German
In the southern varieties of German, the contrast between homorganic obstruents is rather an opposition of fortis and lenis than an opposition of voiceless and voiced sounds. Therefore, the term devoicing may be misleading, since voice is only an optional feature of German lenis obstruents. Likewise, the German term for the phenomenon, Auslautverhärtung, does not refer to a loss of voice and is better translated as 'final hardening'. However, the German phenomenon is similar to the final devoicing in other languages in that the opposition between two different kinds of obstruents disappears at the ends of words. The German varieties of the north, and many pronunciations of Standard German, do distinguish voiced and voiceless obstruents however.
Some examples from German include:
| Nouns | Verbs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Translation | Plural | Imperative | Translation | Infinitive |
| Bad | bath | Bäder | red! | talk! | reden |
| Maus | mouse | Mäuse | lies! | read! | lesen |
| Raub | robbery | Raube | reib! | rub! | reiben |
| Zug | train | Züge | sag! | say! | sagen |
| Fünf | five | Fünfen | |||
Read more about this topic: Final-obstruent Devoicing
Famous quotes containing the word german:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“The German Reich is a Republic, and whoever doesn’t believe it gets one in the neck.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)