Putting German [ʃ] and [ç] in Two Different Boxes: Native German vs L2 German of French Learners

Abstract

French L2 Learners of German (FG) often replace the palatal fricative /ç/ absent in French with the post alveolar fricative /S/. In our study we investigate which cues can be used to distinguish whether FG speakers produce [S] or [ç] in words with the final syllables /IS/ or /Iç/. In literature of German as an L2, to our knowledge, this contrast has not yetbeen studied. In this perspective, we first compared native German (GG) productions of [S] and [ç] to the FG speaker productions. Comparisons concerned the F2 of the preceding vowel, the F2 transition between the preceding vowel and the fricative, the center of gravity and intensity of the fricatives in high and low frequencies. To decide which cues are effectively choices to separate [S] and [ç], the Weka interface in R (RWeka) was used. Results show that for German native speech, the F2 of the preceding vowel and the F2 transition are valid cues to distinguish between [S] and [ç]. For FG speakers these cues are not valid. To distinguish between [S] and [ç] in FG speakers, the intensity of high and low frequencies as well as the center of gravity of the fricatives help to decide whether [S] and [ç] was produced. In German native speech, cues furnished only by the fricative itself can as well be used to distinguish between [S] and [ç].

Neurophysiology of non-native sound discrimination: Evidence from German vowels and consonants in successive French–German bilinguals using an MMN oddball paradigm

“…In production tasks, French learners of German often replace the consonant [ç] (as in mich [mɪç] -me) by its closest neighbor, the post alveolar fricative /ʃ/ (as in misch [mɪʃ]to mix) (Wottawa, Adda-Decker & Isel, 2016). The post alveolar fricative /ʃ/ appears syllable initially as well as syllable finally in German: schnell [ˈʃnεl] (fast) vs. Fisch [ˈfɪʃ] (fish), and in the adjectival suffix -isch.…”

“…Late French-German bilinguals already have a representation for /ʃ/ with an automated articulatory gesture. The acoustic properties of German [ʃ] and [ç] are very similar (Jannedy & Weirich, 2016;Wottawa et al, 2016) whereas the articulatory movements particularly of the tongue and the lips are quite different. Based on the acoustic information, it is unlikely that L2 learners of German whose L1 presents a relatively low number of fricative types consider the unknown but similar [ç] as an uncategorized sound.…”

The Social Meaning of Contextualized Sibilant Alternations in Berlin German

“…Although Standard German contrasts three voiceless sibilants phonologically: the alveolar /s/, the postalveolar /ʃ/ and the palatal /ç/, many speakers of the middle German dialects and regiolects do not differentiate between /ç/ and /ʃ/ but use the alveo-palatal pronunciation variant [ɕ] instead. The same holds for multi-ethnic speakers of Kiezdeutsch and French learners of German (Wottawa et al, 2016;Jannedy and Weirich, 2017).…”

Evaluation of Personality Traits for a Successful Career of Engineers

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Various research on aptitude testing has been accomplished yet [1,2,3]. Experiences from many years of HR consulting and knowledge of the industry's needs regarding to and lack of specific scientific research in aptitude testing for engineers emerged into research acivities in this field.

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