It might have been more interesting without that nerve-racking music. I had to check twice to hear that the German guy really said “Frohe Weihnacht”.
But, that’s at least what I wish to all of you, especially to you, Simon.
What he said sounded more like “Fröhe Neihwachten”. There are 3 possibilities here:
i. He is speaking a non-standard dialect that metathesises ‘Weihnachten’ (‘o’ changing to ‘ö’ is a common feature in some regional varieties of German, I think);
ii. He doesn’t actually speak German and is just giving his best approximation;
iii. He is deliberately speaking gibberish.
What I can say as someone who grew up in Germany and is able to identify a lot of regional accents from all parts of the German speaking the world: This guy doesn’t sound German at all. At first I thought his accent was maybe Yiddish, but even a Yiddish speaker would probably not have shifted the stress of “Weihnachten” from the first syllable to the penultimate.
(@David Eger: To me this sound more like “Fruhe Reihɱ̆wachten,” but never mind.)
It might have been more interesting without that nerve-racking music. I had to check twice to hear that the German guy really said “Frohe Weihnacht”.
But, that’s at least what I wish to all of you, especially to you, Simon.
What he said sounded more like “Fröhe Neihwachten”. There are 3 possibilities here:
i. He is speaking a non-standard dialect that metathesises ‘Weihnachten’ (‘o’ changing to ‘ö’ is a common feature in some regional varieties of German, I think);
ii. He doesn’t actually speak German and is just giving his best approximation;
iii. He is deliberately speaking gibberish.
What I can say as someone who grew up in Germany and is able to identify a lot of regional accents from all parts of the German speaking the world: This guy doesn’t sound German at all. At first I thought his accent was maybe Yiddish, but even a Yiddish speaker would probably not have shifted the stress of “Weihnachten” from the first syllable to the penultimate.
(@David Eger: To me this sound more like “Fruhe Reihɱ̆wachten,” but never mind.)