The Mapping of Foreign Phonemes


When we set up the phoneme inventory for our transcription conventions we tried to include as few non-German phonemes as possible. For a standard transcription we've recommended the use of only 4 foreign phonemes: /T/, /D/, /Z/, dZ/ and the symbol /~/ for the marking of nasalisation.

If for some reason foreign phonemes have to be excluded altogether, the following two charts (one for English, one for French phonemes) can help to choose the appropriate German substitutions. They can, however, also be used as a guideline when including more foreign phonemes.

 ENG  EXAMPLE GER

 
dZ age: [eIdZ] tS also for Italian: Giardino [dZard'i:no]



T thing: [TIN] f



D this: [DIs] f



Z vision: [vIZn] S




L all: [O:L] l in BrE only in the coda, in AmE in all positions



w wet: [wet] v



e when: [wen] E



{ daddy: [d{di] E



Q McDonald's: [m@kdQn@ldz] O



V brother: [brVD@] a



eI take away: [teIk@veI] e:



@U no: [n@U] o: or O



I@ beer:[bI@], serious:[sI@ri@s] i:6 or i:



e@ fair: [fe@] e:6



A: Hugh Grant: [hju:grA:nt] a:



U@ The Cure:[D@kU@], jury:[dZU@ri] U6 or U



3: worst case: [w3:stkeIs] 96 or 2:



 FRE  EXAMPLE GER

 
Z Jacques: [Zak] S



{~ vin: [v{~] E, En or EN



a~ chance: [Sa:~s] an or aN



o~ bon: [bo~] O, On or ON


Sonja Biersack 2003-06-13