German Linguistics Lectures

Lecture 11:German and the Phonetic Alphabet

Designed by Paul JoyceUniversity of Portsmouth

E-Mail: Paul.Joyce@port.ac.uk

11.1 Introduction

• It is important to distinguish between the way in which a sound is pronounced and the way it is written.

• The alphabet we use when writing German and English turns out to be imprecise when it comes to describing the soundssounds of the two languages.

11.2 Similar sounds, different spellings

• Let us examine the following historically related words:

VaterVater = German

FatherFather = English

• Whereas the first sound of each word is spelledspelled differently, their pronunciationpronunciation is nonetheless the same.

11.3 Similar spellings, different sounds

• Now consider the two following words:

SandSand = German

SandSand = English• This time, the two initial sounds are spelled

the same, but their pronunciation is different.

• The ‘s’‘s’ in the German SandSand is pronounced like the ‘z’ in the English word zoozoo.

11.4 International Phonetic Alphabet

• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can transcribe any of the world’s languages.

• Thus the same sound at the beginning of VVaterater and FFatherather is represented in the IPA by oneone phonetic symbol: /f//f/

• But the initial sounds in SSandand and SSandand are represented by twotwo different symbols: /z//z/ and /s//s/ respectively.

11.5 Phonemes

• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is made up of phonemesphonemes.

• A phoneme is defined as “the minimal sound unit of a language” - or in lay person’s terms as “a distinctive sound”.

• IPA phonetic symbols that represent phonemes are usually written in slanted in slanted bracketsbrackets – e.g. /f//f/, /z//z/ and /s//s/

11.6 The benefits of the IPA

• Being able to read the IPA is enormously helpful to anyone learning a language.

• Any good German-English dictionary gives not only translation and grammatical info about a word, but also its pronunciation.

• Hence VVɛɛnti’la:tnti’la:to:ɐo:ɐ shows the different way in which the word VentilatorVentilator is pronounced in German compared to English!

11.7 The organs of speech

11.8 Describing German consonants

• 3 pieces of information are used to describe German consonants:

• PlacePlace of articulation (where in the vocal tract the sound is produced)

• MannerManner of articulation (how the air passes through the vocal tract)

• VoicedVoiced or voicelessvoiceless?

11.9 Plosives (stops)

• With plosive consonants, the airstream is stopped as it passes through the vocal tract.

• This blockage is very brief.• The built-up air is soon released, causing a

small explosion.• Try saying the following plosives:

PPeinein, BBeinein, kkönnenönnen, TTagag, DDachach

11.10 Bilabial Plosives

• Bilabial sounds involve placing upper and lower lips together.

• The phoneme /b//b/ is voicedvoiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying BBeinein or BBallall.

• The phoneme /p//p/ is unvoicedunvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say PPeinein or PPapierapier.

11.11 Alveolar Plosives

• Alveolar sounds are made when the tongues makes contact with the alveolar ridge, i.e. the part of the mouth immediately above the teeth.

• The phoneme /d//d/ is voicedvoiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying ddeinein or ddortort.

• The phoneme /t//t/ is unvoicedunvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say TTischisch or TTorteorte.

11.12 Velar Plosives

• Velar sounds are articulated towards the back of the vocal tract in the velum or soft palate.

• The phoneme /g//g/ is voicedvoiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate on saying ggehteht.

• The phoneme /k//k/ is unvoicedunvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say kkaumaum or kkommtommt.

11.13 Fricatives

• Fricatives are sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow gap in the vocal tract with audible friction.

• Try saying the following fricatives:• ffeinein, wweinein, ssingeningen, hheißeiß, SchSchneenee• New for English-speakers: Lochch, ichch

11.14 Labio-dental Fricatives

• Labio-dental sounds involve the lips and teeth, creating a slight hiss.

• The phoneme /v//v/ is voicedvoiced – your vocal cords vibrate on saying WWeinein, WWagenagen or KlaKlavvierier.

• The phoneme /f//f/ is unvoiced. unvoiced. You don’t use your vocal cords to say ffeinein, AAffffee - and vvierier.

11.15 Alveolar Fricatives

• Alveolar sounds have the tip of the tongue just behind the top teeth.

• The phoneme /z//z/ is voicedvoiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying ssoo, lelessenen or ssingeningen.

• The phoneme /s//s/ is unvoicedunvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say heiheißß, mumussss or SzSzeneene.

• Note the different ways in which these very different phonemes are spelled in German!

11.16 Palatal-alveolar Fricatives

• Palatal-alveolar sounds find the whole of the tongue close to or touching the hard palate.

• The phoneme //ʒʒ// is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying GGenieenie (or the French loan word EtaEtaggee).

• The phoneme //ʃʃ// is unvoicedunvoiced, i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say schschönön, AAschschee or SchSchneenee.

11.17 Palatal Fricatives

• Palatal fricatives are articulated further back in the mouth than palatal-alveolar sounds.

• The phoneme /j//j/ is voicedvoiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate on saying jjaa, JJanuaranuar, or even bribrillllantant.

• The phoneme /ç//ç/ doesn’t occur in English. It is the unvoicedunvoiced sound to be found in words such as iichch, mimichch, leileichchtt, FrüFrüchchttee and also in ChChemieemie.

11.18 Velar Fricatives

• Although often spelled “ch”, the phoneme /x//x/ is very different to /ç//ç/.

• It is formed towards the back of the vocal tract in the soft palate and feels similar to clearing your throat.

• The phoneme /x//x/ is heard in words such as LoLochch, BuBuchch and LaLachchenen.

11.19 Glottal Fricatives

• The glottis is the gap between the vocal cords.

• The glottal sound /h//h/ is similar in German and English and is found in words such as HHausaus and GeGehhaltalt.

• It is different from the glottal stopglottal stop that occurs before German vowels at the beginning of words or syllables – i.e. twice in the term eiein n EiEi.

11.20 Affricates

• Affricates are made up of two sounds: a fricative and a plosive

• There are two German affricates:• The voicelessvoiceless phoneme /ts//ts/ is found in

words like zzuu, ZZeiteit or TanTanzz.• This phoneme should not be confused

with /z//z/!• The voicelessvoiceless phoneme /pf//pf/ is found in

AApfpfelel, PfPfanneanne and PfPfundund.

11.21 Nasal Consonants

• Nasal consonants are produced when the airstream is expelled via the nasal cavity and not the oral tract.

• All three German nasals are voicedvoiced:• The phoneme /m//m/ - mmeinein, iimmmmerer• The phoneme /n//n/ - nneinein, aannddersers• The hardest nasal to remember is //ŋŋ// -

DiDingng, jüjüngngerer, hähängngenen

11.22 Lateral Consonants

• Lateral consonants are so called because of the position of the tongue.

• The tongue curls up to touch the alveolar ridge, letting the air escape laterally.

• The only German lateral is /l//l/• It is formed with the front of the tongue

and found in words such as faufaull, FaFallllee or vieviell.

11.23 Rolls or Trills

• Rolls are sounds that are formed when one of the organs of speech hits another in quick succession.

• This is key to German /r//r/ sounds, which can also be described as voiced uvular fricatives.

• There are many regional differences in the formation of this sound that is found in words such as rrotot and StStrraßeaße.

11.24 The phoneme /r/ after vowels

• In the speech of many German speakers, such words as hiehierr, dederr, TTüürr and WWöörrteterr have no friction in the /r//r/ sound.

• The result is a diphthong whose second part can be represented as //ɐɐ//.

• Thus hiehierr represented phonetically would be /hi/hiɐ/ɐ/

• derder = /de/deɐ/ɐ/; TTüürr = /ty/tyɐ/ɐ/• WWöörterrter = /vœ/vœɐɐttɐ/ɐ/

11.25 Describing German vowels

• Our Roman alphabet is too vague to describe English and German vowels.

• For example, ‘e’ is pronounced very differently in the words bedbed and belowbelow.

• The sounds represented by German ‘o’ differ in the words OfenOfen and OffenOffen.

• Vowel length Vowel length is a very important factor in establishing the German vowel phonemes.

11.26 The /ɪ/ and /i/ vowel pair

• The phoneme //ɪɪ// represents the shortshort vowel sound found in iichch, TTiischsch or MMiittette.

• The phoneme /i//i/ represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: vvieiell, ihihnennen, lablabiill or ZZieiell.

• Note the many different ways in which this long vowel can be written in German.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /i://i:/ in dictionaries.

11.27 The /ɛ/ and /e/ vowel pair

• The phoneme //ɛɛ// represents the shortshort vowel sound found in BBeetttt, EEndende or GGäästeste (note the different spellings of this sound!)

• The phoneme /e//e/ represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: RReegelgel, SchnSchneeee or TTeeee.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /e://e:/ in dictionaries.

11.28 The /a/ and /ɑ/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /a//a/ represents the shortshort vowel sound found in MMaannnn, AApfelpfel or HHaandnd.

• The phoneme //ɑɑ// represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: AAbendbend, NNaameme or kkaamm.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /a://a:/ in dictionaries.

11.29 The /ɔ/ and /o/ vowel pair

• The phoneme //ɔɔ// represents the shortshort vowel sound found in StStoockck, ooffenffen or SSoonnenne.

• The phoneme /o//o/ represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: OOfenfen, oohnehne or SSoohnhn.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /o://o:/ in dictionaries.

11.30 The /ʊ/ and /u/ vowel pair

• The phoneme //ʊʊ// represents the shortshort vowel sound found in mmuussss, uunsernser or MMuuttertter.

• The phoneme /u//u/ represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: UUrlaubrlaub, dduu or gguutt.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /u://u:/ in dictionaries.

11.31 The /ʏ/ and /y/ vowel pair

• The phoneme //ʏʏ// represents the shortshort vowel sound found in ffüüllenllen or hhüübschbsch.

• The phoneme /y//y/ represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: üüberber, BBüüchercher or kküühlhl.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /y://y:/ in dictionaries.

11.32 The /œ/ and /ø/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /œ//œ/ represents the shortshort vowel sound found in zwzwöölflf, ööftersfters or kköönnennnen.

• The phoneme /ø//ø/ represents the longlong vowel sound found in the words: schschöönn, ÖÖll or FlFlöößeße.

• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /ø://ø:/ in dictionaries.

11.33 Quiz: short or long vowels

• OOfenfen = ? OOffenffen = ?• ffüüllenllen = ? ffüühlenhlen = ?• BBieietenten = ? bbiittentten = ?• StStaadtdt = ? StStaaaatt = ?• BBeettentten = ? bbeetenten = ?• SpSpuukenken = ? spspuuckencken = ?

11.34 Answers: short or long vowels

• OOfenfen = /o//o/ (long) OOffen ffen = //ɔɔ// (short)• ffüüllen llen = //ʏʏ// (short) ffüühlen hlen = /y//y/ (long)• bbieietenten = /i//i/ (long) bbiittentten = //ɪɪ// (short) • StStaadtdt = /a//a/ (short) StStaaaatt = //ɑɑ// (long)• BBeettentten = //ɛɛ// (short) bbeetenten = /e//e/ (long)• spspuukenken = /u//u/ (long) spspuuckencken = //ʊʊ// (short)

11.35 The schwa and ‘dark’ schwa

• Both of these are shortshort vowels. • The phoneme //əə// (schwa)(schwa) depicts the

unstressed neutral vowel sound found in GGeebäudbäudee and LiebLiebee.

• The phoneme //ɐɐ// (dark schwa)(dark schwa) represents the unstressed vowel sound in the words BesuchBesucherer, WettWetterer or LiebLieberer.

11.36 Diphthongs

• The vowels that we have looked at so far consists of just oneone sound.

• They are called monophthongsmonophthongs.• DiphthongsDiphthongs occur when twotwo vowels merge

to form one.• lf you say the 2 vowels separately, you find

yourself moving from the first vowel to the second.

11.37 Diphthongs

• There are three German diphthongs• The phoneme /a/aɪɪ// appears in words such

as eieinn, klkleieinn or mmeieinn.• /a/aʊʊ// is found in auauff or blblauau.• The phoneme //ɔɪɔɪ// appears in words such

as nneueu, ddeueutschtsch, GerGeräuäuschsch and lläuäuftft.• (The vowels in SchnSchneeee and TTeeee are not

therefore diphthongs, but the long vowel phoneme /e//e/)