Lx I The sounds of German Lecture 4 Week 5 I. Syllable
structure, phonotactics and sonorance II. Nasals, approximants and
diphthongs Slide 2 I.Syllable structure, phonotactics and sonorance
(or why fglob and rforf are not possible words in German) Slide 3
To answer that question, we need to be able to talk about syllables
what is a syllable? How many syllables in the word syllable? what
about: banana, sausage, cooperate, hmmm why fglob and rforf are not
possible words in German Slide 4 a vowel sound optionally preceded
or followed by one of more consonants: e.g. o!, au!, alt, kalt,
Draht, Haus, Klo A syllable is . Slide 5 more precisely: a vowel
sound or vowel- equivalent optionally preceded or followed by one
of more consonants: A vowel equivalent would be, e.g. a syllabic m
in Hmmm, or in Mbeki (President of South Africa) or in some
pronunciation of words like essen (NB if a consonant is syllabic we
indicate it with a small vertical line underneath:) m A syllable is
. Slide 6 Sometimes it can be hard to decide where to hyphenate a
word because you are not sure where one syllable ends and the next
one begins the general principle: each syllable within a word
should begin with a single consonant (except at start of the word):
Ru-der, Knos-pen, Chi-na, Kas-ten, Har-ke Excursion:
Syllabification in German spelling . Slide 7 NB ch, ck, sch
represent a single sound so should be kept together: Mi-schen,
bu-chen, Zu-cker And in borrowed words: ph, th, etc. as in
Proph-et, ar-thri-tisch Excursion: Syllabification in German
spelling . Slide 8 Our definition of a syllable is: a vowel sound
or vowel-equivalent optionally preceded or followed by one of more
consonants It can be useful to further sub-divide the syllable to
talk about what phonemes can occur where in it Back to syllables in
phonology Slide 9 (= syllable) Onset (O) Rhyme (R) Nucleus (N) Coda
(Co) NB the nucleus is where the vowels occur it is the heart of
the syllable and may not be empty Internal structure of syllable
Slide 10 (= syllable) O R N Co / m a rkt/ NB the nucleus is where
the vowels occur it is the heart of the syllable and may not be
empty An example: Markt Slide 11 (= syllable) O R N Co C V C C C /
m a r k t / We can go into further detail by noting V or Cs Slide
12 VV indicates a long vowel or diphthong Boot, gut: CVVC treibt:
CCVVCC Stroh CCCVV Slide 13 Note that in stressed syllables, we
cant have a short vowel (i.e. V) in the nucleus with an empty coda
Stroh, ka, Uhu . The final vowel is long Syllables with an empty
coda are often called open syllables (no consonant to close them
off ) In the above examples, the vowel in the open syllable is
always long, so the nucleus consists of VV Slide 14 (of course,
unstressed vowels can be short in open syllables) gehe, neue, Affe
. In each case the unstressed is a short // bitter, Hunger, Lehrer
In each case the unstressed is a short / / Slide 15 The onset in
German normally contains a maximum of 2 consonants grau dreist
Pleite tropfen . Slide 16 or a maximum of 3 consonants if the first
is, or s Spring, Strae . / tr-/ / pr-/ /pl-/ also in borrowed
words: /skl/, /skr/ Slide 17 The coda in German can have a maximum
of 4 consonants Herbst, ernst Slide 18 Phonotactics the rules
describing possible sound combinations in a given language vary
from language to language: compare German and English (Knauf) or
German and Russian (vstr-) can you think of any more phonotactic
differences between German and English? / tr-/ ???? Slide 19
Phonotactic Constraints Many consonant clusters can occur, but
consonants of the same class (eg 2 stops, 2 fricatives, 2 nasals)
cannot normally form a cluster: e.g */-pk/, */tp-/ */s-/ .. * =
ungrammatical Slide 20 Constraints There are 2 exceptions, where 2
stops can occur as a cluster: /- pt/ and /- kt/ Can you give some
examples? Slide 21 Constraints There are 2 exceptions, where 2
stops can occur as a cluster: /- pt/ and /- kt/ Can you give some
examples? Akt, raubt, treibt, aufgeregt Slide 22 Further
Constraints cannot combine with other consonants in the coda of a
syllable* cannot follow VV (ie a long vowel) Can you think of one
other obvious constraint on ? * except in cases like bang+t, where
there is a morpheme boundary in the coda between and the following
consonant(s) Slide 23 Further Constraints cannot combine with other
consonants in the coda of a syllable cannot follow VV (ie a long
vowel) Can you think of one other obvious constraint on ? It cant
occur in the onset! : *ot Slide 24 Another constraint: sonority
Sonority: in ordinary language: resonating, sounding out well In
linguistics: Can be equated with how far apart articulators are: -
consonants are less sonorous than vowels - but close vowels (like
i) are less sonorous than open ones (like a) The nucleus of the
syllable contains the most sonorous sound: the vowel Slide 25
Sonority hierarchy Slide 26 most sonorous least sonorous I u i l n
m z v s d t k {remember from last week that the vowels, nasals,
liquids (l and r) are [+son]} Slide 27 Sonority and syllable
structure The most sonorous sounds are found nearest to the
nucleus. Slide 28 Sonority and syllable structure An exception to
this general principle is clusters with // and /s/ in the onset:
e.g. stoppen, where the fricative // is more sonorous than the stop
/t/, but is found nearer the edge of the syllable. This type of
exception seems to be common in the Germanic languages (eg English,
Dutch, Swedish, Norwegain) cf. Eng. Stop Can you give some more
examples of this type of exception in German (both with s and )?
Slide 29 Ambisyllabic consonants We know that any syllable that
doesnt have a consonant in the onset will have a glottal stop
before the vowel, as in Affe: R R O N Co a f But what about the
empty onset before ? Here no is possible . Slide 30 Ambisyllabic
consonants Could we move the /f/ to the onset of the second
syllable? R R O N Co a f But this leave just one V /a/ in an open
syllable, which is not possible it would become long VV, as in Aale
Slide 31 Aale R R O N Co : l Slide 32 A solution: ambisyllabic
consonsants If we treat the consonant /f/ as ambisyllabic belonging
to both syllables then it will fill the empty Onset position and
prevent R R O N Co/O N Co a f Slide 33 Extrasyllabic consonants
Another violation of the sonority hierarchy seems to occur in words
like Papst /P:pst/ Here the /s/ in the coda is more sonorous than
the /p/ but it is further from the nucleus than is the /p/ One
solution is to treat them as extrasyllabic not given a place in the
underlying syllable structure, but just ignored and only assigned a
place later. O N Co extrasyllabic: CVV C CC p : p s t Slide 34
Extrasyllabic consonants If the word is to get an additional
syllable, e.g because of a case inflection, such as mit dem Papste
(where the dative e is in fact archaic, but never mind that now!),
Then the tiresome extrasyllabic consonant(s) can find a home in the
onset of the next syllable: O N Co C VV C CC V p : p s t e Slide 35
Exercises 1. Represent the syllable structure for the following
words: (NB remember that the bottom tier of the diagram should be
phonemic script, rather than normal spelling) Kopf, beobachten,
strikt, stank, Kraft Mue, Rtsel, Hunger Slide 36 Exercises . 2.
Which of the following are possible words in German? If not, what
constraint(s) explain why they are not possible? Skrebel, bfliest,
strb, drob, krloft, apk, emn, mnot /Bo:/ / la/ /le:/ Slide 37
Approximants, nasals and diphthongs Weve already met the nasal
stops /m, n, / : Where the velum (soft palate) is lowered so air
escapes through nasal cavity Bilabial . Alveolar . Velar . Slide 38
Approximants, nasals and diphthongs Weve already met the nasal
stops /m, n, / : Where the velum (soft palate) is lowered so air
escapes through nasal cavity Bilabial . m Alveolar . n Velar .
Slide 39 n in German and English Like light and dark /l/, /n/ in
German differs phonetically from English /n/ -In German the body of
the tongue is in the position for the vowel /i/ Eg. Jens, Wein
Slide 40 Velar nasal NB The exact tongue position for the velar
nasal varies depending on whether it follows a front or back vowel.
Compare: hing, bang After a front vowel, the closure is in fact
palatal vs. middle of velum for back vowels This is an example of
co-articulation, where the articulation needed for one sound
influences that of a preceding or following sound Slide 41
Co-articulation Cf. also the other velar consonants: compare the
/k/s in Kit-Kat! Historically, co-articulation also explains the
alternation between palatal // and velar /x/ after front and back
vowels compare: ich vs. ach; B cher vs. Buch Slide 42
Co-articulation compare: ich vs. ach; B cher vs. Buch /I / vs.
/ax/, /by:- / vs. /bu:x/ // and /x/ are different phonemes, unlike
palatal k [k j ] and velar [k ], which are just allophones of /k/
but the principle is the same Slide 43 Syllabic nasals Weve already
seen that typically, a syllable contains a V in its nucleus or a
vowel equivalent One vowel equivalent is a syllabic nasal indicated
by a vertical dash below m, n and above : m n Slide 44 Syllabic
nasals Syllabic n is frequent in German After fricatives: essen,
hoffen, Reisender After stops (plosives): reden, treiben, warten
Slide 45 Syllabic nasals In very careful speech, we might hear:
/n/, - but usually / / is deleted, and we hear /n/ Cf. English
sudden, happen (but NB in Dutch, unstressed en becomes // and the
/n/ is deleted to use syllabic /n/ is a give-away of a German
accent!.e.g. eten, zullen) Slide 46 Syllabic nasals Always:
assimilation of syllabic n to after a velar stop (/k,g/): fragen,
sagen, Haken: -[g], [k ] Frequent in normal speech: assimilation of
syllabic n to m - After a bilabial stop /m, p/ : leben, neben,
Mappen [bm], [pm] Slide 47 Approximants (or semi-vowels)
Articulators are closer together than for full vowels, but not
close enough to cause frication: In English: Voiced labial velar
approximant /w/ (will) (NB where it is on IPA chart) Voiced palatal
approximant /j/ (you) Voiced alveolar approximant /upside down r/
(car, red) Slide 48 Approximants (or semi-vowels) Articulators are
closer together than for full vowels, but not close enough to cause
frication: In German: Voiced palatal approximant /j/ (ja) (or
sometimes the fricative /curly j/) Avoid the other English
approximants when you see and ! (rot, war ) Slide 49 Diphthongs TWO
vowel-sounds in a single syllable Three diphthongs in German: a , a
, Y /ma n/, mein, Kaiser, Seite, Saite /ha s/ Haus, Maus... /h Y z
/, H aser, Freude (more rounded than English boy, less emphasis on
second part) Slide 50 Diphthongs TWO vowel-sounds in a single
syllable In fact: one stable element, followed by a glide towards
another vowel sound (considerable variation, so often also
variation in transcription) see booklet, p. 6 Slide 51 Falling vs.
rising diphthongs all German diphthongs are falling, i.e. The first
vowel sound is longest and gets most emphasis In fact: one stable
element, followed by a glide towards another vowel sound
(considerable variation, so often also variation in transcription)
see booklet, p. 6 Slide 52 8 English diphthongs As in German: / a ,
a , Y/ (or / /) (though there is tendency to start from a more
centralized sound than /a/ in English /a , a / (my, mouse); /e /
(say, late) / / (stair, care) / / or /o / (boat, home) / / (tour) /
/ (beer, here)
