German /OY/ (ex: Cloakroom)

-----Original Message-----
From: Tristan McLeay
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 12:40 AM
”Also, backing up the thread slightly, do there exist any Germans who
actually have [Oy] for the phoneme sometimes called /Oy/ and sometimes
called /oi/ ?

As someone who has both as distinct phonemes ([Oy], more commonly written as
/@u\/, is the vowel in "no"; the second target is most definitely front, not
central like u\ suggests) I've never heard a  German person say "eu" in such
a way that it sounds like anything but [oi], nor have I downloaded a
recording of German sounds --- even one trying to demonstrate that "eu" is
/Oy/ --- that makes it sound like anything but [oi] (or [Oi]). Is it
contextual or dialectal or is it just an attempt to say "the phoneme isn't
exactly identical to the English /oi/ as in 'boy', so we'll spell it
differently", without actually using the difference to encode altered
pronunciation.

Tristan."

 

I would rather describe it as [OY]. I don’t think it’s wrong to describe it
as [OI] as well, since a whole range of similar pronunciations can be heard.
Though the second element of the diphthong is never as high as English /oi/.
In German it’s more a case of the lip rounding of [O] being carried over
into [I] making it [Y]. But people perceive the diphthong as /oi/, and spell
it <eu> or <äu> according to the conventions. The Australian /@U/ sounds to
me as though it has a longer/heavier first element that the German
diphthong, which has fairly even weight on both elements, at least in
“Standard” pronunciation (broadcast, stage). The second element is also less
tense in German.

Dan

 

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