well adapted for American schools because they represent strictly European English pronunciation. For the teacher of German, the following sound table (from which [Y, R, 3, F, v] and the signs for wide vowels have been omitted) may be found practical:

CHAPTER III

Synthesis of German Sounds

51. Phonetic Basis and Phonetic Tendency. The habitual ways of producing and combining speech sounds constitute a group of habits for each language which is generally called its basis of articulation, or its organic or phonetic basis. Even by people without any phonetic training, it is felt as the dominant note of a language, impressing upon it its peculiar stamp: the clean-cut delicacy of French, the ever-youthful strength of German, the self-restrained calmness of English, the 'insinuating charm'1 (Jespersen) of Russian. This can be understood only when we realize that the individual habits of sound production and combination harmonize with each other in their typical characteristics to such an extent that they yield, as it were, an acoustic unit - one chord composed of many single elements.

Within certain limits, this acoustic dominant of a language is a permanent quality pervading its whole life and governing its historical changes. As such, the sum of these habits of articulation may be called the phonetic tendency of a language. The phonetic basis is the static, descriptive aspect of the acoustic character of a language, the phonetic tendency its dynamic, historical aspect.

The phonetic tendency (or, tendencies) of German will be discussed in the historical part of this book.

52. The Phonetic Basis of the German Language is characterized by an inclination towards extremes in re

1 Jespersen, Growth and Structure of the English Language, p. 3.

gard to expiration, muscle tension and, in a measure, the place of articulation. The great contrasts in the strength of expiration and the tension of the vocal chords (see 56) cause sharp distinctions between accented and unaccented syllables — somewhat more so than in English, and much more so than in the Romance and Slavic languages. For related reasons, the difference between long and short vowels is greater than in most other languages. The tongue and the lips articulate much more energetically than in English. The muscles of the tongue are, in general, inclined to be tense, a fact which largely prevents the rill formation so common in Romance and Slavic tongues (cf. Lat. natio>French nation=[naιtjo:>nasjɔ̃:]). The energetic expiration makes the language rather averse to a distinct voicing of consonants.

Similar contrasts, although to a minor extent, appear in regard to the places of articulation. While the dentals are formed far in front (tho they are not as strictly 'dentals' as in French), [x, y] are formed far back in the mouth. The vowels differ from each other more distinctly than in English, the distances being greater both between high and low vowels (wider jaw angle) and between front

and back vowels.

The practical needs of German instruction necessitate an insistence on the following elements of the German phonetic basis:

(1) The fronting of dentals, (2) great contrasts between vowels in regard to quantity, quality and accent, (3) tenseness of the tongue, especially in the pronunciation of [c] and [x], (4) energetic lip-rounding in the production of the sounds [u, y, o, ø].

At least during the first year of the German course, each recitation should begin with a 'gymnastic drill' in phonetics in order to produce the German phonetic basis,

This drill lasting not more than one or two minutes - should be suggested by such commands as 'Zunge an die Zähne,' 'Vokal-Dreieck,' 'ich und ach,' 'Lippen rund' and practised by a small number of suitable instances.

53. Assimilation is the influence that neighboring sounds exert upon each other. It is common in all languages, but apparently less so in German than in most others.

Lip articulations have little, if any, influence on surrounding vowels in German. Possibly, they sometimes cause a rounding of front vowels in words like schwören, zwölf, for older sweren, zwelf, but it is more likely that this vowel change is primarily due to the tongue position (see below). As to the change of n to m, see velum articulations, below.

Tongue articulations seldom cause vowel assimilations except in the case of r: the necessity of considerable free space for the trilling of the tongue tip is apt to lower high and mid vowels: mir, wer, Ohr=[miir, veir, Por]. It is not necessary to indicate this assimilation in phonetic spelling. Consonants, too, are but little influenced by the tongue articulation of surrounding sounds; the most noteworthy case is the difference between [c] and [x], [c] being the historical development, by assimilation, of [x] after front vowels (see 29); the same assimilation, of course, is found in the pronunciation of the corresponding voiced spirants [j, y] in words like [lijən, la:yən], while the stops [k, g] are much less subject to assimilation (32).

The rounded front vowels in such words as Löffel, schwören, zwölf, lügen, where the older language had unrounded vowels (II, 39, 3), are probably due in the first place to the elevation of the back of the tongue in the (older) pronunciation of 7, w, which brought about the

rounding of the lips habitually connected with that articulation (41).

[s] before [S] is generally assimilated, at least in colloquial pronunciation: ausschließen, 'rausschmeißen, Hausschlüssel=[Pausliısṇ, rausmaesņ, hauslys!].

Lowering of the velum is frequently, in colloquial speech even regularly, transferred to the preceding (in English also to the following) vowel, 'nasalizing' it (6): hin, kann, ohne, gähnen=[hiın, kãn, ?õinə, gêinən] (but gehen, with elision of the unaccented e appearing in NHG. spelling, usually = [gen], without nasalization). The stage pronunciation forbids such nasalization, but this standard can hardly be observed consistently, although it is certainly worth while for the teacher to counteract the tendency towards nasalization, which is especially strong with American students.

Nasalization is due to an inaccurate synchronizing of the articulations of the velum and the tongue, the lowering of the velum usually lasting longer than an exact articulation of the individual sounds would require. On the other hand, the nasal consonants are especially apt to adopt the tongue or lip articulations of surrounding consonants. Therefore, [g] after and before [n] becomes [n], as in [lan] (standardized pronunciation) and [len] (colloquial pronunciation), and [b] after and before [m] is changed to [m], as in [lam], from older [lamb], and colloquial [lem, sim] as the final result of a transition from [leiben, sibǝn] to [leibm, si:bm]. The change of the place of articulation in the case of nasals is shown by the latter instances, and by words like legen, merken, Ankunft= [len, merkη, Paŋkumft]; in many words we find mutual assimilation, as in [lem, lan], where the oral sound is nasalized, while the nasal sound changes its place of articulation. Explain [Pampman, netbmbai, ?empfaŋən].