Phonetics and Phonology of Tense and Lax Obstruents in German

Author
Michael Jessen | University of Stuttgart
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027215536 (Eur) | EUR 130.00
ISBN 9781556198953 (USA) | USD 195.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027282248 | EUR 130.00 | USD 195.00
 
Google Play logo
Knowing that the so-called voiced and voiceless stops in languages like English and German do not always literally differ in voicing, several linguists — among them Roman Jakobson — have proposed that dichotomies such as fortis/lenis or tense/lax might be more suitable to capture the invariant phonetic core of this distinction. Later it became the dominant view that voice onset time or laryngeal features are more reasonable alternatives. However, based on a number of facts and arguments from current phonetics and phonology this book claims that the Jakobsonian feature tense was rejected prematurely. Among the theoretical aspects addressed, it is argued that an acoustic definition of distinctive features best captures the functional aspects of speech communication, while it is also discussed how the conclusions are relevant for formal accounts, such as feature geometry. The invariant of tense is proposed to be durational, and its ‘basic correlate’ is proposed to be aspiration duration. It is shown that tense and voice differ in their invariant properties and basic correlates, but that they share a number of other correlates, including F0 onset and closure duration. In their stop systems languages constitute a typology between the selection of voice and tense, but in their fricative systems languages universally tend towards a syncretism involving voicing and tenseness together. Though the proposals made here are intended to have general validity, the emphasis is on German. As part of this focus, an acoustic study and a transillumination study of the realization of /p,t,k,f,s/ vs. /b,d,g,v,z/ in German are presented.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“[...] Michael Jessen accomplishes his task successfully, combining an exhaustive phonetic analysis with in-depth phonological theorizing.”
Cited by

Cited by 15 other publications

Caratini, Emilie
2015. Accent tonique : substance(s) et représentation(s). Langages N° 198:2  pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Chen, Yiya
2011. How does phonology guide phonetics in segment–f0 interaction?. Journal of Phonetics 39:4  pp. 612 ff. DOI logo
Choi, Jiyoun, Sahyang Kim, Taehong Cho & Leonardo Lancia
2020. An apparent-time study of an ongoing sound change in Seoul Korean: A prosodic account. PLOS ONE 15:10  pp. e0240682 ff. DOI logo
Falkert, Anika, C. Granget, M.-A. Dat, D. Guedat-Bittighoffer & C. Cuet
2017. Assessing implicit phonological knowledge through accent imitation. SHS Web of Conferences 38  pp. 00010 ff. DOI logo
Jessen, Martin, Stefan Gfroerer & Olaf Köster
2003. Forensic study of a case involving SMS text-to-speech conversion. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law 10:1  pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Jessen, Michael
2002. An Acoustic Study of Contrasting Plosives and Click Accompaniments in Xhosa. Phonetica 59:2-3  pp. 150 ff. DOI logo
Jesus, Luis M. T. & Maria Conceição Costa
2020. The aerodynamics of voiced stop closures. EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing 2020:1 DOI logo
Kulikov, Vladimir, Najlla Al-Hajri & Buthaina Al-Kuwari
2023. Generational changes in VOT in Qatari Arabic. In Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXIV [Studies in Arabic Linguistics, 12],  pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Luef, Eva Maria
2020. Development of voice onset time in an ongoing phonetic differentiation in Austrian German plosives: Reversing a near-merger. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 39:1  pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Nasukawa, Kuniya
Pape, Daniel & Luis M T Jesus
2014. Production and perception of velar stop (de)voicing in European Portuguese and Italian. EURASIP Journal on Audio, Speech, and Music Processing 2014:1 DOI logo
PURNELL, THOMAS, JOSEPH SALMONS & DILARA TEPELI
2005. GERMAN SUBSTRATE EFFECTS IN WISCONSIN ENGLISH: EVIDENCE FOR FINAL FORTITION. American Speech 80:2  pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Skarnitzl, Radek & Pavel Šturm
2016. Pre-fortis shortening in Czech English: A production and reaction-time study. Research in Language 14:1  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Wade, Lacey
2017. The role of duration in the perception of vowel merger. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology 8:1  pp. 30 ff. DOI logo
Zebe, Franka
2023. Vowel and consonant quantity in two Swiss German dialects and their corresponding varieties of Standard German: effects of region, age, and tempo. Phonetica 80:3-4  pp. 185 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  98044719 | Marc record