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Consonants

The first reference for the transcription of consonants is again the DUDEN. Special attention has to be paid to the German 'auslautverhärtung' and to the account of the various German r qualities. The term 'auslautverhärtung' refers to the devoicing of voiced fricatives and plosives in the coda. It is a phenomenon that is typical for German and very rare in other languages. As we try to represent the pronunciation of a German native speaker, the 'auslautverhärtung' should also appear in the transcription of foreign words, even if there would not be any 'auslautverhärtung' in the native pronunciation (see also Foreign Words). The DUDEN does not indicate the 'auslautverhärtung' in foreign words.

Example: Abend Q'a:b@nt
  Subkultur s'UpkUltu:6
  BigBrother bIkbr'aD6

NB The various German r qualities must not be represented with any other symbol but /r/. Even though some German pronunciation dictionaries prefer using /R/, this symbol should be strictly avoided here.

A common transcription mistake can be found on syllable borders, when the same consonant occurs in the coda of the first syllable as well as in the onset of the second syllable. Here it is actually necessary to use the same symbol twice.

Example: Autobahnnummern Q'aUtoba:nn''Um6n
  heraussuchen hEr'aUsz''u:x@n

Assimilation processes do not have be taken into consideration when transcribing. The boundary between really common and quite uncommon forms would be too fuzzy, consistency would be hard to guarantee.


next up previous contents
Next page: Reductions Up: Basic Transcription Previous page: Vocalised r   Contents
Sonja Biersack 2003-04-02