German questions

[bradrn]

Question for any native German speakers here: I hear that there are two words Wagen ‘cart’ and wagen ‘dare’. Are these homophones or can they be pronounced differently?

(For context, I’m editing an article which implies that those two words are pronounced differently. I know nothing of German, so I have no idea if this is true.)

[Raphael]

I'd say they're homophone, but the verb sounds a bit old-fashioned these days.

[bradrn]

I'd say they're homophone, but the verb sounds a bit old-fashioned these days.

Thanks!

[Creyeditor]

There might be a register difference that could result in a different pronunciation. The noun would have schwa deletion (and possibly consonant coalescence into a velar nasal), e.g. [va:(:)N), whereas the verb would be immune to either the second or both processes [va:g(@)n]. But I don't know how real this difference is. I think for me both undergo both processes.

[Raholeun]

Something I have observed in my Freundeskreis is that they tend to pronounce French words that have a -ṼN in there as -Vŋ. The vowel is not nasalized, but rather laxed a bit. For example:

Cousin 'cousin' [ku'zɛŋ]
Beton 'concrete' [be'tɔŋ]
Séance 'séance' [sej'ɐŋs]
Trance 'trance' [tʁɐŋs] (the music genre is [tɹæns]).

Is this common throughout Germany, or is this pronunciation considered rustic?

[Lērisama]

I was taught [kʊˈzaŋ] (true [a], rather than [ä] which everyone uses ⟨a⟩ for, because it's more common), with the vowel liɡhtly nasalised. No idea how native that is, and I never learned the other words. I'm probably not much help.

[Creyeditor]

Something I have observed in my Freundeskreis is that they tend to pronounce French words that have a -ṼN in there as -Vŋ. The vowel is not nasalized, but rather laxed a bit. For example:

Cousin 'cousin' [ku'zɛŋ]
Beton 'concrete' [be'tɔŋ]
Séance 'séance' [sej'ɐŋs]
Trance 'trance' [tʁɐŋs] (the music genre is [tɹæns]).

Is this common throughout Germany, or is this pronunciation considered rustic?

For me, it depends on the register. If I am speaking in a more formal register, I will use nasalized vowels. If I am speaking to friends or family, I will use vowel+velar nasal. But I would always use [ɔŋks] in Séance [se'jɔŋks] and Trance [tʁɔŋks]. The plosive insertion is a general process for me in these clusters.