Re: Vertical script

Hi!

Philip Newton writes:
> On 9/5/06, Remi Villatel <maxilys@...> wrote:
> > (I estimated your pronunciation of "Carsten" not too far from [kax.St@n]
> > since you used to have a german email.)
>
> I'd pronounce it roughly [ka:.stn=]; German /ar/ for me is [a:],
Exactly the same here (an aspirated [k_h] that is, I assume).

> and |st| here is [st] for me, though I couldn't say what rule it is
> that makes it [st] rather than [St]. (I also have [sp] in |Respekt|,
> though I had a German teacher in primary school who had [Sp]
> there...)
Hehe! :-)

I think the rule for Standard High German is that [St] and [Sp] occur
for initial |st| in stems only.  Medial and final |st| is [st].

Many dialects have a much broader usage of [St] and [Sp], sometimes
even universal, and it often spreads to the variety of High German in
such areas.

[x] or more likely [X] for /r/ is not too common, especially after
vowels, but it does occur.  In Aachen this happens, but it may be
constrained by the vowel quantity, i.e., only after short vowels.
Since I have a very hard time knowing what quantity vowels have in
Standard High German in front of /r/, I don't know whether |Carsten|
has a long or short vowel, but my wife says it's short. :-)

I don't know any dialect that has both medial [St] and [X] for /r/
after vowel.  Also, -|en| is almost universally -[n=] or in the worst
case, -[@] in case the dialect drops n.

HTH

**Henrik

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