If you studied German, you have probably come across irregularities that really make you wonder why they exist. As a German growing up with the language, I never really questioned it… Until I saw the dehnungs-e. For example, you write Soest, but you say Soost, so you elongate the o and mute the e. Odd! Though when looking into it, I found that we do that with those h‘s too… What’s up with those h‘s?

Dehnung! (Stretching!) (Image by Emily Sea at Unsplash.com)

Stretching vowels!

In German, the dehnungs-h is quite common. It occurs in the middle of words to indicate that the vowel before it needs to be pronounced long. For example Rahmen (frame) has a long a. However, in a word like Namen (names), there is no h, even though the situation is exactly the same. Rahmen or Ramen are pronounced the same way. So why that dehnungs-h?

That is actually quite the mystery. There have been several studies on this, and none have been conclusive on why this Dehnungs-h is there. One possible explanation is that in Goethe’s days (around 1800), there was no united German writing style yet, and influential writes like him preferred the Dehnungs-h or not. This is where irregularity may have come in.

Another explanation for the existence of the Dehnungs-h is that it makes a word easier to pronounce. While without the h, the vowel would be long, inserting the h emphasizes that fact. So for language learners, it can be a plus in terms of readability!

T-regularity and other tips

The T-regularity rule. (Image by by Drew Taylor at Unsplash.com, edited by the author)

So when do you use the Dehnungs-h? Are there rules that explain all of the Dehnungs-h placements? Not really. But there are some good rules to learn nonetheless.

One clear rule is that a Dehnungs-h will only be inserted between a vowel and an l, n, m or r. However, not in all words with a vowel followed by an l, n, m or r have a Dehnungs-h. Some examples:

Zal -> Zahl (number)

Fane -> Fahne (flag)

Zam -> Zahm (tame)

Faren -> Fahren (to drive)

Of course, there are exceptions, such as Name.

Another clear rule is that there are no words in German that start with a T that have a Dehnungs-h, the so-called T-Regularität (T-regularity). They may still contain an h elsewhere where it is not strictly required. For example, Theater (theater) still contains that h, even though Teater would do: It is muted, too. Until 1901, many German words, especially very formal ones, used such a Th-construction. That was scrapped then: For example, Thor (gate) was changed into Tor. In Thron (throne) it was kept somehow, but other than that, a Th is now a clear sign that it is a foreign word adopted into the German language.

One last rule I present here is that three words always have a Dehnungs-h: Ohne (without), mehr (more), sehr (very).

There are some more rules, but these are the most profound ones. If you want to read more on the subject, the Dehnungs-h has a very extensive Wikipedia entry, or read more here.

Quite a stretch

The word Dehnungs-h is quite a stretch itself. It means “stretching-h”, but because the vowel would be pronounced long without the h as well, it does not really have any vowel-stretching purpose. It is totally redundant for that purpose. It rather is just a mute h or stummes h.

The fun ironie (irony) here is that the word Dehnung itself contains a Dehnungs-h!

What do you think? Keep this as irregular, but (at least to German speakers) familiar as it is? Or change it? And if so, how? Remove the Dehnungs-h? Include it where it could be inserted? So, basically: Should we write Nahmen or Denung?