German phonology

German phonology describes the phonology of Standard German.

Since German is a pluricentric language, there are a number of different pronunciations of standard German which however agree in most respects.

Vowels

	unrounded		rounded		central		back
	front				central		back
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
close	¹		¹				¹
near-close
close-mid	¹		¹				¹
mid					²
open-mid		³
open					⁴	⁴

Short occur only in unstressed syllables of loanwords, for instance in Psychometrie 'psychometry'. They are usually considered complementary allophones together with their long counterparts which cannot occur in unstressed syllables.
The schwa occurs only in unstressed syllables, for instance in besetzen 'occupy'. It is often considered a complementary allophone together with which cannot occur in unstressed syllables. If a sonorant follows in the syllable coda, the schwa often disappears so that the sonorant becomes syllabic, for instance Kissen 'pillow', Esel 'donkey', besser 'better'. Note that the syllabic is realized as in many varieties, for instance besser 'better'.
The long open-mid front unrounded vowel is merged with the close-mid front unrounded vowel in many varieties of standard German, so that, for example, Ähre 'ear' (of wheat, etc.) and Ehre 'honour' are homonyms for many speakers.
The open vowels and are free allophones together with and , respectively.

The vowels are often analyzed according to a tenseness contrast, being the tense vowels and their lax counterparts. Like the English checked vowels, the German lax vowels require to be followed by a consonant, with the notable exception of (which is however absent in many varieties). In order to apply the division into pairs of tense and lax to all German vowels, is sometimes considered the lax counterpart of tense .

Diphthongs

The German diphthongs are , for instance in Ei 'egg', Sau 'sow', neu 'new', Säule 'column'. Occasionally, they are transcribed as .

Marginally, there occur some more diphthongs, for instance in interjections such as pfui , and in loanwords, among others, as in Feuilleton , Homepage , Croissant . It is debated whether such diphthongs should be considered phonemes of the German language or not.

In the varieties where vowelizes to in the syllable coda (see below), a diphthong ending in may be formed with virtually every vowel.

Consonants

With approximately 25 phonemes, the German consonant system exhibits an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages. One of the more noteworthy ones is the unusual affricate .

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive								¹
Affricates				²
Nasal						⁶
Fricative				²	³	³	⁵ ⁴
Approximant
Liquid			⁴				⁴

In the northern varieties, occurs before word stems with initial vowel. It is often not considered a phoneme, but an optional boundary mark of word stems.
and occur only in words of foreign origin. In certain varieties, they are replaced by and altogether.
and are complementary allophones after front vowels and back vowels. For a more detailed analysis see below at ich-Laut and ach-Laut.
, and are free allophones of each other. is used only in Southern varieties. In the syllable coda, the allophone is used in many varieties, except in the South-West.
According to some analysis, is an allophone of after and according to some also after .
Some phonologists deny the phoneme and use instead, and instead of . The phoneme sequence is realized as when can start a valid onset of the next syllable whose nucleus is a vowel other than unstressed , , or . It becomes otherwise. Example:
- diphthong : diphthongieren
- Englisch : Anglo
- Ganges ~

The voiceless stops , , are aspirated except when preceded by a sibilant. The obstruents are voiceless in the Southern varieties.

Ich-Laut and ach-Laut

The term ich-Laut refers to the voiceless palatal fricative , the term ach-Laut to the voiceless velar fricative . In German, these two sounds are allophones occurring in complementary distribution. The allophone occurs after back vowels and (for instance in Buch ‘book’), the allophone after front vowels (for instance in ich ‘I’) and consonants (for instance in Furcht ‘fear’) (Kohler 1977, 1990; Wiese 1996: 210).

In the onset of stressed syllables (loanwords only), the pronunciation varies: In the Northern varieties of standard German, it is , in Southern varieties, it is (for instance in China: vs. ).

The diminutive suffix -chen is always pronounced with an ich-Laut . Usually, this ending triggers umlaut (compare for instance Hund 'dog' to Hündchen ‘little dog’), so theoretically, it could only occur after front vowels. However, in some comparatively recent coinings, there is no longer an umlaut, for instance in the word Frauchen ‘female dog master’ (a diminutive of Frau ‘woman’), so that a back vowel is followed by , even though normally it would be followed by a , as in rauchen ‘to smoke’. There is even a minimal pair for and due to this effect: Kuhchen ‘little cow’ vs. Kuchen ‘cake’. Some explain this contradiction to the allophonic distribution as a morphemic boundary effect. However, many phoneticians believe that this is an example of phonemicization, where erstwhile allophones undergo a split into separate phonemes.

An allophonic distribution of after front vowels and after other vowels is a common one, and can be heard also in Scots, in the pronunciation of light. However, it is by no means inevitable: Dutch, many Southern German dialects, as well as Yiddish, which comes from one of them, retain in all positions. It is thus reasonable to assume that Old High German ih, the ancestor of modern ich, was pronounced with rather than . And while it is impossible to know for certain whether Old English words such as niht (modern night) were pronounced with or , is likely (see Old English phonology#Consonant allophones).

Despite the phonetic history, the complementary distribution of and in modern Standard German is better described as backing of after a back vowel, rather than fronting of after a front vowel, because is considered basic as in an onset (Chemie ) and after a consonant (Molch ).

According to certain analysis, the German ach-Laut is further differentiated into two allophones, and . Some say that occurs after (for instance in Buch ‘book’) and after (for instance in Bach ‘brook’), others say that occurs after and after .

Fortis-lenis pairs

Various German consonants occur in pairs at the same place of articulation and in the same manner of articulation, namely the pairs , , , , //. These pairs are often called fortis-lenis pairs, since describing them as voiced/voiceless pairs is inadequate. With certain qualifications, are also considered fortis-lenis pairs.

The fortis plosives are aspirated in most varieties (exceptions include Bavarian-Austrian varieties). The aspiration is strongest in the onset of a stressed syllable (such as Taler ), weaker in the onset of an unstressed syllable (such as Vater ), and weakest in the syllable coda (such as in Saat ).

The lenis consonants are voiceless in most southern varieties of German. For clarity, they are often transcribed as . The nature of the phonetic difference between the voiceless lenis consonants and the similarly voiceless fortis consonants is controversial. It is generally described as a difference in articulatory force, and occasionally as a difference in articulatory length; for the most part, it is assumed that one of these characteristics implies the other.

In most varieties of German, the opposition between fortis and lenis is nullified in the syllable coda, due to terminal devoicing (Auslautverhärtung). A few southern varieties of German, such as Swiss German, present an exception to this.

In various central and southern varieties, the opposition between fortis and lenis is also nullified in the syllable onset; sometimes just in the onset of stressed syllables, sometimes in all cases.

The pair is not considered a fortis-lenis pair, as remains voiced in all varieties, included the Southern varieties that devoice the lenes. Generally, the southern is realized as the voiced approximant . However there are southern varieties which differentiate between a fortis (such as in sträflich from Middle High German stræflich) and a lenis (, such as in höflich from Middle High German hovelîch); this is analogous to the opposition of fortis () and lenis . However, does form a voiceless/voiced pair, as in brav and brave .

Stress

The first syllable of German words receives stress, with the following exceptions:

Words beginning with be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, emp- and a few others receive stress on the second syllable.
Compound adverbs, with her, hin, da, or wo as their first syllable part, receive stress on their second syllable.
Many loanwords, especially proper names, keep their original stress.
In compound words, the most important part is stressed: umfahren (to drive around) vs. umfahren (to knock over).

Generally speaking, the root-syllable is stressed (Stammsilbenbetonung).

Historical sound changes

The Middle High German vowel pairs and have merged to and respectively in modern standard German, although many dialects retain the distinction. For example, while heiß 'hot' (MHG heiz) and Eis 'ice' (MHG îs) rhyme in the standard language, they do not in the Austro-Bavarian dialects (hoaß/äis) and in the Alemannic German dialects (heiß/iis), nor in the Yiddish language (heys/ayz), also a descendant of Middle High German.

Phonemic mergers

A merger found in many accents of German is that of (spelled ä(h)) with (spelled e, ee, or eh). Some speakers merge the two everywhere, some distinguish them everywhere, others keep distinct only in conditional forms of strong verbs (for example they distinguish ich gäbe 'I would give' vs. ich gebe 'I give', but not Bären 'bears' vs. Beeren 'berries').

Another common merger is that of at the end of a syllable with (after a front vowel) or, less commonly, (after a back vowel or ). In the case of the ending -ig, this pronunciation is prescribed by the Siebs standard, for instance wichtig . The merger occurs neither in Austro-Bavarian German and Alemannic German nor in the corresponding varieties of standard German.

References

Duden. Aussprachewörterbuch. Dudenverlag: Mannheim/Leipzig/Wien/Zürich (2005). ISBN 3-411-04064-5
Kohler, Klaus J. (1977). Einführung in die Phonetik des Deutschen. Berlin: E. Schmidt.
Kohler, Klaus J. (1990). German. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 20:48–50.
Siebs, Theodor. (1898). Deutsche Bühnensprache. Cologne: Ahn.
Wiese, Richard. (1996). The Phonology of German. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-824040-6.

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