Bühnendeutsch
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An artificial standard not corresponding directly to any dialect, Bühnendeutsch is mostly based on Standard German as spoken in Northern Germany. For example, the suffix -ig is pronounced .
Sonorants
Three acceptable realizations of /r/
Until 1957, only two pronunciations were allowed: an alveolar trill and an alveolar flap . After 1957, a uvular trill was also allowed. A voiced uvular fricative , used extensively in contemporary Standard German, is not allowed. Therefore, rot ('red') can be pronounced , and but not .
Rhoticism
The vocalized realization of found in German or Austrian Standard German corresponds to in Bühnendeutsch so für 'for' is pronounced rather than .
Whenever the sequence is vocalized to in German or Austrian Standard German, Bühnendeutsch requires a sequence so besser 'better' is pronounced rather than .
In contemporary Standard German, both of these features are found almost exclusively in Switzerland.
No schwa-elision
Contrary to Standard German, cannot be elided before a sonorant consonant (making it syllabic) so Faden 'yarn' is pronounced rather than the standard .
Fronting of word-final schwa
In loanwords from Latin and Ancient Greek, the word-final is realized as a short, tense so Psyche 'psyche' is pronounced rather than the standard .
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Obstruents
Syllable-final fortition
As in Standard German, syllable-final obstruents written with the letters used also for syllable-initial lenis sounds (⟨b, d, g⟩ etc.) are realized as fortis so Absicht 'intention' is pronounced (note the full voicing of , which, in position immediately after a fortis, occurs in Bühnendeutsch: see below), but Bad 'bath' is pronounced .
The corresponding standard southern (Southern German, Austrian, Swiss) pronunciations contain lenis consonants in that position: and , respectively.
Strong aspiration of /p, t, k/
The voiceless plosives are aspirated in the same environments as in Standard German but more strongly, especially to environments in which the Standard German plosives are aspirated moderately and weakly: in unstressed intervocalic and word-final positions. That can be transcribed in the IPA as . The voiceless affricates are unaspirated , as in Standard German.
Complete voicing of lenis obstruents
The lenis obstruents are fully voiced after voiceless obstruents so abdanken 'to resign' is pronounced . That is in contrast with the Northern pronunciation, which requires the lenis sounds to be devoiced in that position: . Southern accents (Southern German, Austrian, Swiss) generally realize the lenis sounds as voiceless in most or all positions and do not feature syllable-final fortition: .