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Title:
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Phonetics and Phonology of the Tense and Lax Obstruents in German
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Author:
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Michael Jessen
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Cornell University
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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1996
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Phonetics
Phonology
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Subject Language(s):
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German, Standard
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Director(s):
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Abigail Cohn
Linda Waugh
Allard Jongman
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Abstract:
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This study provides an acoustic investigation of the opposition between the tense obstruents /p,t,k,f,s/ and lax obstruents /b,d,g,v,z/ in standard German. Data from six speakers were measured for stop aspiration, fricative duration, voicing duration, as well as F0-perturbation and breathy voice quality (measured as H1-H2) at the beginning of the following vowel. The results showed that tense vs. lax stops are significantly and consistently distinguished by aspiration duration, and tense vs. lax fricatives by both total duration and voicing duration. Voicing duration in stops was not significant for most speakers and most contexts. F0-perturbation values were consistently higher following tense than lax obstruents, but, as a tendency, the effect was only significant if the obstruents differed in terms of the presence and absence of voicing, which was often not the case in stops. H1-H2 values after tense obstruents turned out to be significantly higher than after lax obstruents, independenly of the occurrence of voicing. These H1-H2 differences are interpreted as evidence for a difference in glottal opening between tense and lax obstruents.
The acoustic results are analysed in terms of the theory of distinctive features proposed and developed by Roman Jakobson, including his work with Linda Waugh. It is argued that German stops employ the feature [tense] distinctively with a common phonetic denominator based upon duration. The feature [voice] is rejected for the distinctive representation of German stops because voicing is not stable across contexts. German fricatives are proposed to employ both tenseness and voicing. The differences between stops and fricatives are explained by markedness theory, supported by facts about German phonotactics and data from child language, aphasia, and phonological universals. It is proposed that in their stop systems languages constitute a typology between the selection of [voice] (e.g Russian) and [tense] (e.g. German, English), but that in their fricative systems languages universally tend towards a syncretism involving voicing and tenseness together.
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