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Suprasegmentals in German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Elmer H. Antonsen
Elmer H. Antonsen*
Affiliation:
University of Iowa
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Extract

In phonemic representations of German utterances, it is common practice to follow the system proposed by Trager and Smith (1951) for designating the so-called suprasegmental phonemes in English. According to this system, there are four phonemic stresses and four distinctive pitch levels. It is considered essential to mark the pitch level at the beginning and end of every utterance (phonemic clause), while an additional pitch indicator is called for when there is a ‘significant’ pitch change within the utterance. Moulton, to whom we owe most for our knowledge of the phonemic structure of German, modifies this system somewhat (1962:113–4) by recognizing only three ‘word stresses’ and a ‘syntactical stress’, which is used to mark the commonly accepted ‘center of the utterance’, i.e. the syllable with the strongest phonetic stress. The inadequacies of the Trager-Smith system and its modification by Moulton are perhaps best illustrated by the difficulty of obtaining uniform analyses of a given utterance, even by auditors trained in the use of the system.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 42 , Issue 3-Part1 , September 1966 , pp. 587 - 601
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 by Linguistic Society of America

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