“Problematic phonemes” and German /ɛ:/: An acoustic analysis

Kristin Predeck,Aleese Block,Carlee Arnett

doi:10.3765/plsa.v6i1.4970

Kristin Predeck, Aleese Block + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v6i1.4970

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Abstract

The decision to include or exclude phonemes in the description of a language is not always straightforward; presentations of the phoneme inventory of Modern Standard German (MSG) often include a discussion of why /ɛ:/ is problematic as a phoneme. This study describes the acoustic realization of /ɛ:/ in comparison to /e:/ in spoken German, specifically South Westphalian. 39 native German speakers produced /ɛ:/ and /e:/ in hVt non-word frames and vowel productions were measured for: (1) first and second formants from the steady state of the vowel, (2) duration, and (3) fundamental frequency (f0). Measurements were analyzed with a logistic regression model using the glm package in R. The model showed that while the main effects of F2, duration, and pitch were not significant, F1 was; speakers reliably produced /ɛ:/ lower in the vowel space than /e:/, but not fronter. This preliminary investigation into the acoustic realizations of /ɛ:/ and /e:/ through the lens of the debate on whether these two sounds truly are phonetically and phonemically contrastive is a first step toward truly understanding these two sounds within the larger phonemic inventory of MSG. We hope that this study will reopen a discussion on this topic and help answer the question of whether /ɛ:/ really is a problematic phoneme.

Highlights

The inclusion or exclusion of phonemes in the description of a language is rarely straightforward or truly objective
A study of the phonetics of a language can only describe a subset of speakers who, under ideal conditions, speak the language in the same way
The political fragmentation of Germany between the 16th century and the second half of the 19th century prevented any region from having enough prestige as well as social and political clout to provide the conditions needed to facilitate the region’s language becoming the standard

Summary

Introduction

The inclusion or exclusion of phonemes in the description of a language is rarely straightforward or truly objective. A person’s speech may conform more or less to an idealized standard, but no one speaks the standard language because variation is intrinsic to spoken language (Lippi-Green 1997:25). The written standard privileges the southern dialects (Mangold 2005), but Siebs preferred northern German pronunciations so chose those as his model. In the case of /ɛ:/, northern dialects do use this sound, southern dialects do not This has led to the argument by some scholars that /ɛ:/ is an artificial construct not realized in any spoken dialect and that the sound is only a product of the need to have a sound to correspond to in a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme system (Moulton, 1962; Reis 1974; von Polenz, 2000). The distinction between the pronunciation of and is an artificial one

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