Many of the historic sword manuals being studied are of Germanic origin, and the terms associated with the training methods are of course German. I've heard a lot of these terms mispronounced in the evolving western martial arts community (not withstanding dialect differences). Of course it's not terribly important to learning the techniques, but having a bit of knowledge in this area I thought I would offer up what I know. Having studied German for a year at SLU, I am by no means fluent. That being said, here's a basic german pronunciation key I put together. Anyone with better or more refined info is more than welcome to add to this thread.

• "V" is pronounced like the english "F"
So Vor sound like For
• "W" is pronounced like the english "V"
• "S" is pronounced like the english "Z"
• "Z" makes a "ts" sound
• "J" is generally pronounced like the english "Y"
• In "IE or "EI" pairs the second letter is pronounced. So that Weiners, would sound like "Viners" and Wieners would sound like "Veeners"
• "ß" the ess-zett basically replaces what we think of as the a doubles "SS" in some words.

Okay the umlaut. They can be long and short just like english vowels. I seem to mostly encounter the long variety.
• Ä long makes a long A sound as in day or Kate
• Ä short is like similar to the english short "e" as in pet or net
• Ö long. This one I think is hard for an english speaker. Somewhat like the vowels sound in urn or burn.
• Ö short.. Not too sure on this one.
• Ü long. Much like the sound in "pew"
• Ü short. Not too sure on this one.

Diphthongs. Avoid trying to pronounce the vowels separately, it should be one sound.
• "au" sound like OW, as in pow.
• "ai" somewhat like the long "I' in english, as in Vine
• "oi" like it looks, as in coin

Thanks very much for this!

One of my longer term goals is to learn German so I can make my own interpretations from the manuals. While I eventually plan to take some courses at LSU, this short guide will give me a head start