7. German-English contrastive phonology

Why?

  • phonemic vs. phonetic principle

  • principal differences from German pov

    • fricatives /θ/, /ð/: (don’t mix up faith – face!)

    • semi-vowel /w/ =/ /v/

    • voicing in /dʒ/ as against /tʃ/: jazz – chess (but Ger. Jazz = Eng. chess) cf. Eng. job – Ger. Job; junk ≠ chunk

    • tenseness and spiartion in word-initial unvoiced stops (/p t k /)

Major differences

  • /r/: phonetically different

  • • /ŋɡ/, e.g. fnger, hungry: not in Ger. (Finger, hungrig: /ŋ/ only)

  • certain phonotactic possibilities / phoneme sequences

    • /ð + m|n + z/ (rhythms)

    • /θ/ (+/s/) after consonants (ffths, months, wealth, twelfth)

    • /θ/ + /r|w/ (throw, thwart)

    • cons. + /w/ (twice, quarter, dwarf)

    • word-initial /st-/: not /ʃt-/ (strike – Ger. Streik)

Minor differences

  • voiced consonants word-finally (in German Auslaufverhärtung) bag - back

  • allophonic variation e.g. with respect to /l/

  • exact quality of many vowel phonemes:

    • /ɜː/ girl

    • /æ/ (salary ≠ celery!!)

    • /ʌ/ but, sun (≠ Ger. /a/)

    • /eɪ, əʊ/: not monophthongised cf. cakes > Ger. Keks, cokes > Ger. Koks

Phoneme systems contrasted → Vowels in comparison

Consonants in comparison:

Cognates in contrast: sC - ʃC

  • /sC/

    • stone, spare, sling, snow, smack

  • /ʃC/

    • Stein, sparen, Schlinge, Schnee, schmecken

Cognates in contrast: t - s

  • English

    • out, bite, vat, great, water

  • German

    • aus, beißen, Fass, groß, Wasser

Cognates in contrast: v - b

  • English

    • even, give, have, live, evil

  • German

    • eben, geben, haben, leben, übel

Cognates in contrast: ð ~ d

  • English

    • brother, think, thank, thirst, with

  • German

    • Bruder, denken, danken, Durst, wieder/wider