Vokalqualität im Berndeutschen : Synchrone und diachrone Untersuchungen

Abstract

This thesis investigates how the phonetic system of the Alemannic dialect of the city of Berne can be described, using phonetic and psycholinguistic methods within the theoretical framework of non-linear phonology, with special emphasis on the quality of the high vowels. Variation in the production and perception of monolingual native speakers of two generations was studied. New production and perception data was collected, quantitatively analyzed, and interpreted in a diachronic perspective.In contrast to the German standard language, Bernese vowel quality ("tense vs. lax") cannot be inferred from its position in a syllable structure (open vs. closed syllable). This can be explained by the diachonic development of this dialect from its predecessor Middle high German. In comparison with the standard the dialect has different prosodic main domains (syllable, phrase), which made it robust against certain standardizations. Because of this, the quality contrast in the Bernese high vowels has to be included in the matrix of distintive features. The psycholinguistic part of this study shows that Bernese speakers use the inherent vowel quality in word identification tasks.The distribution of vowel quality in syllables can only be determined in context with the following consonant. The Bernese consonant inventory has a phonetic three-way contrast in the plosives (short, long, and "intermediate-length" consonants) and a phonetic two-way contrast in the fricatives and nasals/liquids (short vs. long consonants). The three-way contrast in the plosives can be phonologically interpreted as a segmental two-way contrast, while the durational difference between singletons and geminates is explained as a prosodic contrast (i.e. between syllable structures).With respect to the sociolinguistically relevant variation between the two generations, LPC analyses of the production data show that the younger generation produces vowel quality with greater variance than speakers from the older generation. Furthermore, syllable-optimizing processes are favored, such as l-vocalization and nd-velarization. However, basic features of the Bernese dialect are preserved, such as short vowels in open syllables. This is consistent with the optimization of the prosodic main domains of the dialect.