Re: USAGE: German phonemically long vowels [was Re: Silent E]

Tom Wier wrote:


>Quoting Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>:
>
>> "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...> writes:
>> > German's orthography is fairly consistently phonemic, but there
>> > are a few exceptions.  Because Standard German does not have
>> > geminate consonants, a pair like "Nachttisch" (nightstand)
>> > and "nachtisch" (nightly) are homophonous, the second <t> in
>> > <Nachttisch> not being pronounced.
>>
>> Well, but these two are not, since the first a is short, the second
>> long:
>>
>>   Nachttisch  [naXtIS]
>>   Nachtisch   [na:XtIS]
>>
>> But your point is still correct.
>
>That's something I've never mastered:  when are the phonemic vowels
>present? The only time I get them right is when they're marked
>orthographihcally:  <Stadt> (city) vs. <Staat> (state).
>
>(Or did I get that wrong too?)
>
This Nachttisch vs. nachtisch has been bothering me.  Are we sure these
words are true homonyms, or do they differ perhaps in accentuation?  It's
hard to come up with a comparable pair in Engl. (and that may be affecting
my feeling), though the classic nitrate vs. night rate seems apt.  Or
"broadband" vs. "broad band".

A Nachttisch (noun-noun) is still a type of Tisch-- wouldn't that get at
least a secondary accent?  Whereas nachtisch would clearly be _main accent -
no accent_.

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