Sound Correspondence Between German and North Germanic Languages

Many German words with the sound /ʃ/ in German correspond to /sk/ in the North Germanic languages. The /ʃ/ of German is also preserved in many English words. The following examples illustrate the correspondence. The English word is given first followed by the German and then the respective North Germanic languages.

(ash) Asche aske (Danish/Norwegian) aska (Swedish)
(bottle) Flasche flaske (Danish/Norwegian) flaska (Swedish)
(fish) Fisch fisk (Danish/Norwegian/Swedish)
(fresh) frisch frisk (Danish) fersk (Norwegian) färsk (Swedish)
(frog) Frosch frosk (Norwegian)
(machine) Maschine maskine (Danish) maskin (Norwegian/Swedish)
(school) Schule skole (Danish/Norwegian) skola (Swedish)
(shield) Schild skjold (Danish/Norwegian) skjöld (Swedish)
(ship) Schiff skib (Danish) skip (Norwegian) skepp (Swedish)
treasure Schatz skat (Danish) skatt (Norwegian/Swedish)

Though maskin, skjold, and skjöld are spelt with the letters sk, they are not pronounced with /sk/ in Norwegian and Swedish. In Danish, however, the pronunciation /sk/ is preserved. The Norwegian and Swedish words were pronounced /sk/ at an earlier stage, but palatalization changed the pronunciation.

The English words preserve the /ʃ/ of German. However, Schule and school reflect the sound correspondence illustrated in the examples. The word flask is related to the German Flasche.

From the examples, it is clear that the German /ʃ/ is often /sk/ in the North Germanic languages. The North Germanic languages preserve the original /sk/. The sound change which occurred in German and also in English was the result of palatalization.