Voicing and aspiration

Unlike Standard German, Upper Saxon lacks a voicing contrast. Underlyingly, obstruents are voiceless and sonorants are voiced (BeckerReference Becker1942: 104, 127–128; BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 43, 1987: 18, 1990: 309–310; ZimmermannReference Zimmermann1992: 102–107; Rues et al.Reference Rues, Redecker, Koch, Wallraff and Simpson2007: 94; KleberReference Kleber2011). Unaspirated stops /p tk/ can be partially or fully voiced [b d ɡ] between sonorants, as inFigure 1 andFigure 3 below; word-finally, they can vary widely from fully voiced stops to voiceless aspirated stops [pʰtʰkʰ], as inFigure 2, but are most commonly realized as voiceless unaspirated stops (BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 43; AlbrechtReference Albrecht1983: 11), as inFigure 3. The sole aspiration distinction /kʰk/ is restricted to initial position (BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 43), e.g. /ˈkʰʌsə/Kasse ‘cash register’ vs. /ˈkʌsə/Gasse ‘lane’ above. Neighboring varieties of Central and Upper German are also described as having a similar lack of a contrast in either voicing or aspiration (i.e. fortis vs. lenis) outside of velars, e.g. Thuringian (SpangenbergReference Spangenberg1990: 270), East Franconian (RowleyReference Rowley1990: 400), and Swabian (HillerReference Hiller1995: 34–35).

Footnote¹

Figure 1 Spectrogram of the phrase /tiː ˈɵːmɪʃ ˈtɛmpn/die römischen Tempeln ‘the Roman temples’, showing full voicing of /t p/ inTempeln /ˈtɛmpn/ (Standard GermanTempel /ˈtɛmp/).

Figure 2 Spectrogram of the phrase /ən ˈɵːtəs tleːt/ein rotes Kleid ‘a red dress’, showing full voicing of /t/ in /ˈɵːtəs/rotes ‘red’ and aspiration of the final /t/ in /tleːt/Kleid ‘dress’, as well as the coronal articulation of the pre-lateral consonant.

Figure 3 Spectrogram of the phrase /hʌst tʉː ˈʋʌˁːkləʃɛʃt/hast du wirklich Recht ‘(do you think) you're really right?’, showing full voicing of /k/ in /ˈʋʌˁːkləʃ/wirklich ‘really’ and retraction of the final /t/ in /ɛʃt/Recht ‘right’ due to the preceding /ʃ/.

Fricatives /f s ʃ χ/ can be partially or fully voiced [v z ʒ ʁ] between sonorants, but remain largely voiceless elsewhere. Fricatives /χh/ occur in complementary distribution: /h/ occurs as the onset of stressed syllables and word-initially while /χ/ occurs elsewhere.

Due to the lack of a voicing contrast, Upper Saxon has many homophone pairs whose Standard German cognates form minimal pairs, as illustrated in the list below. The only vestige of a voicing distinction in Upper Saxon is the aspiration contrast /kʰk/, which often corresponds to /k ɡ/ in Standard German; however, there are instances of Upper Saxon ‘lenis’ /k/ corresponding to Standard German ‘fortis’ /k/ instead of to ‘lenis’ /ɡ/, e.g. Upper Saxon /koˁːp/Korb ‘basket’ and Standard German /kɔ

p/ ([kʰɔ

p]). Like most varieties of German, Upper Saxon exhibits only voiceless obstruents word-finally; in Standard German, this is due to final devoicing (BrockhausReference Brockhaus1995), while in Upper Saxon, this is due to the lack of a voicing contrast to begin with.

Clusters

Neither voicing nor aspiration is contrastive in clusters (BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 110), even in the velar place of articulation, producing homophones where Standard German has (near-) minimal pairs of voicing as in the examples below. In initial clusters with /l/, stops /t k/ do not contrast and can vary freely, e.g. /klʌːs/~/tlʌːs/Glas ‘glass’ (GoepfertReference Goepfert1878: 25; SieversReference Sievers1885: 160; BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 110; Blevins & GrawunderReference Blevins and Grawunder2009); the /tl/ variant is a salient marker of Chemnitz speakers (Wallner-ZimmerReference Wallner-Zimmer1999; Blevins & GrawunderReference Blevins and Grawunder2009: 271–272), although it is widespread throughout eastern variants of Central German and Upper German.Footnote² InFigure 2, the spectrogram of the phrase /ən ˈ

ɵːtəs tleːt/ein rotes Kleid ‘a red dress’ reveals a high-frequency (~5 kHz) concentration of burst energy in the onset of /tleːt/Kleid ‘dress’, indicating a coronal articulation. Final /ʃ/, including the suffixes spelled-ig/-ich/-isch (e.g. /hɔˁː-ʃ/haarig ‘hairy’), can create clusters not found in Standard German, e.g. /ɛsʃ/Essig ‘vinegar’, /sɛks-ʃ/Sächsisch ‘Saxon’, and /sɞnst-ʃ/sonstig ‘other’ (BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 115; AlbrechtReference Albrecht1983: 19; GillesReference Gilles2005: 70).

Rhotic

As in Standard German (KohlerReference Kohler1999: 87–88), the rhotic // occurs only in onsets. In Upper Saxon, it freely varies between a voiced approximant [], a voiced fricative [ʁ], a devoiced fricative [] or trill [], and a voiceless unaspirated uvular stop [q], e.g. /ɞk/ [ɔkʰ]Rock ‘skirt’, /ɵm/ [m]~[m]Rum ‘rum’, and /a/ [a]~[qa]rau ‘rough’. What was historically its coda counterpart only surfaces in Upper Saxon as pharyngealization on the preceding vowel, e.g. /ˈmaˁːəə ˈlɞtə/mehrere Leute ‘more people’ vs. /ɪʃkeːnɪʃmaˁːtsʉː ˈʃʉːlə/ich gehe nichtmehr zu Schule ‘I don't go to school anymore’; in other German varieties known to exhibit pharyngealization, such as Swabian, the coda rhotic is treated as either a pharyngeal approximant [] or pharyngealization on the preceding vowel [ˁ] (FreyReference Frey1975: 15–16; HillerReference Hiller1995: 35; Rues et al.Reference Rues, Redecker, Koch, Wallraff and Simpson2007: 95–98), but consistently as a surface realization of an underlying consonant //. See section ‘Vowels and diphthongs’ below for details of pharyngealization.

Syllabic consonants

As in other colloquial varieties of German, final nasals and laterals can be produced as syllabic // following a stop or fricative (AlbrechtReference Albrecht1983: 19), e.g. /ˈɔˁːpat/arbeiten ‘to work’, /ˈmʌnt/Mantel ‘cloak’. Syllabic nasals share the same place of articulation as the preceding consonant, e.g. /ˈhɛlf/helfen ‘to help’, /ˈtɵk/ducken ‘to duck’, and /ˈmʌχ/ [ˈmχ]machen ‘to make’. Due to this obligatory assimilation, syllabic nasals can be considered underlyingly underspecified for place. When the syllabic nasal is preceded by another nasal, the two are produced as a single consonant, sometimes with lengthening (BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 102), e.g. /kəˈkɞm/gekommen ‘come’, /kəˈʋɞn/gewonnen ‘won’, and /kəˈkʌŋ/gegangen ‘gone’. When the vowel before the two final consonants is long, it is common for the oral consonant to be deleted, e.g. /ˈpɛːp/beben ‘to shake’ pronounced [pɛːm]. Similar phenomena are also described in colloquial Standard German (LemkeReference Lemke and Jonach1998; Rues et al.Reference Rues, Redecker, Koch, Wallraff and Simpson2007: 72).

Glottal stop

As in Standard German (KohlerReference Kohler1999: 86; Rues et al.Reference Rues, Redecker, Koch, Wallraff and Simpson2007: 37), a glottal stop [ʔ] is typically inserted before stressed onset-less vowels both within words, e.g. /teːˈʌːtoˁ/ [teːˈʔɔˁːtoˁ]Theater ‘theater’, /foˁːˈaˁːtskəpʌˁːʃ/ [foˁːˈʔɛːˁtskəpɪːˁʃ]Vorerzgebirgisch, and word-initially regardless of stress, e.g. /ʌm ɵːmt ʋʌˁːt ˈɵːmpɵːt kəˈkɛs/ [ʔʌm ʔɵːmt ʋʌˁːt ˈʔɵːmbɵːt kəˈkɛz]Am Abend wird Abendbrot gegessen ‘Supper is eaten in the evening’.

Sibilants

Due to various mergers, Upper Saxon /ʃ/ can correspond to Standard German /k ɡ ʃ ç/, e.g. /ʋaˁːʃ/Werk ‘work’, /tsʋaˁːʃ/Zwerg ‘dwarf’, /tɪʃ/Tisch ‘table’, and /tɪʃ/dich ‘you’, cf. Standard German /vɛk/, /tsvɛk/ (underlyingly final /ɡ/, cf. plural /tsvɛɡ-ə/Zwerge), /tɪʃ/, and /dɪç/ (SpangenbergReference Spangenberg1990: 274). Its retracted articulation carries over into a following /t/, audible in words such as /ʋʊˁːʃt/ [ʋʊˁʃt]Wurst ‘sausage’. InFigure 3, the spectrogram of the word /ɛʃt/Recht ‘right’ reveals the lower-frequency burst energy (< 3 kHz) of the /t/ following /ʃ/.

Anticipatory pharyngealization and retraction

Vowels are allophonically pharyngealized when the vowel in the following syllable is underlyingly pharyngealized /aˁː ʌˁː ʊˁːoˁoˁː ɔˁː/; Rues et al. (2007: 97–98) transcribes the Dresden variety with pharyngealization spreading in both directions onto consonants and vowels alike (e.g. [fʊˁlˁ

ˁnˁ]verloren ‘lost’, [

ˁd

ˁ]worden ‘been’, [

ˁ

ˁ

ˁd┐]Sport ‘sports’). In a separate but superficially similar process, vowels are somewhat retracted when followed by dorsals /k kʰ ŋ χ

/, with strongest retraction preceding uvulars. Contrastive pharyngealization, allophonic pharyngealization, and allophonic retraction are illustrated in the list below. Some retraction is also seen in vowels following dorsal consonants (e.g. /nʉː/ [nʉː]nun ‘now’ vs. /kʰʉː/ [kʰ

ː]Kuh ‘cow’), with the strongest such retraction seen following /

/ (e.g. /

ʉːm/ [

uːm]Ruhm ‘glory’).

Front rounded vowels

As is also reported in other Central German varieties such as those of Berlin (PetersReference Peters2004: 209) and Thuringia (SpangenbergReference Spangenberg1990: 270), as well as in Upper German varieties (Chambers & TrudgillReference Chambers and Trudgill1998: 168) such as Swabian (FreyReference Frey1975: 47; RussReference Russ1990a: 346–347; HillerReference Hiller1995: 36–40), the Upper Saxon counterparts of Standard German front rounded vowels /yː øː ʏ œ/ historically merged with the unrounded vowels /iː eː ɪ ɛ/, e.g. /ˈfeːʃ/Vögel ‘birds’, /ˈkiːə/Kühe ‘cows’, cf. Standard German /ˈføːɡ/, /ˈkyːə/ (BergmannReference Bergmann1965: 57–64, 1990: 309; AlbrechtReference Albrecht1983: 7–8; ZimmermannReference Zimmermann1992: 103–104; Rues et al.Reference Rues, Redecker, Koch, Wallraff and Simpson2007: 93). However, Upper Saxon speakers fluent in Standard German occasionally produce front rounded /yː ʏ øː œ/ in cognates of particular Standard German words, e.g. /ˈpyːtoˁ/~/ˈpiːtoˁ/Brüder ‘brothers’, contrasting them with central rounded vowels /ʉː ɵ ɵː ɞ/, e.g. /ˈløːf/Löwen ‘lions’ vs. /ˈlɵːf/laufen ‘to walk’, /tʏn/dünn ‘thin’ vs. /ˈtɵns/Dunsel ‘idiot’, cf. Standard German /ˈbʁyːdɐ/, /ˈløːv/, /ˈlaf/, /dʏn/, /ˈdʊnz/.

Broad transcription

ˈeːnəs ˈtʌːχəs hʌmʃtoˁ ˈnoˁːtʋɪnt ɵnt tə ˈsɞnəkəˈtsʌŋt, ʋaˁːfɞn ˈpeːttɛn nʉːtoˁ ˈʃtaˁːkə ɪs, ɛls ə ˈʋʌntoˁmɪt nəm ˈʋɔˁːmən ˈmʌnt ʌn foˁˈpeːkʰʌːm.toˁ ˈnoˁːtʋɪnt ɵnt tə ˈsɞnə ʋɔˁːnʃanʃtʌs toˁ ˈʃtaˁːkəfɞn ˈpeːttɛn ˈmʌntfɞm ˈʋʌntoˁ ˈkiːʃsɞl.toˁ ˈnoˁːtʋɪnt ˈpʉːstətə ʋʌs tʌs tsɞʃhiːlt ˈʌːpoˁjəmaˁːaˁː ˈpʉːstətə ɵm sɵːmaˁːfoˁˈkiːʃtəsɪʃtoˁ ˈʋʌntoˁ ɪn ˈsan ˈmʌnt.toˁ ˈnoˁːtʋɪnt kʌːp ɞf.tʌn hʌts tə ˈsɞnə ɵːχfoˁˈsʉːχt mɪt ʌˁːn ˈʋɔˁːm ˈsɞnʃtɔˁːln. ɵnt ɪm nʉː ʃmɪs toˁ ˈʋʌntoˁ ˈsan ˈmʌnt ʋɛʃ.tɔˁː ˈmɵstətoˁ ˈnoˁːtʋɪnt ˈtsʉːkɛːptʌs tə ˈsɞnətoˁ ˈʃtaˁːkəfɞn ˈpeːt ɪs.

Orthographic version (Standard German)

Eines Tages haben sich der Nordwind und die Sonne gezankt, wer von den beiden denn nun der Stärkere ist, als ein Wanderer mit einem warmen Mantel an, vorbeikam. Der Nordwind und die Sonne waren sich einig, dass der Stärkere von den beiden den Mantel vom Wanderer kriegen soll. Der Nordwind pustete was das Zeug hielt, aber je mehr er pustete, um so mehr verkriechte sich der Wanderer in seinen Mantel. Der Nordwind gab auf. Dann hat es die Sonne auch versucht mit ihren warmen Sonnenstrahlen. Und im Nu schmiss der Wanderer seinen Mantel weg. Da musste der Nordwind zugeben, dass die Sonne die Stärkere von den beiden ist.

English translation

One day the North Wind and the Sun were disputing which of the two is the stronger, when a traveler came along in a warm cloak. The North Wind and the Sun agreed that the stronger of the two should take away the cloak from the traveler. The North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew, the more the traveler held onto his cloak. The North Wind gave up. Then the Sun tried it with her warm rays. And in an instant the traveler took off his cloak. Thus the North Wind had to concede that the Sun is the stronger of the two.