German Linguistics Lectures

1. German Linguistics Lectures Lecture 11: German and the Phonetic Alphabet Designed by Paul Joyce University of Portsmouth E-Mail: Paul.Joyce@port.ac.uk

2. 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 sounds of the two languages.

3. 11.2 Similar sounds, different spellings • Let us examine the following historically related words: Vater = German Father = English • Whereas the first sound of each word is spelled differently, their pronunciation is nonetheless the same.

4. 11.3 Similar spellings, different sounds • Now consider the two following words: Sand = German Sand = English • This time, the two initial sounds are spelled the same, but their pronunciation is different. • The ‘s’ in the German Sand is pronounced like the ‘z’ in the English word zoo.

5. 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 Vater and Father is represented in the IPA by one phonetic symbol: /f/ • But the initial sounds in Sand and Sand are represented by two different symbols: /z/ and /s/ respectively.

6. 11.5 Phonemes • The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is made up of phonemes. • 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 brackets – e.g. /f/, /z/ and /s/

7. 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 Vɛnti’la:to:ɐ shows the different way in which the word Ventilator is pronounced in German compared to English!

8. 11.7 The organs of speech

9. 11.8 Describing German consonants • 3 pieces of information are used to describe German consonants: • Place of articulation (where in the vocal tract the sound is produced) • Manner of articulation (how the air passes through the vocal tract) • Voiced or voiceless?

10. 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: Pein, Bein, können, Tag, Dach

11. 11.10 Bilabial Plosives • Bilabial sounds involve placing upper and lower lips together. • The phoneme /b/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying Bein or Ball. • The phoneme /p/ is unvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say Pein or Papier.

12. 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/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying dein or dort. • The phoneme /t/ is unvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say Tisch or Torte.

13. 11.12 Velar Plosives • Velar sounds are articulated towards the back of the vocal tract in the velum or soft palate. • The phoneme /g/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate on saying geht. • The phoneme /k/ is unvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say kaum or kommt.

14. 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: • fein,wein,singen,heiß,Schnee • New for English-speakers: Loch, ich

15. 11.14 Labio-dental Fricatives • Labio-dental sounds involve the lips and teeth, creating a slight hiss. • The phoneme /v/ is voiced – your vocal cords vibrate on saying Wein, Wagenor Klavier. • The phoneme /f/ is unvoiced. You don’t use your vocal cords to say fein, Affe - and vier.

16. 11.15 Alveolar Fricatives • Alveolar sounds have the tip of the tongue just behind the top teeth. • The phoneme /z/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying so, lesen or singen. • The phoneme /s/ is unvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say heiß, muss or Szene. • Note the different ways in which these very different phonemes are spelled in German!

17. 11.16 Palatal-alveolar Fricatives • Palatal-alveolar sounds find the whole of the tongue close to or touching the hard palate. • The phoneme /ʒ/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying Genie (or the French loan word Etage). • The phoneme /ʃ/ is unvoiced, i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say schön, Asche or Schnee.

18. 11.17 Palatal Fricatives • Palatal fricatives are articulated further back in the mouth than palatal-alveolar sounds. • The phoneme /j/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate on saying ja, Januar, or even brillant. • The phoneme /ç/ doesn’t occur in English. It is the unvoiced sound to be found in words such as ich, mich, leicht, Früchte and also in Chemie.

19. 11.18 Velar Fricatives • Although often spelled “ch”, the phoneme /x/ is very different to /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/ is heard in words such as Loch, Buch and Lachen.

20. 11.19 Glottal Fricatives • The glottis is the gap between the vocal cords. • The glottal sound /h/ is similar in German and English and is found in words such as HausandGehalt. • It is different from the glottal stop that occurs before German vowels at the beginning of words or syllables – i.e. twice in the term ein Ei.

21. 11.20 Affricates • Affricates are made up of two sounds: a fricative and a plosive • There are two German affricates: • The voiceless phoneme /ts/ is found in words like zu,Zeitor Tanz. • This phoneme should not be confused with /z/! • The voiceless phoneme /pf/ is found in Apfel, Pfanne and Pfund.

22. 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 voiced: • The phoneme /m/ - mein, immer • The phoneme /n/ - nein, anders • The hardest nasal to remember is /ŋ/ - Ding, jünger, hängen

23. 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/ • It is formed with the front of the tongue and found in words such as faul,Falleor viel.

24. 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/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 rotand Straße.

25. 11.24 The phoneme /r/ after vowels • In the speech of many German speakers, such words as hier, der, Tür and Wörter have no friction in the /r/sound. • The result is a diphthong whose second part can be represented as /ɐ/. • Thus hier represented phonetically would be /hiɐ/ • der = /deɐ/;Tür = /tyɐ/ • Wörter = /vœɐtɐ/

26. 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 bed and below. • The sounds represented by German ‘o’ differ in the words Ofen and Offen. • Vowel length is a very important factor in establishing the German vowel phonemes.

27. 11.26 The /ɪ/ and /i/ vowel pair • The phoneme /ɪ/ represents the short vowel sound found in ich, Tisch or Mitte. • The phoneme /i/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: viel, ihnen, labil or Ziel. • Note the many different ways in which this long vowel can be written in German. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /i:/ in dictionaries.

28. 11.27 The /ɛ/ and /e/ vowel pair • The phoneme /ɛ/ represents the short vowel sound found in Bett, Ende or Gäste (note the different spellings of this sound!) • The phoneme /e/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Regel, Schnee or Tee. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /e:/ in dictionaries.

29. 11.28 The /a/ and /ɑ/ vowel pair • The phoneme /a/ represents the short vowel sound found in Mann, Apfel or Hand. • The phoneme /ɑ/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Abend, Name or kam. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /a:/ in dictionaries.

30. 11.29 The /ɔ/ and /o/ vowel pair • The phoneme /ɔ/ represents the short vowel sound found in Stock, offen or Sonne. • The phoneme /o/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Ofen, ohne or Sohn. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /o:/ in dictionaries.

31. 11.30 The /ʊ/ and /u/ vowel pair • The phoneme /ʊ/ represents the short vowel sound found in muss, unser or Mutter. • The phoneme /u/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Urlaub, du or gut. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /u:/ in dictionaries.

32. 11.31 The /ʏ/ and /y/ vowel pair • The phoneme /ʏ/ represents the short vowel sound found in füllen or hübsch. • The phoneme /y/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: über, Bücher or kühl. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /y:/ in dictionaries.

33. 11.32 The /œ/ and /ø/ vowel pair • The phoneme /œ/ represents the short vowel sound found in zwölf, öfters or können. • The phoneme /ø/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: schön, Öl or Flöße. • The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /ø:/ in dictionaries.

34. 11.33 Quiz: short or long vowels • Ofen = ?Offen= ? • füllen = ?fühlen= ? • Bieten= ?bitten= ? • Stadt= ?Staat= ? • Betten= ?beten= ? • Spuken= ?spucken= ?

35. 11.34 Answers: short or long vowels • Ofen= /o/ (long)Offen = /ɔ/ (short) • füllen = /ʏ/ (short)fühlen = /y/ (long) • bieten = /i/ (long)bitten= /ɪ/ (short) • Stadt = /a/ (short)Staat= /ɑ/ (long) • Betten = /ɛ/ (short) beten= /e/ (long) • spuken = /u/ (long)spucken = /ʊ/ (short)

36. 11.35 The schwa and ‘dark’ schwa • Both of these areshort vowels. • The phoneme /ə/(schwa) depicts the unstressed neutral vowel sound found in Gebäude and Liebe. • The phoneme /ɐ/(dark schwa) represents the unstressed vowel sound in the words Besucher, Wetter or Lieber.

37. 11.36 Diphthongs • The vowels that we have looked at so far consists of just one sound. • They are called monophthongs. • Diphthongsoccur when two vowels merge to form one. • lf you say the 2 vowels separately, you find yourself moving from the first vowel to the second.

38. 11.37 Diphthongs • There are three German diphthongs • The phoneme /aɪ/ appears in words such as ein, klein or mein. • /aʊ/ is found in auf or blau. • The phoneme /ɔɪ/ appears in words such as neu, deutsch, Geräusch and läuft. • (The vowels in Schnee and Tee are not therefore diphthongs, but the long vowel phoneme /e/)