German Linguistics Lectures

11.7 The organs of speech

11.8 Describing German consonants

• 3 pieces of information are used to describe German consonants:
• Place of articulation (where in the vocal tract the sound is produced)
• Manner of articulation (how the air passes through the vocal tract)
• Voiced or voiceless?

11.9 Plosives (stops)

• With plosive consonants, the airstream is stopped as it passes through the vocal tract.
• This blockage is very brief.
• The built-up air is soon released, causing a small explosion.
• Try saying the following plosives:
• Pein, Bein, können, Tag, Dach

11.10 Bilabial Plosives

• Bilabial sounds involve placing upper and lower lips together.
• The phoneme /b/ is voiced – i.e. your vocal cords vibrate when saying Bein or Ball.
• The phoneme /p/ is unvoiced - i.e. you don’t use your vocal cords to say Pein or Papier.