I keep hearing a lot of mispronunciation of European languages in American media. This week, I have heard several Americans talk about ICE being similar to the Secret State Police of Nazi Germany, called Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei). And for some reason they keep pronouncing it ge-shhh-tapo.
I think it is due to Americans associating the shhh sound with German. But the right pronounciation has a forward s-sound like in the word step. Try saying ge-step-o, and then ge-sta-po… Gestapo!
@randahl Native German speaker here and it's always been an SH sound. However I did learn German from Austria! 😅
@randahl
ICE is not the Gestapo, they are more like the SA.
I’m surprised that the Amerikkkans can’t correctly pronounced this word knowing that after the war U.S. Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) employed the former Lyon Gestapo SD chief Klaus Barbie for his anti-communist efforts and also helped him escape to Bolivia (and others)
Barbie ( yes it was his name ) was known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primarily Jews and members of the French Resistance—as the head of the Gestapo in Lyon.
Tomorrow we will learn the pronunciation of FLŰGGÅɘNK∂€ČHIŒβØL∫ÊN.
@randahl an important point to make the next time i am about to be executed on the street by masked thugs
@randahl That reminds me of Epstein. The correct pronounciation is "Epshteyn", not "Epsteen", like Americans say.
@randahl If they were women, it's because many women announcers seem to have been taught to speak as though they have marbles in their mouths.
@randahl I do not think it make sense, anyway I think ice is more correlated to SA. gestapo was more secret. Afaik
But we in Germany grow up with the question, how that was possible. Now we can see the answer in real time on social media. That threatens me a lot
@randahl thanks, Randahl, as an American, I grew up hearing it pronounced correctly, but thought it was a mistake, assuming that it was a German word. I never knew it was a contraction.
Americans could also have picked up a pronunciation from a movie or TV series and just that was what caught on. The US is a very pop culture heavy country.
@syferdet indeed. And many US WW2 movies are an extremely exaggerated parody of what German sound like.
@randahl Could I just say "F*ckin Nazi" instead? That I can pronounce. 😇
@randahl As a native speaker I want to remark that "Staat" is indeed spoken "Schtaat" (only in the Hamburg area it is a sharp "Staat") so it is logical to say Ge-Schtaa-Po. Logical but very unusual.
@herrwilliges then I reserve the right to spell it Schtat. 😀
(Danish has a ton of exceptions too)
@randahl OTOH, in german the "st" sound is pronounced "shh-t", like e.g. in "Staat" (unless you're speaking very northern german). But in in Gestapo it is not.
@randahl I cannot fav this though it's correct.
@randahl erm, no
Geheime Staats Polizei, where S in Staats is pronounced Shhtaats in german
@kurth yes Stat is pronounced that way. But the word Gestapo is still pronounced ge-sta-po in every source I could find. And I can see a couple of Germans confirming it here.
@randahl nowadays, yes. But i’m fairly certain the historical/contemporary pronounciation was mainly sh.
Same happened to Stalin btw
@kurth I recall the actor playing Hitler in Der Untergang saying, he should have killed his generals "wie Stalin", and maybe it was with an sch sound.
@randahl Not pronouncing Stalin with Sh is just plain wrong, but done anyway.
I think i also remember interviews with holocaust survivors and other witnesses to history pronouncing it Geshtapo.
There are no rules as to pronounce abbreviations, though. But as for my feeling, sh is 'more' correct.
