Bernese German phonology

This article is about the phonology of Bernese German. It deals with current phonology and phonetics, including geographical variants. Like other High Alemannic varieties, it has a two-way contrast in plosives and fricatives that is not based on voicing, but on length. The absence of voice in plosives and fricatives is typical for all High German varieties, but many of them have no two-way contrast due to general lenition.

Vowels

Monophthong phonemes of Bernese German

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	y	yː			u	uː
Near-close	ɪ	ɪː	ʏ	ʏː			ʊ	ʊː
Mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ə		ɔ	ɔː
Open	æ	æː			a	aː

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Bernese German

	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m – mː	n – nː		ŋ
Stop	b̥ – p	d̥ – t		ɡ̊ – k
Affricate	p͡f	t͡s	t͡ʃ~t͡ɕ	k͡x
Fricative	v̥ – f	z̥ – s	ʒ̊ – ʃ~ʑ̊ – ɕ	ɣ̊ – x	h
Approximant	ʋ	l – lː	j
Rhotic		r

External links

• Bernese German phonology