The phonology of Standard German is the standard pronunciation or accent of the German language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof as well as the geographical variants and the influence of German dialects.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | ɪ | iː | ʏ | yː | ɨ | ɨː | ɯ | ɯː | ʊ | uː |
| Close-mid | e | eː | ø | øː | ə | ɘː | ɤː | o | oː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | œ | ɐ | ɜː | ʌ | ʌː | ɔ | ɔː | |
| Open | æ | ɶ | a | aː | ɑ | ɑː | ɒ | ɒː | ||
Consonants[]
With approximately 25 phonemes, the German consonant system has an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages. One of the more noteworthy ones is the unusual affricate /p͡f/.[1]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar/ Uvular |
Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | fortis | m̥ | n̥ | ɲ̊ | ŋ̊ | ||
| lenis | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | fortis | p | t | c | k | ʔ | |
| lenis | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | |||
| Affricate | fortis | p͡f | t͡s | t͡ʃ~t͡ɕ | |||
| lenis | d͡ʒ~d͡ʑ | ||||||
| Fricative | sibilant | fortis | s | ʃ~ɕ | |||
| lenis | z | ʒ~ʑ | |||||
| non-sibilant | fortis | f | θ | ç | x | h | |
| lenis | v | ð | ʝ | ɣ | |||
| Approximant | central | fortis | ʋ̥ | ɹ̥ | j̊ | ɰ̊ | |
| lenis | ʋ | ɹ | j | ɰ | |||
| lateral | fortis | l̥ | ʎ̥ | ʟ̥ | |||
| lenis | l | ʎ | ʟ | ||||
| Trill | fortis | ʙ̥ | r̥ | ||||
| lenis | ʙ | r | |||||
References[]
- ↑ For a detailed discussion of the German consonants from a synchronic and diachronic point of view.