Re: How to Make Chicken Cacciatore (was: phonetics by guesswork)

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 09:22:46 -0400, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:

>On Sun, Jul 25, 2004 at 08:13:04PM +0200, Philip Newton wrote:
>> Pronouncing |Räder| and |Reeder| the same (both with [e:]) is common
>> in Germany, at least in northern Germany where I live. However, this
>> pronunciation is not considered standard; prescriptively, |Räder| has
>> [E:] and |Reeder| has [e:]. (And |Redder| has [E].)
>
>So both quality and quantity are phonemically significant?
Yes, at least in some varieties of standard German, but traditionally, the
length opposition isn't analysed anywhere but in the case of the e-sounds,
e.g. /Se:l@ - SE:l@ - SEl@/ |scheele - schäle - Schelle| ('sinister' pl.
det., 'to peel' 1. sing., 'bell'). However, I think that the difference
between /rIt - re:t/ can as well be described as a difference in length,
not in quality and the same with the front rounded and the back rounded
vowels, so that the standard German vowel system were as follows (bracketed
vowels aren't but allophones):

i: (i)  y: (y)  u: (u)
I:  I   Y:  Y   U:  U
E:  E       9       O

           a:  a

As a speaker of Swiss German, I may have a preference for the length
contrast. Many describe the system in terms of a 'smooth cut' vs. 'sharp
cut' contrast (which is about the same as free-checked), often leaving away
the /E:/:

smooth cut: i ü u
            e ö o
           (E)
               a

sharp cut: i ü u
           e ö o
              a

g_0ry@_^s:
j. 'mach' wust

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