be done
for, he released his hold for a moment. Brief though this respite was,
it was sufficient for Carl. Feeling the arms loosen ever so slightly, he
suddenly twisted around, and with a quick movement of his knees
had lifted Amshied, throwing him heavily on his side. At the same
time Carl pinned his opponent with a neck lock, and rolling him over,
placed his knee in the small of Amshied’s back and pressed.
The Berber struggled fiercely to free himself from the
encircling arm that was slowly choking him to death.
Amshied struggled fiercely to free himself from the encircling arm
that was slowly choking him to death. His efforts, however, were
useless. Carl hung on with a desperate strength.
Slowly the other weakened, his breathing became more and more
strained under the pressure on his throat and back. At last his body
relaxed. Apparently he was unconscious. But Carl took no chances.
Still retaining his grip, he rose to his feet. Then with a mighty heave
he threw the senseless man to the further end of the small room,
where he fell in a huddled heap to the floor. Carl noted, then, that
Amshied’s head was grotesquely twisted to one side. He would
bother them no more!

Carl rushed to Sana, who had watched the struggle with bated
breath. He sought to take her in his arms to carry her to freedom. But
freedom was not to be theirs so soon. The three amazons were upon
them. With wild shrieks they attacked Carl, who, not caring whether
they were women or not, let them have the full force of his blows.
Sana was at his side, with scratching nails and kicking feet. Another,
too, came to their aid. Cintani coming through the door, saw the
struggle and with eager fists did her best to help.
The amazons soon had enough of fighting and with wild cries ran
from the room, followed by Carl, Sana in his arms. His thoughts,
now, were only to get away from that devilish place. Cintani, running
at his side, grasped his arm and led him through a door out into the
open. Smoke was pouring from the house. Someone had set it afire.
Their horses were still tied to a palm, nearby. Sana asked to be set
down, and doing so, Carl did not notice the half-naked savage who
crept up behind him, felling him senseless to the ground with a blow
of a club.
Before Sana or the slave-girl could make any attempt to escape the
savage, now joined by three others, was upon them. Struggle as
they would they were helpless in the hands of these men. Sana had
often heard stories of the cavemen who were said to live in the hills
of the desert. Could it be possible that these four savages were
such? Nothing seemed to fit them better than that name.
If they were men they surely did not look the part. They resembled
monkeys more than anything else. Squat, long armed and covered
with hair, they looked like giant denizens of a tropical forest. Their
protruding jaws displayed tusk-like teeth, while their receding
foreheads ran back to red wool-like hair that covered their heads,
shoulders and upper back.
Uttering growls, that sounded as unhuman as they looked, the larger
of the four men, evidently the leader, took Sana up in his arms and
started off. One of the others threw Cintani across his shoulders as if
she were but an animal that had fallen victim to the chase.
Like a gift from heaven, unconsciousness came to Sana.
Carl, lying unconscious for several hours, came to in the early hours
of the morning. Under the bright gleam of the desert stars he saw
nothing but a heap of ashes and charred timbers—the remains of
Amshied’s dwelling.
His head still reeling from the blow he had received, he crawled to
his feet and looked around for some sight of his beloved one. With a
shock, he discovered in the ruins, several charred skeletons, totally
beyond point of recognition. Carefully he studied them, going from
one to the other in an attempt to find something by which to identify
them.
Bewildered he stood up, kicking the ashes aside with the toe of his
boot. Good God, what was that? Sana’s necklace! He stooped to
examine his find. Yes, it was the necklace Sana had worn that
morning when she started out on the ride with him. He was positive it
was the same, for he had examined it closely then, commenting
upon its uniqueness. Was this then the end of Sana—the end of life
itself? Among those charred bones, he believed, lay all that was
earthly of the woman he loved!
Heart heavy with anguish, his body trembling as with the ague, he
knelt in prayer. The words came slowly—it was years since he had
prayed—but in his heart he knew what he wanted to say.
With shaking hands he scooped a shallow grave in the sand, and in
it placed the remains of the bodies. He must be sure that Sana’s
body found a grave. The tears streamed from his eyes as he
carefully filled that last resting-place. The heaviest timbers he could
find he laid across the grave, lest some prowling beast of the night
should disturb the bodies. Above the little mound he fashioned a
rude cross, from two smaller pieces of charred timber, and with a
pencil he printed a marker on a piece of paper and pinned it to the
cross.
Unmindful of the terrific heat of the desert sun which beat down upon
him, he stumbled on, in a direction he believed would take him to the
city. Luck was with him. Late that afternoon he reached Sana’s
home, wild-eyed and fever-tortured.
Sana’s mother saw at a glance that some terrible accident had
happened. But Carl’s parched lips craved water, and putting her
fears aside for the moment she wet his lips, bathed his dust-covered
face and let him drink.
Then he spoke. Slowly he told the story. The old mother seemed to
age before his eyes, as she moaned, “Sana, my child. Did I not warn
you?” between her tears, as she sat rocking to and fro on the floor.
The minutes grew into hours and the two still sat there in silence—a
silence broken only by the moans of the mother and a frequent sob
or sigh from the man.
At last Carl roused himself from his lethargy. The desert fever had
spent itself—his mind was once more clear, but his heart was heavy
laden.
“What should he do? Whither was he going?” ran through his mind
as he stood up from his chair.
As if reading this thought, the gypsy spoke, “You have your work to
do. It was willed that this should happen. It is also written that you
must do your duty. Your caravan leaves tomorrow. Join it and peace
be with you.”
“Yes, that is best. I could not stay here now.”
He bade her a sad farewell and going to his hotel finished his
preparations for the journey. This over with, he threw himself, fully
clad, upon the bed to while away those long dreadful hours before
the dawn.
Sana returned to consciousness to find that the cavemen had
camped for the night in a valley formed by the sand dunes. To her
great relief, they did not bother about her or Cintani, but sat apart
from them chattering in guttural tones, later to lie down to sleep.
Early next morning, the girls were again picked up and the savages
set out with them for their home in the hills. The very thought of
being clutched so tightly in the arms of the beast-like man, who held
her close to him robbed her of all consciousness and she knew
nothing of her travels until she came to with a start, lying on the
ground with bound feet, surrounded by a strange group of men,
women and children, in front of a large cave. The women and
children, like the men, of whom Sana saw five, wore little or no
clothing.
Physically, the women were better proportioned than the men, but
they too looked more like animals than human beings. The women,
however, had taken some pains to appear attractive to their men.
One had a green feather stuck in her hair, while another had chosen
a bunch of twigs for a headdress. All of them wore a chain of shells
around their necks.
She and Cintani were subjected to close inspection on the part of the
women, accompanied by guttural growls from the men, who would
shove the women aside, now and then, with sweeping blows of the
arm.
The curiosity of the band satisfied, the leader, who had evidently
chosen Sana for his own, picked her up and carried her into the
cave. This was quite large, one side of the floor being strewn with
the skins of wild animals. On these Sana was thrown. The savage
walked away, but returned and sat down at her side.
With leering eyes he contemplated her figure, growling in a fearful
manner. Sana could not understand his words, but shivered as she
realized the meaning of his gestures. He reached over to untie her
feet, but the touch of his rough hands on her limbs made her
desperate. Summoning her strength, she kicked him in the side.
With what might have been a chuckle, he rose to his feet and walked
to the other end of the cave. Returning with a club he shook it at the
girl and threw it down at her side. Fearing an attack, Sana, covering
her face with her hands, shrieked pitifully.
The caveman, however, made no attempt to touch her, but after
looking at her for a time, turned and left the cave.
Greatly relieved, Sana drew herself up to a sitting position and
looked around the cave. In the gloom she could see little, but she
noticed that on the walls behind her were drawings of animals, while
here and there were bows and arrows lying among the skins on the
floor.
A sound came to her ears, and looking in the direction from which it
came, she could distinguish in the gloom of the cavern, a young
woman tending a new-born babe.
The mother paid no attention to Sana, nor was she disturbed the rest
of the day.
With nightfall, however, the whole band entered the cave, bringing
Cintani with them. Cintani was thrown to the floor at Sana’s side,
while the others, men, women and children, lay down in huddled
heaps to sleep.
Sana’s first words to Cintani were, “Where did those brutes come
from?”
“About a week ago Amshied and his gang, who luckily were away,
when you were there, returned with them. What he wanted to do with
them, I do not know, but he kept them locked up in a room. I believe
he was afraid of them himself. They must have escaped in the fire.”
“But what will become of us?”
“I believe I have a way. I had no love for Amshied. I was sold to him
as a slave. One day I stole a vial of poison, intending to kill myself.
My courage failed me, but ever since that day I have carried it with
me. I have it now. If I ever get the chance I shall poison them.”
“If you only could. But how could we get away from here? We would
never find our way.”
“But our horses are here. I saw them. They brought them along too.”
Overjoyed with these words, Sana started to say something, but was
interrupted by the arrival of one of the men, who taking Cintani in his
arms, carried her to the darkness of the other side of the cave.
Shutting her eyes, Sana put her hands over her ears to keep out any
sound. Suddenly she was aware of someone at her side. Horrified,
she felt a pair of hands steal over her. Looking, she saw her captor
lying at her side. Without a word he reached down and released her
feet. Again those hands upon her! With a cry she rolled over on her
face, fearful of her fate. Much to her surprise the savage, after a few
attempts to fondle her, retied her feet and hitting her some glancing
blows, he shuffled off into the darkness.
Exhausted though she was, Sana lay awake the entire night. Fear
kept her from sleeping, fear of what might happen.
At daybreak the savages left the cave, taking Cintani with them.
Sana they did not bother about, although one of the men stopped to
stare at her on his way out.
Try as she would she could not keep awake any longer. Sleep came,
dreamless sleep!
Someone was shaking her gently. Rousing herself, Sana looked up.
Cintani was bending over her, smiling happily.
“We are safe now, dear. The poison has done its work.”
Sana, comforted, yet surprised, “How did you do it?”
Tears welled in the girl’s eyes as she brokenly whispered, “After what
happened last night I supposed the women considered me one of
them. They made me help with the food. That gave me my chance.”
Sana wanted to take the weeping girl in her arms, but Cintani would
not let her.
“There is no time to be lost,” she urged, “Come, let us get out of this.
I have food and water.”
Once out of the cave, Sana saw that Cintani was right. The cave
people were lying on the ground, apparently asleep, but theirs was
an eternal slumber.
With delighted eyes, Sana saw the two horses. Quickly the girls
mounted and rode off in the clear moonlight. Sana gave her horse
his head, knowing that his instinct would tell him the way.
All that night their swift mounts put the miles under their feet. The
desert stars, which had guided Sana, had disappeared and the sun,
coming up from behind the dunes, saw the two girls riding wildly
homeward, till night fell, then they rested for a few hours. Early in the
morning they started out again.
Suddenly Sana’s horse shied at something lying on the ground. A
man was lying in the sand, face upward, writhing in the fever of
thirst. Dismounting, Sana saw at a glance it was de Rochelle. He
pleaded for help. At first she was tempted to ride on and leave him to
his fate. But a kindlier thought prompted her to reach for her canteen
which still hung intact at the saddle.
After administering a little water to the suffering man, she and
Cintani managed to lift him across her horse and again they
resumed their way.
Late in the afternoon the following day they came upon the remains
of the Berber’s house.
Their swift mounts put the miles under feet, when they
came across a man lying in the sand, writhing in the fever
 of thirst.

Sana dismounted, looking about for some trace of Carl, whom she
had seen felled with the blow of the caveman’s club. No sign of him
was to be seen, but she presently became aware of a figure kneeling
before a cross of charred timbers.
She saw it was a woman, and walking quickly towards her gave
voice to the cry, “Mother!”
At the sound the woman took her hands from her face, and rising to
her feet, shrieked, “Sana, my Sana!”
Mother and daughter embraced each other, tears in their eyes,
murmuring words of endearment.
Sana, at last, eager for news of Carl, asked her mother whether she
had seen or heard of him. In response the mother pointed to the
cross—to which was pinned a note. Sana, stricken with fear that Carl
was beneath the ruins, rushed to the cross, and taking the paper in
her hand, read:
HERE LIES MY BELOVED
SANA VON SECKT
REST IN PEACE
CARL
“Then he is alive?” turning to her mother with eager eyes.
“Yes, beloved, he is alive. He is now on the great desert. He thought
you dead and came to tell me. Then he went away.”
De Rochelle, still weak and exhausted, had gotten from the horse,
and came over to Sana.
“Sana, I did not believe you would ever do me the kindness you did.
Please forgive me for what I have done. It was I who set fire to this
place. I realized that harm might come to you through Amshied, so I
set fire to the house, thinking I could help you in that way. I saw the
savages take you away, and tried to follow, but fell exhausted.
Please, forgive me, Sana, won’t you?”
Without a word Sana turned away. Plead he might, but her
forgiveness he would never have. The water she gave him on the
desert, she felt, repaid him well enough—had she refused it, he
would now have been claimed by the sun and the sand as their own.
And in her woman’s mind she knew that he had more to do with the
escapade at the home of Amshied than he cared to tell.
Safe at home that night she wrote Carl at his New York address,
telling him that she was alive.
 CHAPTER IX
ON CAMEL’S BACK THROUGH THE
SAHARA
MEANWHILE at sunrise on the day of his departure, Carl had gone
to the market place to join the caravan. Among the crowd that
gathered there, at the very time the caravan set out, he found Sana’s
mother, who had come to bid him goodbye.
From one of the tourists he learned that the caravan would lead over
Tandini and Tenduf to Mogador in Morocco. This, he recalled, was
the route followed by the crusaders of Islam, when they wandered
through the desert lands, to preach Mohammedism with fire and
sword.
The caravan itself consisted of some twenty-five racing camels, the
true ships of the desert, capable of making from sixty to eighty miles
a day. Besides these there were four freight camels, each loaded
with about four hundred pounds of food and water, the latter being
especially important, as for days they would not pass any wells.
Carl had noted with a smile that the tourists as well as the guides
were dressed in Berber outfits; wide skirts and the gaily striped
burnus, with its big collar. He saw, too, that there were several
French officers in uniform in the party.
Like himself, everyone in the party was well armed. The guides, as
well as some of the tourists, were provided with bandoliers of
cartridges and carried rifles, while he noticed several of the others,
not so visibly equipped, adjust cartridge belts and holsters. Taking
the hint, he saw to it that his own automatic was fully loaded and his
spare clips readily accessible.
Such precautions were necessary, of course, to enable them to
repulse the attacks of any wild animals that, through pangs of
hunger, might become daring enough to attack the travelers. To be
dreaded, too, were the attacks of the bandits roving the sand hills.
The chieftains of the larger bandit tribes had already received the
regular tribute from the famous sheik Tan Jajidani, who in turn would
be doubly paid by the wealthy merchant who furnished the camel
and ran the show. While these would be satisfied to let the caravan
in peace, there might be others not so inclined.
At last, with a great hullabaloo, the caravan was under way.
At first Carl experienced much discomfort, but he found that by
relaxing and allowing his body to sway with the jogging steps of the
camel, it wasn’t as bad as he had expected.
Far ahead of the caravan rode two guides, whose duty it was to lead
the way, and at the same time keep a sharp watch for unfriendly
visitors.
Long before the main body of travelers would reach a village or
camp, the inhabitants would swarm out to meet them, offering fruit or
drink for sale, while at friendly camps water was offered to everyone.
To refuse to drink was considered an unfriendly act, and the guides
cautioned all to be sure to partake of the hospitality.
Otherwise the journey that day was uneventful. There was nothing,
outside of a few tiny camps or villages, to greet the eye but sand,
desert sand.
Tents were pitched that night under the desert stars. The campfire
gave forth a grateful warmth, for the night air was bitter cold. Carl
was sorry that he was not outfitted with a woolen burnus, but
knowing he would have to be up at daybreak, was soon comfortable
between his blankets.
With the first rays of the sun peeping over the horizon, the caravan
broke camp. Carl was amazed at the speed with which the camels
were saddled or loaded, the tents folded away, and the caravan
gotten on its way, accompanied by the singing of the guides and the
jingle of the lead-camel’s bells.
Thinking of Sana, he recalled of the manuscript he had taken with
him.
He would have the whole day to himself, with nothing to do, so he
took it from his pocket to read. The manuscript, written in a careful
hand, was entitled, “The Conception of Our Universe.”

Two hundred years before Christ, the great mathematician

Archimedes said, “Give me a fulcrum and I will move the earth!”
Our earth is a huge ball, about eight thousand miles in diameter and
it weighs some six hundred trillion or sextillion tons. (To remember
this place twenty-one ciphers after the six—
6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.) It is composed of rock, sand and
water. Seventy-three per cent., or about three-quarters, of the earth
is water—the balance, twenty-seven per cent., or about one-quarter,
is solid matter, that is, rock or sand.
The entire surface of the earth measures nearly two hundred million
square miles and in contents the earth is about two hundred and
sixty billion cubic miles.
The earth is covered with a thin envelope of air and clouds which
travels with the earth. If such was not the case, a balloon rising in
Europe could stay up three hours, and without moving from its
position, land in North America. Furthermore, if the air blanket did
not travel with the earth, it is probable that the earth would burn up,
since the friction between the earth’s surface and the air would
develop great heat, a heat in which nothing could live.
The earth traveling in a magnetic field like that of a huge dynamo,
speeds around its own imaginary axis, which lies at an angle of 23½
degrees, once in twenty-four hours. This is at a speed, when one
stands at the Equator, say in North Africa, of more than a thousand
miles per hour, whereas a few feet from the poles, the speed is not
more than nineteen feet in twenty-four hours.
As it whirls around itself, the earth rushes through space in orbital
motion, in an easterly direction around the sun, at a velocity of
eighteen and a half miles per second, or six hundred and sixty-six
thousand miles per hour, a speed that is about fifty times as great as
that of the swiftest cannon ball. We earth people are entirely
unconscious of this motion, since it is perfectly steady and without a
jar.
Once in a year, that is in a little more than three hundred and sixty-
five days, we travel around the sun, but remain away from that
planet at a distance of about ninety-two million miles.
As we look upward at the sky at night we see, in all directions, the
countless stars. Most pronounced among them and looking much
the same, though of a different nature, are the planets and once in a
while a comet. A few faintly shining clouds are seen—the Milky Way
and Nebulae.
The most striking, and yet the most insignificant of them all is the
moon.
During that period known as “day” to us the sun alone is visible,
flooding the air with its light and thereby hiding all other heavenly
bodies from the vision of the unaided eye—a few of them being
visible through a telescope.
These heavenly bodies, for the most part, are globes like the earth.
They whirl on their axes and move swiftly through space. They are
classified as the solar system, made up of the sun, the planets which
move round the sun and the satellites, which, in turn, attend the
planets in their motion around the sun. Thus the moon attends the
earth when the earth travels around the sun.
The sun, ninety-two million miles away from the earth, is a hot self-
luminous globe, with a diameter of eight hundred and sixty-six
thousand five hundred miles, or one hundred nine and one-half times
that of the earth. The temperature at the sun surface has been
calculated to range between ten and fifteen thousand degrees
Fahrenheit—a heat we cannot conceive.
Unlike the earth and the other planets, the sun, the center of our
universe, is stationary; but it rotates on its own axis, inclined at
seven and one-quarter degrees, once in twenty-seven and a half
days. This motion has been established by observing the sun spots.
These sun spots vary in size from five hundred to fifty thousand
miles in diameter and a group of such spots was found to be one
hundred and fifty thousand miles across. They are short-lived
phenomena, sometimes remaining only a few days but frequently a
month or two. They appear in their greatest magnitude at periods of
eleven years and are the cause of extreme drought on earth, with its
resultant destruction of crops and vegetation, and consequent
famines.
While until recently it was believed that the sun spots were eruptions
on the sun, some astronomers now claim that, as the sun spots are
cooler than the sun, they indicate the downpour of meteoric showers
thrown by Jupiter and Saturn into the sun, thereby increasing the
heat radiating from the sun.
The sun spots manifest themselves in world-wide heat waves,
earthquakes, tidal waves, cloud bursts, floods, waterspouts,
hailstorms and hurricanes in many widely separated parts of the
earth. History has never seen the equal of the destruction caused by
the last phenomena. A glance at a few of the recent disasters and
natural phenomena shows the following:
The volcanoes Villarion, Liaima and Lanin spouted flames more than
a thousand feet from their craters, while the activities of other
volcanoes killed thousands of people. Six new craters opened in
Mount Isalco, Salvador; the volcano Kilauea in Hawaii spouted
mountains of lava, which darkened the sky and earthquakes shook
many parts of the earth. During the last three thousand years
thirteen million people have met their deaths by volcano and
earthquake.
Cyclones, hailstorms and floods wiped out many towns in various
parts of the world; in Pueblo alone they caused damage aggregating
more than ten million dollars. Many lives were lost in waterspouts,
which destroyed part of Tangier, Morocco, and in the Maia-Doura
province in Spain.
Heat caused the glaciers of the Alps to melt and move at an
alarming speed, while lakes in Switzerland dried up, exposing their
bottoms and showing foundations of the homes of the lake-dwellers
living there thousands of years ago.
While the sun is the nearest of the stars, the moon is the nearest of
the heavenly bodies. It is about two hundred and forty thousand
miles from the earth and has a diameter of about twenty-two
hundred miles, or about one-quarter that of the earth. The moon,
accompanying the earth in its movement around the sun, rotates on
its axis once in twenty-nine and a half days and moves in a small
orbit, once in twenty-seven and a third days, around the earth at a
speed of nearly twenty-three hundred miles per hour. The moon
shines merely by reflected light from the sun, whose light is six
hundred thousand times brighter than that of the moon. The moon
has a temperature of two hundred degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.
The surface of the moon structure, for the most part, is extremely
broken. There are hills or mountains, but the surface is pitted all over
with great “craters,” ranging from fifty to one hundred miles in
diameter; there being a few with a diameter of more than one
thousand miles. A counterpart of this is hardly to be found on our
earth, yet it is believed that the moon was once part of this earth,
becoming separated from the parent body by the tremendous
centrifugal force of the earth; as it is likewise assumed that Jupiter
will in time throw off its “great red spot” thus forming a new moon of
Jupiter.
It is believed that the planet Mars, which has two moons, is inhabited
and that it has great irrigation canals, which engineers say are far
superior to any irrigation system on earth. During the last sun spot
period wireless signals were supposed to have been received from
Mars.
From time to time, bodies very different from the stars and planets
appear in the heavens, remaining visible for some weeks or months
and then vanish in the distance. These are the comets. The larger
ones are magnificent objects, sometimes as bright as Venus and
visible by day, with a head as large as the moon and having a train
or tail extending behind it from the horizon to the zenith and which is
in reality long enough to reach from the earth to the sun.
Such comets, however, are rare, and in ancient and medieval times
comets were always regarded with terror—as an evil omen—and at
times the people believed that they foretold the end of the world,
causing veritable panics, like the “comet scare” of France in 1832.
As a rule these comets reappear at intervals, such as do Halley’s,
Euke’s and Donati’s comets. They travel at a tremendous speed,
coming at times quite close to the earth. Quite often they cross the
path of the earth, causing fear that a collision might take place.
There are a few isolated cases of comets colliding with the earth and
killing a few people. Some of the comets have been lost, that is we
do not know what became of them. Such a lost wanderer of the skies
is Biela’s comet; a comet of some forty thousand miles diameter. In
its appearances, every sixth and sixteenth year, its course would
come within a few thousand miles of the earth’s orbit.
Besides the luminous clouds we see in the heavens and which,
under the telescope are shown to be but great groups of separate
stars, there are others which no telescopic power has as yet been
able to disclose individually. These are known as nebulae and are of
varying shape and form and very beautiful in appearance.
Once in a while the earth passes through such a nebulae. Some
years ago the Heidelberg Observatory reported that the earth was
passing through some such nebulae, which report was confirmed by
various other observatories. In that case there was no noticeable
effect on human life, but it is believed by astronomers that some of
these nebulae are composed of strong poisonous gases and that if
ever the earth passes through such a nebulae all life on this planet
will be destroyed.
Occasionally bodies fall upon the earth out of the sky. These are the
meteors. They are not noticeable until they come within our air zone,
when the friction between them and the air causes them to become
red hot, often being entirely consumed by the heat before reaching
the earth itself. They travel through the air zone at a speed ranging
from ten to forty miles per second, accompanied by a heavy
continuous roar, emphasized now and then by violent detonations.
These meteors are solid bodies; containing a large percentage of