German

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

There are three phonemic affricates that are considered to be native to German, pf ts tS, and a fourth one, dZ, which occurs in a few loanwords, and which is often replaced by tS:

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:

1. As a dorso-uvular consonant - a voiced or voiceless fricative, approximant, trill or flap. This should be represented as R (as above).
2. As an apico-alveolar consonant - a trill, tap, or flap. This may be represented as r, e.g. <Reim> - raIm.
3. As a vowel post-vocalically. This may be represented as 6 (see below).

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