Colognian phonology

This article covers the phonology of modern Colognian as spoken in the city of Cologne. Varieties spoken outside of Cologne are only briefly covered where appropriate. Historic precedent versions are not considered.

There are slight pronunciation variations in Colognian which can be considered regional within the city,[1] and some others seemingly more reflecting social status. The phonological impact of either is marginal.[2]

Spelling of Colognian can follow several standards. Pronunciation variations are allowed to show as variant spellings in all of them. Because the spellings of single words may differ widely between systems, listing spellings in examples of phonological nature is not helpful. Thus, only IPA transcriptions are used here in examples.

Colognian is part of the Continental West Germanic dialect continuum. It is a central Ripuarian language. Ripuarian languages are related to Moselle Franconian and Limburgish. Local languages of all three groups are usually not understood at once by Colognian speakers, but comparatively easily learned.

Other languages almost always spoken by Colognian speakers today are the Rhinelandic and Standard varieties of German. Mixed language use is common today, so that in an average speakers awareness, Colognian lexemes are contrasting the two kinds of German ones as well.

Colognian has about 60 base phonemes and some 22 double consonants and diphthongs, depending on analysis.

Consonants

With about 25 phonemes, the Colognian consonant system exhibits an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages. Notable differences with the enveloping German language are the absence of the fricative [ç] and the High German affricate /p͡f/. All Colognian consonants are pulmonic with the obvious exception of the glottal stop /ʔ/ which briefly interrupts the pulmonic air flow.

Consonant phonemes
Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar/
Uvular
Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
voiced d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ ɧ x h
voiced v z ʒ ʝ~j ʁ
Approximant l

The phoneme /ʃ/ has allophonic variations. Positional ones include [j], [ʝ], [ʒ]. Coarticulative variations cover a range from the standard English "light" [ʃ] to strongly velarized and/or pharyngealized versions. The average Colognian [ʃ] is "darker" and often spoken with the lips more protruded than English versions. Since the audible difference may be small despite different articulations, foreigners often confuse it with the phone [ɧ].

Terminal devoicing

Colognian, similar to German, Dutch, and other Franconian and Frankish language varieties, exhibits a phenomenon called terminal devoicing or Auslautverhärtung: in the word-final position, voiced consonant phonemes lose their voicing to become unvoiced. In the absence of liaisons and coarticulations, only the unvoiced, or fortis, variant is pronounced. For example, the words [zik] ('side') and [ˈziɡə] ('sides') have a stem-final /ɡ/. Consequentially, according to the Kölsch Akadamie orthographic rules, they are written as Sigg and Sigge, respectively,[7] while the more phonetic common, and Wrede, spellings write Sick and Sigge, respectively.[8]

Initial voicing

For the phoneme /s/ only, Colognian has initial voicing, quite like German has it. That means, /s/ never appears in word-initial position, only /z/ does. Where an unvoiced or fortis initial would be required, for instance in a word loaned from another language, /t͡s/ is used: [t͡sʊp] ('soup'), from Old French soupe, itself from Old High German supphan;[9] or [ˈt͡sɔtiˑɐ] ('sorting'), from the same word in Old Colognian, which borrowed it before 1581 from Old Italian sortire.[10] Foreign words that are neologisms are usually adopted to Colognian phonotactic rules when pronounced; for instance the English computerese term server appears as [ˈzɜːvɐ] or [ˈzœˑvɐ] in most instances, or even [ˈzɛʁfɐ] among elderly speakers, at least.

Vowels

Colognian has five vowel length qualities.

Colognian vowels Front Near-front Central Near-back Back
Unrounded Rounded U R R U R
(Near-)Close i y ɪ ʏ ʊˑ ʊˑ ɯ u
Close-mid e øː øˑ ø ə ɯ
Open-mid ɛː ɛˑ ɛ œː œˑ œ ɔː ɔˑ ɔ
(Near-)Open ɡ ɐ

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colognian pronunciation.

Notes

  1. Die meisten Kölner sind zweisprachig (Most Colognians are bilingual) – Talk of an unidentified Interviewer with Prof. Dr. Heribert A. Hilgers, in: Universität zu Köln, Mitteilungen 1975 (Communications of the University of Cologne 1975), issue 3/4, pages 19 and 20.
  2. In fact, when researched, it was always proven submarginal. There is little reason to believe something else to be found in remaining fields.
  3. Heike?
  4. Bhatt Tillig Herrwegen
  5. Heike
  6. Single foreign words can be seen as disputed exceptions. Colognian speakers pronounce both [ɧɪˈmiː] [ʃɪˈmiː] for 'chemistry'. Due to coarticulation, the difference is small anyway. The second pronunciation is an adaption to Colognian phonology. Whether the first is only owed to coarticulation, and should not be seen as phonemic, is unknown.
  7. Bhatt-Herrwegen ...
  8. Prof. Adam Wreede: ... vol 3, page 93, left column, ³Sick
  9. Wrede: volume 3, page 327, right column
  10. Wrede: volume 3, page 323, left column, Zortier and zorteere

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.