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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Neutralization of Syllable-final Voicing in German

subject

description

German is well known for its neutralization of the voicing contrast in word-final obstruents. However, acoustic analysis of ten pairs of German words produced by ten native speakers revealed that the distributions of acoustic parameters for underlying voiced and voiceless stops are significantly different, despite considerable overlap between the two categories. Furthermore, in a listening test, German listeners were able to distinguish the voiced and voiceless pairs with about 60% accuracy—significantly better than chance. Several mechanisms for such a “semicontrast” are considered, including the possibility that it is an experimental artifact. It is concluded that this is not an artifact, yet that it probably serves no communicative function whatsoever. Although there remain several possible explanations, the one that is preferred is that, in addition to the usual implementation rules for the production of segmental units of speech (such as [+ voice] and [–voice]), we are observing here the results of an implementation rule that directly implements the German syllable —one which “devoices” syllable—final obstruent portions of a syllable. This accounts in a natural way for both differences between the two kinds of voiceless stops and for the tendency for this property to carry over so strongly into German-accented speech in other languages.