Word Phonology in a Systemic Functional Linguistic Framework - Phonological Studies in English, German, Welsh and Tera (Nigeria) - Paul Tench

Word Phonology in a Systemic Functional Linguistic Framework - Phonological Studies in English, German, Welsh and Tera (Nigeria) - Paul Tench

Word Phonology in German

Word Phonology in a Systemic Functional Linguistic Framework - Phonological Studies in English, German, Welsh and Tera (Nigeria) - Paul Tench

Paul Tench [+-]
Cardiff University (retired)
Paul Tench was formerly Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University, Wales. He retired in 2007 after more than 40 years in full-time academic life and is now active as a Research Associate at Cardiff. His main teaching responsibilities were in phonetics, the phonology of English, applied linguistics in language teaching and introductions to Systemic-Functional Linguistics. His research focussed mainly on the description of British English intonation, which resulted in The Roles of Intonation in English Discourse (1990), the Intonation Systems of English (1996) and Transcribing the Sound of English (2011) and many journal articles. His first major publication was Pronunciation Skills (1981). Since retirement he has devoted time to exploring system networks at the level of word phonology, and to working with minority language groups in devising orthographies for hitherto unwritten languages in Nigeria and Zambia. His publications can be viewed in http://www.paultenchdocs.co.uk/.

Description

German is a cousin of English in the family of Germanic languages; hence the many notable similarities in vocabulary, grammar and phonology. At the level of word phonology, the similarity includes a set of plosives with matching nasals, a relatively large set of fricatives but nevertheless with marked differences, the sonorants /l, r/ but with a variation in phonetic features, a rich vowel system with short and long vowels, and marking of word stress in the first syllable of the foot. These are features common to most Germanic languages. German word phonology distinguishes itself from English principally by the more restricted distribution of voiced obstruents in syllable/wordfinal position, the addition of rounded front vowels and a much smaller system of diphthongs; also there is a strong preference for keeping word stress stable in extended word forms, which allows us to attempt to handle both mono- and poly-morphemic words together.

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Citation

Tench, Paul. Word Phonology in German. Word Phonology in a Systemic Functional Linguistic Framework - Phonological Studies in English, German, Welsh and Tera (Nigeria). Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 78-114 May 2024. ISBN 9781800503212. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44118. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44118. May 2024

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