CONSONANTS
The standard German consonant system is considered to have 17 or 19 obstruent
phonemes (depending on whether two peripheral sounds are included, which occur
only in loanwords), and five sonorants. The obstruents comprise six plosives,
three (or four) affricates, and eight (or nine) fricatives, though there are
two auditorily distinct fricatives (x and C) which are usually considered to
be allophonic variants, giving ten fricatives in all that require distinct
symbolic representation. [For some purposes it is convenient to give explicit
representation to the glottal stop, too.]
As in English, the obstruents are traditionally classified pairwise as
``voiced'' and ``voiceless'', though periodicity is a less reliable feature
than duration and intensity, and they are therefore better termed ``lenis''
and ``fortis''.
The six plosives are p b t d k g:
SYMBOL | WORD | TRANSCRIPTION | |
p | Pein | paIn | |
b | Bein | baIn | |
t | Teich | taIC | |
d | Deich | daIC | |
k | Kunst | kUnst | |
g | Gunst | gUnst |
The voicing and aspiration patterning of German plosives is similar to that of English, with the unaspirated variant occurring after initial /S/ or (in a few words) /s/.
[If it is desired to symbolise the glottal stop explicitly, it may be shown in SAMPA as shown here.]
? | Verein | fE6"?aIn |
SYMBOL | WORD | TRANSCRIPTION | |
pf | Pfahl | pfa:l | |
ts | Zahl | tsa:l | |
tS | deutsch | dOYtS | |
dZ | Dschungel | "dZUN=l |
There are ten fricatives, f v s z S Z C j x h. j is often realised as a vowel glide:
SYMBOL WORD TRANSCRIPTION
f fast fast
v was vas
s Tasse "tas@
z Hase "ha:z@
S waschen "vaS=n
Z Genie Ze"ni:
C sicher "zIC6
j Jahr ja:6
x Buch bu:x
h Hand hant
The sonorants are three nasals, m n N, and two ``liquids'', l R, of which R can be realised as a uvular fricative (voiced or voiceless depending on context), a uvular approximant, or a uvular tap or trill:
SYMBOL | WORD | TRANSCRIPTION | |
m | mein | maIn | |
n | nein | naIn | |
N | Ding | dIN | |
l | Leim | laIm | |
R | Reim | RaIm |
Orthographic <r> is realised phonetically in a number of different ways:
VOWELS
The vowels fall into three groups, ``checked'' (short), ``free'' (long), and
two short vowels that only occur in unstressed position. There is a genuine
short-long vowel distinction in German, the long vowels being roughly twice as
long (all other things being equal) as the short vowels.
The checked vowels are I E a O U Y 9:
SYMBOL | WORD | TRANSCRIPTION | |
I | Sitz | zIts | |
E | Gesetz | g@"zEts | |
a | Satz | zats | |
O | Trotz | trOts | |
U | Schutz | SUts | |
Y | hübsch | hYpS | |
9 | plötzlich | "pl9tslIC |
There are 8 pure free vowels, i: e: E: a: o: u: y: 2:,
and three free diphthongs, aI aU OY:
SYMBOL | WORD | TRANSCRIPTION | |
i: | Lied | li:t | |
e: | Beet | be:t | |
E: | spät | SpE:t | |
a: | Tat | ta:t | |
o: | rot | ro:t | |
u: | Blut | blu:t | |
y: | süß | zy:s | |
2: | blöd | bl2:t | |
aI | Eis | aIs | |
aU | Haus | haUs | |
OY | Kreuz | krOYts |
The unstressed ``schwa'' vowel is:
@ | bitte | "bIt@ |
The vowel realisation of <r>, represented as 6, fuses with schwa,
but it also follows stressed vowels, resulting in additional centring
diphthongs:
SYMBOL | WORD | TRANSCRIPTION | |
6 | besser | "bEs6 | |
i:6 | Tier | ti:6 | |
I6 | Wirt | vI6t | |
y:6 | Tür | ty:6 | |
Y6 | Türke | "tY6k@ | |
e:6 | schwer | Sve:6 | |
E6 | Berg | bE6k | |
E:6 | Bär | bE:6 | |
2:6 | Föhr | f2:6 | |
96 | Wörter | "v96t6 | |
a:6 | Haar | ha:6 | |
a6 | hart | ha6t | |
u:6 | Kur | ku:6 | |
U6 | kurz | kU6ts | |
o:6 | Ohr | o:6 | |
O6 | dort | dO6t |