Neutralization of obstruent voicing in german is incomplete

Abstract

A familiar phonological neutralization rule is the merger of voiced and voiceless obstruents in syllable-final position in German. Thus, the /d/ in Leid ‘sorrow’ is pronounced [-voice] like the /t/ in leit ‘lead.’ A spectrographic test of minimal pairs by nine Germans, however, revealed (1) vowels before underlying voiced consonants were 10% longer than before underlying voiceless ones, (2) there was a slightly longer interval of glottal pulsing into the consonant closure for the underlying voiced consonants, yet (3) consonant closure durations were the same. Since these consonants all sounded voiceless to us, a listening test was performed. Native speakers of German listened to these utterances and indicated which word of the minimal pair was heard. Subjects were able to guess the intended word about 70% correct—significantly better than chance. This “semicontrast” must be nearly useless in conversation. These results show that voicing neutralization is only partially achieved in German and disprove any analysis of the form [+voice] → [−voice]. Instead we propose that Germans employ a “motor implementation rule” of final devoicing that simulates the voiceless feature but is distinct from it. [Research supported by NIH grant HD12511.]

Whence the fuzziness? Morphological effects in interacting sound changes in Southern British English

“…Roettger et al (2014) make a case for this, looking at near-neutralization of voicing in German. Several studies find small, but systematic differences in ostensibly neutralized word-final stops in German (Port et al, 1981;Port & Crawford, 1989;Charles-Luce, 1985;Kleber et al, 2010). Similar observations concerning near-neutralization have been made for voicing in Catalan (Dinnsen & Charles-Luce, 1984) and Russian (Kharlamov, 2014).…”

Perception of incompletely neutralized voicing cues in word-final obstruents: The role of differences in production context

“…At the same time, experimental studies have repeatedly shown that speakers of neutralizing languages maintain acoustic differences between phonologically voiced versus voiceless final obstruents and that listeners can often identify the voicing setting of such segments at an above-chance level (e.g., Port and O'Dell 1985;Warner et al 2004). The current study investigates how such identification responses vary depending on whether the perceptual stimuli were recorded using reading vs. non-reading procedures and with vs. without full minimal pairs in the experimental list.…”

“…Incomplete neutralization has also been attested in the domain of perception, where the rates of voiced responses vary depending on the phonological voicing setting of the final consonant despite its phonetic devoicing (Port and O'Dell 1985;Port and Crawford 1989;Slowiaczek and Szymanska 1989;Warner et al 2004;Röttger et al 2011). For example, during forced-choice two-alternative identification tasks, speakers of German have shown above-chance-level performance on voicing, with the majority of phonologically voiced but phonetically devoiced segments being attributed to the voiced category (e.g., Port and O'Dell 1985;Port and Crawford 1989;Röttger et al 2011).…”

“…This phenomenon is traditionally referred to as 'incomplete neutralization', and it tends to affect the acoustic parameters of consonantal duration, glottal pulsing, and preceding vowel duration. Phonologically voiced consonants usually show significantly shorter durations, more glottal pulsing, and longer preceding vowels compared to their voiceless counterparts (e.g., all 3 parameters demonstrate significant differences in Port and O'Dell 1985;van Rooy et al 2003).…”

“…Production data from languages with final devoicing, including German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Polish, and Russian, often show reliable differences between the surface forms of phonologically voiced versus voiceless obstruents (e.g., Chen 1970;Charles-Luce 1985;Port and O'Dell 1985;Slowiaczek and Dinnsen 1985;Tieszen 1997;van Rooy et al 2003;Piroth and Janker 2004;Smith et al 2009;Dmitrieva et al 2010;Rӧttger et al 2011;Kharlamov 2014;Röttger et al 2014). This phenomenon is traditionally referred to as 'incomplete neutralization', and it tends to affect the acoustic parameters of consonantal duration, glottal pulsing, and preceding vowel duration.…”