Word‐final devoicing in German and the effects of phonetic and sentential contexts

Abstract

The present study investigated the possible effects that place of articulation of the final stop, the phonetic environment of the target word, and sentential position might have on vowel duration, voicing into closure, and closure duration as acoustic correlates of underlying voicing. The results of the study replicate the findings that word‐final devoicing is non‐neutralizing in German. However, the results also show that the temporal correlates of underlying voicing are different for dental and velar stops and are different for lexical items. Moreover, for the dental stops, vowel duration, and voicing into closure as correlates of underlying voicing are not independent of phonetic or sentential contexts. The overall results suggest that the phonetic rules necessary to implement word‐final stops in German must be sensitive to place of articulation, surrounding phonetic and sentential contexts, and even individual lexical items. [Supported by NIH Training Grant T32 NS‐7134.]