German Linguistics Lectures

11.26 The /ɪ/ and /i/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /ɪ/ represents the short vowel sound found in ich, Tisch or Mitte.
• The phoneme /i/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: viel, ihnen, labil or Ziel.
• Note the many different ways in which this long vowel can be written in German.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /i:/ in dictionaries.

11.27 The /ɛ/ and /e/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /ɛ/ represents the short vowel sound found in Bett, Ende or Gäste (note the different spellings of this sound!)
• The phoneme /e/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Regel, Schnee or Tee.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /e:/ in dictionaries.

11.28 The /a/ and /ɑ/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /a/ represents the short vowel sound found in Mann, Apfel or Hand.
• The phoneme /ɑ/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Abend, Name or kam.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /a:/ in dictionaries.

11.29 The /ɔ/ and /o/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /ɔ/ represents the short vowel sound found in Stock, offen or Sonne.
• The phoneme /o/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Ofen, ohne or Sohn.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /o:/ in dictionaries.

11.30 The /ʊ/ and /u/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /ʊ/ represents the short vowel sound found in muss, unser or Mutter.
• The phoneme /u/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: Urlaub, du or gut.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /u:/ in dictionaries.

11.31 The /ʏ/ and /y/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /ʏ/ represents the short vowel sound found in füllen or hübsch.
• The phoneme /y/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: über, Bücher or kühl.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /y:/ in dictionaries.

11.32 The /œ/ and /ø/ vowel pair

• The phoneme /œ/ represents the short vowel sound found in zwölf, öfters or können.
• The phoneme /ø/ represents the long vowel sound found in the words: schön, Öl or Flöße.
• The long vowel sound is sometimes written as /ø:/ in dictionaries.

11.33 Quiz: short or long vowels

• Ofen = ? Offen = ?
• füllen = ? fühlen = ?
• Bieten = ? bitten = ?
• Stadt = ? Staat = ?
• Betten = ? beten = ?
• Spuken = ? spucken = ?

11.34 Answers: short or long vowels

• Ofen = /o/ (long) Offen = /ɔ/ (short)
• füllen = /ʏ/ (short) fühlen = /y/ (long)
• bieten = /i/ (long) bitten = /ɪ/ (short)
• Stadt = /a/ (short) Staat = /ɑ/ (long)
• Betten = /ɛ/ (short) beten = /e/ (long)
• spuken = /u/ (long) spucken = /ʊ/ (short)

11.35 The schwa and ‘dark’ schwa

• Both of these are short vowels.
• The phoneme /ə/ (schwa) depicts the unstressed neutral vowel sound found in Gebäude and Liebe.
• The phoneme /ɐ/ (dark schwa) represents the unstressed vowel sound in the words Besucher, Wetter or Lieber.

11.36 Diphthongs

• The vowels that we have looked at so far consists of just one sound.
• They are called monophthongs.
• Diphthongs occur when two vowels merge to form one.
• lf you say the 2 vowels separately, you find yourself moving from the first vowel to the second.

11.37 Diphthongs

• There are three German diphthongs
• The phoneme /aɪ/ appears in words such as ein, klein or mein.
• /aʊ/ is found in auf or blau.
• The phoneme /ɔɪ/ appears in words such as neu, deutsch, Geräusch and läuft.
• (The vowels in Schnee and Tee are not therefore diphthongs, but the long vowel phoneme /e/)