Bernese German phonology

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Bernese German phonology describes the phonology of Bernese German, the dialect spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) portion of the canton of Bern.

Contents 1 Vowels 1.1 Monophthongs 1.2 Vowel length 1.3 Diphthongs 2 Consonants 2.1 Consonant length 2.2 Vocalization of /l/ 2.3 Velarization of /nt/ 2.4 Reduction of /ŋk͡x/ 3 Stress 4 Literature

[edit] Vowels

[edit] Monophthongs

	front		central	back
	unrounded	rounded
close	i	y		u
near-open	ɪ̞	ʏ̞		ʊ̞
mid			ə
open-mid	ɛ̝	œ̝		ɔ̝
open	æ̞		a

The vowel /ə/ occurs only in weak unstressed syllables.

In northern Bernese German, /a/ is rounded to /ɒ/ or even merged with /ɔ̝/.

[edit] Vowel length

There is a distinctive length opposition in all vowels except /ə/. Unlike in standard German, there is no interdependence of vowel length and vowel quantity.

[edit] Diphthongs

Bernese German has seven diphthong phonemes:

• Three closing diphthongs: /ɛ̝i̯ œ̝i̯ ɔ̝u̯/
• Three opening diphthongs: /iə̯ yə̯ uə̯/
• One long diphthong: /aːu̯/

The number of phonetic diphthongs and triphthongs is significantly higher, since all monophthongs (except for short /i y u ə/) and all opening diphthongs may be followed by a [w] (from vocalized /l/), for instance /ˈʃtalː/ → [ˈʃtawː] 'stable', /ˈʃtaːl/ → [ˈʃtaːw] 'steel', /ˈkfyə̯l/ → [ˈkfyə̯w] 'feeling'.

Additionally, there are certain combinations with /j/, for instance /ˈmyə̯j/ 'toil' or /ˈtræ̞ːjtː/ 'turns' (from /ˈtræːjə/ 'to turn').

In southern Bernese German (not in the city of Bern), there are no closing diphthongs, but /ɪ̞ː ʏ̞ː ʊ̞ː/ instead, for instance /ˈxlɪ̞ːt/ instead of /ˈxlɛ̞i̯t/ 'cloth'.

In northern Bernese German, a following [w] triggers rounding of the preceding vowel, for instance [ʋʏ̞w] instead of [ʋɪ̞w] 'because'.

[edit] Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Fortis-Plosive	p		t			k
Lenis-Plosive	b̥		d̥			g̊
Affricates		p͡f	t͡s	t͡ʃ		k͡x
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ		x	h
Approximant	w	ʋ			j
Rhotic			r
Lateral			l

In the old upper-class dialect of the patricians, /ʀ/ is used instead of /r/.

[edit] Consonant length

Like in other Alemannic dialects, there is a length opposition in all the obstruents (plosives, nasals and fricatives) except /ŋ h/ if the obstruents is surrounded by voiced sounds. If there is another adjacent voiceless sound (except /h/), then the opposition is neutralized. Likewise, there is no length opposition in the affricates since they consist of two adjacent voiceless sounds.

In northern dialects, there are no long consonants at the beginning of a word, whereas in the other dialects, long plosives can occur—like in other Alemannic dialects—at the beginning of a word, for instance [ˈpaxːə] 'to bake' vs. [ˈpːaxːə] 'baked (past participle)' (though in order for this opposition not to be neutralized, there must be a preceding voiced sound, for instance /tas hei si paxːə ʋœlːə/ 'they wanted to bake this' vs. /tas hei si pːaxːə ʋœlːə/ 'they wanted to have this baked').

Like in other Alemannic dialects, but unlike other Germanic languages, there is no interdependence of the length of a consonant with the length of the preceding vowel:

	short /a/	long /aː/
short /f/	/ˈhafə/ 'bowl'	/ti ˈpraːfə/ 'the honest ones'
long /fː/	/ˈafːə/ 'apes'	/ˈʃlaːfːə/ 'to sleep'

[edit] Vocalization of /l/

Long /lː/ is pronounced [wː], for instance /ˈpalːə/ → [ˈpawːə] 'ball'; /l/ at the end of a syllable [w], for instance /ˈxaltː/ → [xawtː] 'cold'.

This feature is absent in the old upper-class dialect of the patricians.

[edit] Velarization of /nt/

/nt/ is pronounced as [ŋː], for instance /hʊ̝nt/ → [hʊ̝ŋː] 'dog'.

This feature is absent in the old upper-class dialect of the patricians.

In the southwestern dialects of the Schwarzenburg area, it is pronounced [nː].

[edit] Reduction of /ŋk͡x/

In the western and southern dialects (not in the city of Bern), /ŋk͡x/ is pronounced [jx], for instance /ˈtæŋk͡xə/ → [ˈtæjxə] 'to think'.

[edit] Stress

In native word, the word stem is stressed, except verbs with a separable prefix where that prefix is stressed.

In loan words, there is—in comparison to standard German—a preference of initial stress, for instance Bernese German /ˈkːasinɔ̝/ 'casino' vs. standard German /kʰaˈziːno/.

[edit] Literature

• Werner Marti (1985): Berndeusch-Grammatik, Bern: Francke. ISBN 3-7720-1587-5