Modern German Pronunciation

Christopher Hall

Modern German pronunciation

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Modern German pronunciation An introduction for speakers of English second edition

Christopher Hall

Manchester University Press Manchesterand New York Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave

Copyright © Christopher Hall 1992, 2003 The right of Christopher Hall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First edition published 1992 by Manchester University Press This edition published 2003 by

Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M 1 3 9 NR, UK and Room 400,1 75 Fifth Avenue,New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co. uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by

Palgrave, 1 75 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by

UBC Press, University of British Columbia,2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V 6T 1 Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for

ISBN 0 7190 6689 1

paperhack

This edition first published 2003 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Typeset in Times and Helvetica by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd. , Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, G uildford and King's Lynn

Contents

List of illustrations Preface Preface to the second edition Acknowledgements Acknowledgements for the second edition List of phonetic symbols 1

Introduction 1.1 Why pronunciation? 1.2 Regional variation and standard pronunciation 1.3 Stylistic variation 1.4 Social and individual variation 1.5 Learning the sounds of language

2

The 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

3

The German consonants 3.1 The description of consonants 3.1.1 Manner of articulation 3.1.2 Place of articulation 3.1.3 Voice 3.1.4 Lenis and fortis 3.1.5 Auslautverhärtung 3.1.6 Three-term Iabels 3.1.7 The description of individual German consonants 3.2 Plosives 3.2.1 /p/ and /b/

production and description of speech sounds

Articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics The organs of speech Letters, sounds and phonemes Coarticulation and assimilation Basis of articulation

page ix Xl

xii xiii xiv XV

1 1 2 5 7 8 10 10 11 15 20 21 23 24 25 25 26 28 28 29 29 30 32

Contents

vi

3.3

3.4

3.2.2 /t/ and /d/ 3.2.3 /k/ and /g/

Fricatives

3.3.1 /f/ and /v/ 3.3.2 /s/ and /z/ 3.3.3 /f/ and /3/ 3.3.4 /x/ 3.3.5 /j/ 3.3.6 /h/

Nasals

Im! /n/ Iu! Nasal plosion Syllabic nasals Laterals 3.5.1 !I! 3.5.2 Lateral plosion 3.5.3 Syllabic /1/ Ir! 3.6.1 The uvular trill 3.6.2 The uvular fricative 3.6.3 The apical trill 3.6.4 Vocalic r Affricates 3.7.1 [pf] 3.7.2 [ts] The glottal stop Summary and comparison of German and English consonant articulations 3.4.1 3.4.2 3.4.3 3.4.4 3.4.5

3.5

3.6

3.7

3.8 3.9

4

The German vowels 4.1 The description of vowels 4.2 The vowels of German 4.2.1 Tenseness and laxness 4.2.2 Vowel length 4.2.3 Non-syllabic vowels 4.3 The German monophthongs 4.3.1 /i:/ 4.3.2 /I/ /e:/ 4.3.3 4.3.4 Iei 4.3.5 /c:/

33 34 37 37 39 40 42 48 48 50 50 51 52 54 55 56 56 59 59 60 60 61 63 64 66 66 67 69 70 72 72 75 76 76 77 77 77 79 80 82 83

vii

Contents

Ia:/ 4.3.6 Ia/ 4.3.7 Iu:/ 4.3.8 /u/ 4.3.9 4.3.10 /o:/ 4.3.11 h/ 4.3.12 /y:/ 4.3.13 /y/ 4.3.14 /fjJ:/ 4.3.15 Ire/ 4.3.16 fgf 4.3.17 [u]

The German diphthongs /a1/ /au/ /::JY/ 4.5 Nasal vowels 4.6 Summary and comparison of German and English vowel articulations 4.4

4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3

5

Stress and intonation 5.1 Word stress 5.1.1 Native German words 5.1.2 Foreign words 5.1.3 Compounds 5.2 Sentence stress and rhythm 5.3 Intonation 5.3.1 Tone groups 5.3.2 The nucleus 5.3.3 The structure of the tone group 5.3.4 The intonation patterns of German 5.3.5 The heads 5.3.6 The placement of the nucleus 5.3.7 English intonation patterns to be avoided in

German

6

Words in connected speech: formal and conversational pronunciation 6.1 Assimilation 6.1.1 Assimilation of place 6.1.2 Assimilation of manner 6.1.3 Assimilation of voicing

84 86 87 89 90 91 92 93 95 97 98 100 102 103 104 105 106 107 109 109 110 111 113 115 116 118 119 120 122 131 133 134

138 140 141 143 144

viii

Contents

Elision Elision of /:;,/ Elision of /t/ Reduction of double consonants 6.3 Vowel reductions 6.3.1 Weak forms 6.3.2 List of weak forms 6.3.3 The use of weak forms and strong forms 6.4 Other features of conversational pronunciation 6.4.1 Ir/ 6.4.2 The glottal stop 6.5 Reductions in common expressions

145 145 146 147 148 148 150 154 155 156 156 157

Exercises

158

6.2

6.2.1 6.2.2 6.2.3

7

Sources and further reading Glossary List of German phonetic terms Bibliography Index

187 190 195 198 200

List of illustrations

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

The vocal tract The vocal cords /p/ and /b/ /t/ and /d/ /k/ and /g/ /f/ and /v/ /s/ and /z/ !f! and /3/ [x] [