Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

The module will start off by introducing students to German phonetics and some basic issues in German phonology. One aim of the first section of the course is to improve students' pronunciation, another aim is to help them develop a better understanding of the structure of German.

In the second section of the module students will be introduced to some of the major dimensions along which the German language varies and will be helped to develop a better understanding of the role of variation in German, and the relationship between variation and social factors. It will also enhance students' knowledge of linguistics as a science more generally. This module is a prerequisite for GE30420: Language and Society in the German-speaking Countries.

_Section One

1. Phoneme Theory
Phoneme (phonemic transcription), allophone (phonetic transcription), phonetic similarity, distinctive function, commutation, minimal pairs, phoneme inventory, complementary distribution, free variation, conditioned variation.

2. Sound Description
The parts of the vocal tract, places of articulation, manners of articulation, vowel vs. consonant, vowel diagram, three main parameters for consonant description.

3. German Sounds
The consonant system of German: three -label description for each phoneme.
The vowel system of German: the place of each phoneme in a vowel diagram.

4. Connected Speech
Intonation, assimilation, deletion, weak forms.

_Section Two

1. What is German? How do we distinguish languages from dialects?

2. Along what dimensions does German vary (written / spoken; age; social class; geography; formality / informality, etc.)

3. What is register? Register variation in German.

4. Regional variation in German: how is it related to register variation?

5. General tendencies in modern German, e.g. borrowing from Anglo-American.