Final-obstruent devoicing

Devoicing is a technical term from linguistics, in particular from the phonetics and phonology, and refers to the process that sound consonant (ie plosives, affricates and fricatives ) at the end of a syllable (ie in their final position ) lose their voicing and voiceless pronounced be.

This phenomenon is not a feature of all languages ​​, but exists only in certain individual language systems, such as the German and Turkish, but not in English. For example, the German word is pronounced wheel opposite to the case such as the Council [ ʁa ː t]. In buying and medial position of a word, however, the voicing of consonants is retained.

The devoicing is one of those linguistic features that are learned unconsciously in infancy in the acquisition of the mother tongue and the non- expert speakers remain in the sequence unconsciously. This has the consequence that such a devoicing the speaking of foreign languages ​​transmits also to those which do not exhibit this phenomenon, contributing to the typical foreign accent.

Languages ​​with final devoicing

German

The devoicing relates Germans following consonant phonemes: the plosives / bdg /, the fricatives / vz ʒ / and the affricate / dʒ /.

Examples:

• Rub [ raɪ̯bən ] vs. rubbed [ ʁi ː p]
• South [ zy ː dən ] vs. South ( east ) [ zy ː t]
• Mention [ ʃvaɪ̯gən ] vs. silent [ ʃvi ː k]
• Loose [lo ː zə ] vs. Lot [ lo ː s]
• Brave [ bra ː və ] vs. good [ bʁa ː f]

It is a context-dependent neutralization of a phonological opposition, because the phonemes / b, d, ... / and / p, t, ... / are the Germans otherwise in opposition to each other, as can be shown to minimal pairs:

• Bulle: bottle
• Village: Peat
• Horny: Wedge
• Example: white
• Wall: case

Because the Lenis phonemes / b, d, ... / are voiceless in the southern varieties of German, the German devoicing can be better than a repeal of the opposition between Lenis and Fortis described as between voiced and unvoiced consonants.

The devoicing is in German a basic and productive phonological rule, comparable, for example, with the aspiration of voiceless plosives in English ( pardon! will "automatically" spoken eg behauchtem p, even if otherwise the French pronunciation with nasal vowel is retained). This means that the devoicing ( and the partial regressive assimilation ) of course also applies to new words and phonemes ( eg, in the alien concept integration: club, grog, jogg, trend, Standard, Blues, well-behaved, kurv, or by! the use of regional language words in high German: eg stow )! . Even if new obstruents phonemes can be integrated from other languages ​​into German phonemic system, they are the devoicing ( and partial regressive assimilation ) subject ( as in the voiced sch- sound / ʒ / and the affricate / dʒ /: orange, orange, manag ( e)! , managed, however, in many varieties of standard German anyway are always voiceless ).

The devoicing might have used in the period of transition from the Old to Middle High German. Today it is found in most German dialects, with the exception of high and ultra high Alemannic and the south Bavaria. In the field of domestic German consonant weakening the opposition of Fortis and Lenis disappears not only in final position, but also in initial position and in any other position.

Today's orthography of the German does not reflect the devoicing resist, they preferred the root principle of so-called ( a root word, as far as it goes, always written the same, see also spelling reform of 1996). In Middle High German, however, it was still customary to take account of devoicing in Scripture, then find spellings like vs. ( "tag"), vs. ( "Envy " ), etc.

A similar phenomenon takes place synchronously in the German allied Dutch, but not in English also related. German native speakers are therefore easily identified when speaking foreign languages ​​by its caused thereby typical German accent, so if they are final devoicing in the languages ​​of practice, where it does not occur (see interference).

Gothic

The devoicing concerns voiced consonants b , d and z who - when they come to be in the final position or before auslautenden s - to the corresponding voiceless consonants f þ < þ > and s . For the voiced consonant g the result remains open, as graphically no change occurs ( probably the voiceless consonant χ was not graphically realized separately). Examples of the devoicing are: