MATURAPAPER

Differences in the Pronunciation of English in Switzerland

The differences in the pronunciation of English by non-native speakers in different cantons and its possible connection to their native dialect
Submitted by: Lukas Tribelhorn, 4bW Supervised by: Michael Bhler 06.12.2013

Kantonsschule Wil

Table of Contents
Preface 1. 2. 3. 3.1. 4. 4.1. 4.2. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Aims of this Paper ........................................................................................................................... 1 Phonetics and Phonology ................................................................................................................ 2 The International Phonetic Alphabet .......................................................................................... 2 Dialectology ..................................................................................................................................... 3 What is a language, what is a dialect and what is an accent ...................................................... 3 Received Pronunciation .............................................................................................................. 4 4.2.1. 4.2.2. 4.3. Vowels ............................................................................................................................ 5 Consonants ..................................................................................................................... 6

Different dialects of Swiss German ............................................................................................. 6 4.3.1. 4.3.2. 4.3.3. Basel German ................................................................................................................. 6 Grisons German.............................................................................................................. 7 Zurich German ................................................................................................................ 7

4.4. 5. 6. 6.1. 6.2. 6.3. 7. 7.1. 7.2.

The International Dialects of English Archive ............................................................................. 9 Method .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Results............................................................................................................................................ 12 Basel .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Chur ........................................................................................................................................... 15 Zurich......................................................................................................................................... 18 Discussion of the Results............................................................................................................... 21 Different pronunciations appearing in the results.................................................................... 21 Possible causes for the differences in pronunciation in the recordings from Zurich ............... 30 7.2.1. 7.2.2. Substitution of non-existent vowels and consonants .................................................. 30 Missing knowledge or concentration ........................................................................... 31

8.

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 33

Bibliography........................................................................................................................................... 34 Appendix Field Recording Guide ........................................................................................................... I Declaration of Authenticity.................................................................................................................... IV

Preface Nearly four years ago, when I had to fill out the registration form for the Kantonsschule, I decided pretty soon that I wanted to be in a bilingual class. I saw this as a big chance and I looked forward to it, as I liked the English language and was excited to have my first lessons totally in English. Approaching the end of my years at the Kantonsschule Wil, I finally had to start thinking about what I want to study later. Not surprisingly I thought about studying English together with a second subject. Yet, this will maybe not be my final choice. In search of a topic for my matura paper, I went through all my interests, passions and hobbies and thought of doing something linguistic as this would also be a big help to distinguish what I want to study later. As I wanted to write a paper with a practical part, I soon thought of the idea to compare the differences in the pronunciation of people from different cantons and to find a connection to their native dialect. During the work on this paper the topic changed slightly, yet it still gave me a very good insight into phonetic work, which will definitely help me chose the subject I want to study later. I want to thank multiple persons for their contribution to this paper. First I want to thank my supervisor Mr. Bhler, who helped me with all my questions, provided me with some very good books as resource for the phonetic work and was a very helpful and supporting supervisor. Then I would especially like to thank Ms. Petra Stadler from the Kantonsschule Kirschgarten in Basel, Ms. Franziska Jaeger from the Bndner Kantonsschule in Chur and Mr. Ralph Kilchenmann from the Kantonsschule Hottingen in Zurich, together with their students who gave me their time and the possibility to record them. Without them I would have no recordings to analyse and compare. I would also like to thank Mr. Paul Meier, the Founder and Director of the International Dialects of English Archive, who helped me with my questions concerning phonetic transcription and who provided a complete phonetic transcription of an RP recording which helped me a lot during the analysis of my recordings. Last but not least I would like to thank Mr. Reto Linder, Ms. Patricia Tribelhorn, Ms. Avril Graham, my mother and my brother, who did a great job as proofreaders, for the time they invested into this paper.

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1. Introduction From daily life we know that every person pronounces a word a little differently. Sometimes we talk about an accent or a dialect in this context. What is the difference and is there one? Especially when speaking foreign languages, people say that we have a strong accent. Could this accent be influenced by the native language or dialect? For this project, several people from different cantons of Switzerland have been given the same text to read, then the recordings have been translated into phonetic language and analysed in order to be compared. The results from the recordings from Zurich have then been compared to their native dialect and a connection between these has been sought. This research will focus on students, who are born and grew up in either the canton of Zurich, Basel or Grisons. These three cantons have been chosen because they promised the best chance to get valuable recordings as they speak three fairly different dialects, with a different pronunciation each, which should provide very good resources for analysing and comparing. 2. Aims of this Paper The aims of this paper are to find and present differences and similarities between the pronunciations of English of students from three different cantons of Switzerland. Furthermore for the recordings from Zurich it is also an aim to investigate if there could possibly be a connection to the native dialect of a person and if more detailed researches about this topic would be worthwhile.

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3. Phonetics and Phonology As this paper is about phonetics, a definition of phonetics as well as of phonology is needed to understand the following topics. Therefore this chapter will present some relevant aspects of phonetics and phonology and the connection between these. Phonetics, as well as phonology, is a very important branch of linguistics. It describes the sounds of human speech, or alternatively in sign language, the corresponding aspects of sign. Specifically, it is articulatory phonetics which deals with how speech sounds are made using the articulatory and vocal tract, auditory phonetics which describes how they are perceived by the listener and acoustic phonetics which deals with the physics involved during the transmission form the speaker to the listener. So phonetics is the same for every language which can be spoken as well as for all sign languages (Davenport und Hannahs 2-3). Phonology, on the other hand, deals with how these speech sounds are systematically organised into abstract systems of sounds for the individual varieties; for example how they can be combined and how they affect each other. It also studies the relationships between the sounds within a language or between different languages and the prosodic features, as for example pitch, loudness, tempo and rhythm (Davenport und Hannahs 2-3); (Wikimedia Foundation par. 1-2). A distinction which will be important for the following chapters is the one between phonemes and allophones. A phoneme is a distinctive structural element in the sound system of a language. (Finegan 109) Allophones, however, are variants of a single structural element in the sound system of a language . (Finegan 109) For example [ph] is an allophone of the phoneme /p/. So if a different allophone is used in a word, the meaning is still the same. Yet it may sound strange to a listener. If, however, the phoneme gets displaced by a different phoneme, the meaning of the word will, in most cases, be different. 3.1. The International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Association is the oldest, as well as the most influential organisation for phoneticians. It was founded in Paris in 1886 and published the first version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which was for the first time uniformly usable for all languages, in 1888. After several revisions in 1900, 1932, 1989, 1993 and the last in 2005 the IPA was finally completed in the form it has today. Today the IPA consists of 107 letters, 52 diacritics and four prosodic marks. Diacritics are marks which are added to the letters to show a certain

Lukas Tribelhorn 3

alteration or small difference in pronunciation, as for example the higher case h /h/ which shows an aspiration. The IPA is currently the most common alphabet used for any kind of phonetic work (Wikimedia Foundation). The phonetic transcriptions for this paper were all done in IPA or sometimes near-phonetic comments. 4. Dialectology 4.1. What is a language, what is a dialect and what is an accent To define what the boundaries of a language exactly are, is considered to be almost impossible. Some linguists say that a language is a collection of mutually intelligible dialects. But after all, this distinction leaves us with several difficulties as for example Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are considered to be different languages, although they are mutually intelligible. So this definition cannot be completely true. The reasons for why a language is considered a language are also political, geographical, historical, sociological and cultural as well as linguistic. Very often, a language is also one of the criteria for being a nation as this creates a feeling of unity (Chambers und Trudgill 3). Therefore many linguists, for example Chambers and Trudgill or Edward Finegan, talk about varieties. According to Chambers and Trudgill, a variety is a neutral term to apply to any particular kind of language which we wish for some purpose, to consider as a single entity. (Chambers und Trudgill 5). With this definition it is now possible to accurately define the terms dialect and accent. An accent is defined by Chambers and Trudgill as the following. Accent refers to the way in which a speaker pronounces, and therefore refers to a variety which is phonetically and/or phonologically different from other varieties. (Chambers und Trudgill 5) Dialects on the other hand are defined as varieties which are grammatically (and perhaps lexically) as well as phonologically different from other varieties. (Chambers und Trudgill 5) Therefore, an accent mainly refers to the way a speaker sounds and not to the vocabulary or grammar he uses. It is, for example, possible to read out loud a given text with a Scottish accent;

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nevertheless it is impossible to read it out loud in a Scottish dialect if the text is not written in a Scottish dialect. As a result, it is now possible to say that this paper is about the differences in the accents of English of different persons and, for the recordings from Zurich, also about the possible connection to their native, Swiss German accent. 4.2. Received Pronunciation British English consists of a lot of local accents all over the country, but also possesses what is accepted as a standard accent called the Received Pronunciation or the RP in short. The term received in this context comes from the fact that this was the accent which was approved by the upper classes (Gramley und Ptzold 18). Today the RP is also called BBC Pronunciation (Jones, Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary vi), Non-Regional Pronunciation (Collins und Mees 3-4) or Standard Southern British (International Phonetic Association 4) because many linguists, for example the editors of the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (Jones, Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary vi), argue that the RP is archaic. The RP model-accent was first described by Daniel Jones in the early twentieth century as that most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men-folk have been educated at the great public [i.e. expensive and exclusive fee-paying private] boarding-schools. This pronunciation is also used by a considerable proportion of those who do not come from the South of England, but who have been educated at these schools. It is probably accurate to say that a majority of those members of London society who have had a university education, use either this pronunciation or a pronunciation not differing very greatly from it. (Jones, An English Pronouncing Dictionary viii) Despite this definition by Jones, today the RP is believed to be a mixture of London Speech with elements from the East Midlands, Middlesex and Essex (Crystal 243-244). It is not certain how many people in Great Britain actually speak the RP, but there are some estimations. Peter Trudgill, for example, talks about 3% of the population of Britain (Trudgill) while J.C. Wells tends to 10% of the population of England (Wells 118). Despite the fact that these numbers are not

Lukas Tribelhorn 5

based on a quantitative survey, they still show that the people speaking the Received Pronunciation are a minority in Great Britain. Wells does however distinguish different varieties of RP. Firstly, the U-RP which is the RP of the upper classes; although there are several different accents comprised in U-RP, they are all connected through the social characteristics. Secondly the Adoptive RP, being the variety spoken by adults who did not grow up speaking RP, but who adopted or at least attempt to adopt RP. Then there is Near-RP, which refers to any accent which is not included in the definition of RP but nevertheless still includes very little regional pronunciations with which it would be able to localize the speakers provenance. Finally, there are lots of varieties in RP which are not named or strictly defined but which still differ from the standard RP. This list shows that even standard varieties can be divided into small sub-varieties, as every person speaks a different variety (Wells, Accents of English 2: The British Isles 279-301). 4.2.1. Vowels Vowels are articulated by putting the articulators far enough apart to allow the airflow to exit unhindered, which is called an open

approximation. The different vowels of the RP are usually displayed in a Cardinal Vowel Chart. These charts feature two dimensions which are from Front over Central to Back (from left to right) and from Close over Close-mid and Openmid to Open (downwards). These positions on the chart do signalise the place of articulation. Everything that is outside of this vowel space is a consonant, since there will no longer be open approximation which defines a vowel (Davenport und Hannahs 3943). Vowels appear as either monophthongs or diphthongs. A monophthong is a normal vowel with a fixed position, whereas a diphthong is a gliding vowel and starts in one place and moves to another. For example the vowels in low, loud, lied and lane are diphthongs.
Fig. 1. Cardinal Vowel Chart for Received Pronunciation, . Wikipedia. 02. January 2008. 26. November 2013 <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RP_v owel_chart_(monophthongs).gif>.

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4.2.2. Consonants Consonants are divided into many sub groups and ordered in a table with the two

dimensions of the place, where the consonant is articulated, and the

Fig. 2. Consonant Chart for the Received Pronunciation, Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia. 25. November 2013. 26. November 2013 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation>.

manner in which it is articulated. This helps a lot when working with phonetic sources, as the name of the consonant gives all the information needed. Where the symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left represents an unvoiced consonant and the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. 4.3. Different dialects of Swiss German Switzerland is famous for its many languages. Switzerland has four major languages as well as numerous dialects. Although the focus for the possible connection between the English pronunciation and a native dialect lies on Zurich German, the two other dialects will be briefly described as well. 4.3.1. Basel German Very typical for Basel German, concerning the consonants, are the aspirated plosives [k, p, t] which can for example be seen in the pronunciation of the Swiss German word Kind (child). Today these aspirated plosives can only be seen in Basel, where they are dissolving, and in Chur. Another special pronunciation is that of the /r/-phoneme. It was mostly pronounced [] as this was influenced by the French, but today most of the people use the [] which is much more common in other Swiss German dialects as well. Basel German also has or had many soft consonants as for example in Dag (day) in contrast to Tag in most of the other dialects or /utt/ (to play football, derives from shoot) in contrast to /tutt/ in Zurich German (Wikimedia Foundation).

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Concerning the vowels, many of them get shortened or lengthened depending on the context they are used in. The vowels get lengthened if they are before a short consonant or, if the word is not lent from another language, also before an /r/. Shortening happens for example with most vowels before a long consonant (Wikimedia Foundation). Interestingly Basel German is a branch of the Low Alemannic German to which also the dialects spoken in Alsace, Allgu and northern Voralberg belong. It is mainly distinguished from High Alemannic by the retention of the Germanic /k/ in Low Alemannic. Furthermore it is distinguished from Swabian by the retention of the Middle High German monophthongs as for example in Huus (house) (Wikimedia Foundation). 4.3.2. Grisons German As in Basel German the aspirated plosives / k, p, t/ are quite common in most parts of Grisons. The /r/-phoneme is also pronounced // as in most Swiss German dialects. Very typical for Grisons German is the // which can for example be seen in the Grisons German pronunciation of /mi/ (we) (Wikimedia Foundation). Grisons German is a branch of High Alemannic, to which most of the Swiss dialects, as well as the ones from southern Baden-Wrttemberg, the Upper Rhine (which is part of the Alsace) and southern Voralberg, do belong. It is mainly distinguished with the pronunciation of Kalt as /alt/ and not /kalt/ as in the dialects belonging to the Low Alemannic branch (Wikimedia Foundation). 4.3.3. Zurich German This Cardinal Vowel Chart of Zurich German, which was published in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association, shows

several differences between the Zurich German and the Received Pronunciation. Negotiated in this chart are the three vowels /, , / which are, according to Fleischer and Schmid, about to disappear. In fact, the subject of Fleischer and Schmids research did not
Fig. 3. Cardinal Vowel Chart of Zurich German, Fleischer, Jrg und Stephan Schmid. Zurich German. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2006).

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produce them. Furthermore, this chart only displays the phonemes but no allophones (Fleischer und Schmid 246-248). However, there is quite a big difference between the phonemes used in RP and the ones used in Zurich German. For example the phonemes /, , , , / are completely missing in the Zurich German dialect. The vowels /y, , o, , / do exist in Zurich German but not in RP, /e/ is closer in Zurich German than in RP and the vowel // is more open than in RP. Finally the last two vowels: /, / are both more central than in RP.

Fig. 4. Consonant Chart of Zurich German, Fleischer, Jrg und Stephan Schmid. Zurich German. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2006).

The Consonant Chart above shows the differences between the existing vowels in Zurich German and in RP. The most striking feature of the Zurich German consonants is, that there are no voiced obstruents at all. In contrast to RP, where the vowels /b, d, g, v, z, / are all voiced, these are all, along with // which does not exist in RP, voiceless in Zurich German. Obstruents are all plosives, all affricates and all fricatives, so all vowels which are created by obstructing the airflow with the articulators either in complete closure or close approximation (Davenport und Hannahs 18). Another difference are the dental consonants, which are completely missing in most of the German varieties, such as in Zurich German for example. In return the velar consonants /x, / are missing in the Received Pronunciation. The only affricate which the two languages have in common is the /t/. In RP, there is just one additional affricate which is the /d/, whereas the Zurich German has the additional consonants /pf, ts, kx/. Interestingly, the nasals and the lateral approximants are the same in both, Zurich German and the Received Pronunciation. The last difference between the two languages are the approximants which are /, j/ in Zurich German and /r, j, w/ in RP.

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Zurich German, like Grisons German, belongs to the High Alemannic German dialects (Wikimedia Foundation). 4.4. The International Dialects of English Archive The International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) is a huge online archive for phonetic recordings. It was created in 1997 as the first online archive of primary-source recordings of various English dialects and accents from all over the world. The archive offers free access to recordings from more than a hundred different countries, as well as some special collections ranging from RP-recordings and Holocaust survivors to native speakers pronouncing place names, people names and idioms from famous plays. In search of a standard text for the recordings, the IDEAs text has proved to be optimal and very helpful. The standard text used, Comma gets a Cure, features all of the words of the Standard lexical sets, defined by J.C. Wells (Wells 127-167), together with some of the most common words and some words which could be considered shibboleths for non-native speakers. This short text includes the most important vowels and consonants of the English language and gives a very good resource for all kind of phonetic work (International Dialects of English Archive). It can be found in the appendix on page II.

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5. Method In order to find the subjects, it proved to be ideal to ask several Kantonsschulen (Academic Upper Secondary Schools) if some of their students would want to participate. This provides good resources as they should all be on the same level of English, because they are, or should be, on the same level of education. The number of ten recordings was also chosen because it provides a good basis with not too many to analyse, but also not just one, as this would not provide any information about how the people speak but just about how this particular person speaks. The subject, for the first part, had to read aloud the standard text provided by the International Dialects of English Archive. This text sample is about one page in length and features several phonetically interesting words and combinations. Then, in the second part of the recording, the subject had to talk in English about whatever they wanted, as for example their hobbies, future plans or about their childhood. Finally, in the third part, the subject had to talk in his native Swiss German dialect about whatever they wanted. However, this paper will focus on the first part which is more ideal for comparison. The second and the third part are mainly for the International Dialects of English Archive, as it may be useful to other phonetic papers or discussions in general. The next step was to edit the recordings concerning volume, breathing sounds, comments by the interviewer, ambient noise etc. and furthermore to do a simple, non-phonetic transcription of the second and third part. Then, the most time intensive part, which was the analysis of the recordings and the formulating of the results, followed. The analysis was done by listening to the recordings and writing down the phonetic transcription and/or phonetic-like comments on a choice of words. Therefore, not all of the words are phonetically transcribed, but they are marked and commented on with near-phonetic transcription for further research, if they turn out to be important for the discussion. These words were chosen because either they were on the list of standard lexical sets by J.C. Wells (Wells 127-167) or they were pronounced strangely by most of the subjects, or they were in some other way interesting. To get some overall results, the outcome was then compared with these of the other cantons. As it would go beyond the scope of this paper to discuss all of the approx. 100 transcribed

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words, the most interesting, were then chosen for the discussion of the results. Most interesting in this case means, where the pronunciation is identical for all cantons but with big discrepancies between the recordings and the Received Pronunciation or where there are big discrepancies between the different varieties. Finally, for the recordings made in Zurich, the features which differ from the RP were attempted to be connected to one or multiple features in Zurich German. If the result is, with a high probability, not connected to any feature, the alternative cause was sought. This has just been done with Zurich German due to the fact that there are no sources discussing the phonetics of any other Swiss German dialect. To work out the phonetic properties of the other dialects on the basis of these recordings would have gone far beyond the scope of this paper. It would, however, provide a very interesting and extensive basis for further researches.

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6. Results If there is no result in the following table, it is neither necessarily correct nor wrong. No result just means that it did not stand out or that it unfortunately was missed by the analyst. The X as a result means that it did stand out in some strange, not identifiable way. The case where there are more results than recordings occurred if either the subject corrects itself or the word appeared multiple times in the text. As there is generally no wrong pronunciation in phonetics, here the term wrong is not used in its traditional meaning but rather as different from the Received Pronunciation. 6.1. Basel These recordings were made on the 25th of June 2013 at the Kantonsschule Kirschgarten in Basel. All of the subjects were students, between 16 and 17 years old and grew up in the canton of Basel and mostly near Basel itself. Ten recordings have been made and analysed.
Table 1: Summarised results of the recordings made in Basel on the 25.06.13

Word well veterinary daily old zoo deserted happy start superb North near Duke area bowl porridge mirror

Basel Count well(1) veterinary(5), X(2), verentary (1) deli (1) ld (1) so(1), zoo(1), zu(1) desert(1), desert-ed(1), deserded(1), disert(1) hpi(9), correct(1) stat(7), correct(3) wrongly stressed(2), superb(1), suburb(1) no(5), nos(2), correct(2), nos(1) nea(7), correct(3) dk(1), duk(1) aria(4), iria(1), e(1), (1), correct(1) powl(1), X(1), baul(1) portidge(1), purtidge(1) mirro(1), X(1)

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washed face hurry fleece picked kit headed woman goose official letter implied animal suffering foot mouth disease expect dog sentimental itchy strut lunatic

west(1), wash(1) correct(9), fez(1) correct(1) correct(9), fleeci(1) picked(1) correct(9), kid(1) hided(2), heted(1), heard(1) wman(1) correct( ), goes( ), gouz(1), g s(1) offisial(3), wrongly stressed(2), X(1) lette(7), correct(2), t(1) implid(1) nimal(1) wrongly stressed(1) fut(4), fud(2), correct(2), ft(1), fud(1) maf(5), correct(4), m(1) desire(1), dises(1) espect(1), except(1), ecept(1) dog(2) wrongly stressed(1) intchy(1), itchy(1) correct(7), strut(1), strut(1), stt(1) wrongly stressed(3), lunatid(2), luntical(1), luntic(1), lunantic(1), lntk(1), luniac(1), luntik(1), lunetic(1)

unsanitary goose's Harrison kept Comma thought choice huge trap

unsanitary(3), unsantary(3), unsernitary(1) goos'(4), correct(2), duss(1), goos's(1), gouz's(1) H/errison(1) kept(1), kipt) correct( ), X(1), km(1) correct(7), though(1), fog the(1), f(1), fu(1), f(1) correct(9), chose(1) hd(2), hud(1), hjug(1) trep(1), trap(1)

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idea stroking lower palm singing tune

di(1), di(1), X(1) str king(1), struking(1), struking(1), starking(1) lauer(5), lour(1) palm(6), pallm(1), plaim(1), plm(1), plm(1) signing(1), singing(1) tun(1)

administered administered(2), admistered(2), administrated(2), administtred(1), adminstred(1), admit(1), administrd(1), wrongly stressed(1) ether futile began bath Sarah bathe wiped cloth laid confirmed diagnosis immediately remembered effective required measure medicine course might either cost penicillin can't millionaire cure id(5), ed( ), e(1), et(1) fjutl(3), correct(1), fjutil(1), fjutil(1), futil(1), ftil(1), ftli(1), begn(1) b(6), b( ), b(1), bth(1) X(1) b(4), be(1), b(1), correct(1), b(1), b(1), baith(1) wipd(3), piped(1), correct(1) clothe(5), correct(2), cl(1) ld(1) confirmed(1) diagnosis(3), diagnose(1), correct(1) immediatly(4) remembered(1) wrongly stressed(4) recured(1), required(1) msur(2), mesur(1), ....(1) medicin(6), medizin(2) ks(2), corse(1) mit(1) aither(1), either(1), d(1) coast(2), cost(1) penizillin(4), penicillin(1), penicilin(1), correct(1) cn't(3), cn't(1) millionairy(2) kur(1), c(1), k(1), k(j) (1)

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6.2. Chur These recordings were made on the 13th of September 2013 at the Bndner Kantonsschule in Chur. All of the subjects were students, between 16 and 17 years old and grew up in Grisons. However, some of them spoke Romansh in Kindergarten and primary school and most them are now in an Italian/German bilingual class. Eleven recordings have been made and analysed.
Table 2: Summarised results of the recordings made in Chur on the 13.09.13

Word well veterinary zoo deserted territory happy start job superb North near Duke area liking bowl porridge mirror face hurry put fleece kit headed woman goose

Count well(2) veterinary(8), vetenary(1), veterninary(1), veternary(1) so(2), zu(2), zo(1), zo(1), X(1) deserted(4), desert(2) terathy(1) hpi(10), hpi(1) stat(9), correct(2) jop(1) spb(1), sjupb(1), superb(1), wrongly stressed(1), supperb(1), spb(1) no(4), correct(3), X( ), nos(1), nof(1) correct(6), nea(5) dk(1), dk(t)(1) i(1), area(1), (1), wrongly stressed(1) licking(1) bol(2), boul(1), baul(1) prtid(1), prridge(1), pid(1) X(1) correct(11) X(1) pud(1) correct(9), fleeci(2) correct(11) hided(3), headed(1) wman(1) correct(8), goes(4), gouz(2), goosi(1)

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official letter implied rare foot mouth disease dog sentimental feel itchy strut lunatic unsanitary goose's Comma thought choice huge trap different gently stroking lower palm singing tune administered ether futile

wrongly stressed(2) lette(10), correct(1), letter(1) implided(1) rar(1), rr(1), r(1) fut(4), fud(4), correct(1), fud(1), fut(d)(1) maf(6), correct(4), mas(1) dsi(1) dog(1) sentimetal(1) fl(1) correct(1) correct(7), strt(1), stru:t(1), strat(1), strud(1), strt(1) wrongly stressed(7), lntid(2), lntik(1), luntc(1) unsanitary(6), junsanitary(2), unsan-natery(1) goos's(3), correct(3), goes'(2), gs(1), goes(1), gus(1), X(1), guse's(1), goose's(1), goosi(1), gouz(1) correct(8), comm(1), comm(1), cmma(1) correct(7), ft(3), through(1), thght(1) correct(10), voice(1) hd(1), hud(1), hjug(1), X(1), jud(1) trp(1) difference(1), different(1) genty(1) stk(1), strocking(1) lauer(1), lover(1) palm(4), plm(1), pelm(1), plm (1), plm(1), plm(1), plm(1), correct(1) signing(2) tune(1) administered(3), admistered(2), administreted(1), administerd(1), administrated(1), admistred(1) id(3), d(2), t(1), e (1), ed(1), (1), it(1), i(1), fjutil(2), futil(1), fjutl(1), X(1), futl(1), fjutil(1), fd(1), fjuitil(1), fjutil(1), fjutl(1)

Lukas Tribelhorn 17

bath Sarah bathe wiped cloth laid confirmed diagnosis immediately effective required measure medicine warned course treatment might expensive either penicillin can't paying millionaire lawyer cure

b( ), correct( ), b( ), b(1), b(1), b(1), b(1), wrongly stressed(1) b(3), ba(3), b( ), ba(1), b(1), b(1) wipd(1), correct(1), whispered(1) clothe(4), correct(2), clot(1), clofe(1), kl(1), close(1) leid(2) confirmed(3), confrmd(1), confirmed(1), confrmed(1) diagnosis(2), diagnsis(1), diagnossi(1), dianis(1), correct(1), wrongly stressed(1) imiatly (1) wrongly stressed(3), effisent(1) X(2) misur(2), X(1) medicine(8), medici(1) wrned(2), wrned(1) crse(1), cse(1), corse(1), crse(1) trtmnt(1), treating(1), night, might wrongly stressed(1) either(2), eid(1) pencillin(5), pencillian(2), wrongly stressed(1) cn't(3), cn't(1) playing(1) million(1) X(1( cu(1), k(u)(1), cju(1)

Lukas Tribelhorn 18

6.3. Zurich These recordings were made on the 17th of September 2013 at the Kantonsschule Hottingen in Zurich. All of the subjects were students, between 16 and 18 years old and grew up in the canton of Zurich and mostly near Zurich itself. Ten recordings have been made and nine recordings have been analysed. One recording was not analysed because the file was damaged.
Table 3: Summarised results of the recordings made in Zurich on the 17.09.13

Word well story veterinary nurse zoo deserted territory happy start superb practice North near bowl porridge mirror washed face fleece jacket kit headed woman goose

Count well(1) story(1) veterinary(3), veterany(2), veterian(1), vetrinary(1), vetariny(1), verynary(1), vetrnary(1), nrse(1), nrse(1), nys(1) zo(1), zu(1) deserted(3), desert(2) X(1) hpi(9), hpi(1) stat(6), correct(3) supwerb(1), spb(1), superb(1), super-b(1), correct(1) practic(1) no(7), no(2) nea(6), correct(3) baul(2), bul(1) purridge(1), prridge(1), prid(1), prridge(1) X(1) wshed(1) correct(8), fes (1) correct(9) acket(1) correct( ), kit(1) hided(1) wman(1), woman(1), wman(1), correct(7), gouz(1), goes(1), dus(1)

Lukas Tribelhorn 19

official letter implied suffering rare foot mouth disease surprising sentimental itchy strut lunatic unsanitary goose's owner kept calling Comma thought choice huge tried stroking lower palm tune

wrongly stressed(4) lette(7), correct(2) implid(1) srfering(1), sffering(1) rre(1) correct(5), fut(2), fut(1), ft(1) correct(4), mas(2), maf(2), mt(1) disearse(1), desire(1) surprisng(1) wrongly stressed(1) correct(2), intchy(1) correct(6), strud(1), strut(1), strt(1) wrongly stressed(7), lunetk(1), lnic(1), ln n c(1) unsanitary(4), nsanitary(1), junsaritary(1) goos'(4), goos's(2), correct(2), gouz's(1), goose was(1) auner(1) kipt(1) kalling(1) correct(6), kum(1), comma(1), comm(1) correct(6), ft(1), dt(1), thght(1), st(1), tt(1), td(1) correct(9) hud(1), jud(1), jud(1) tricked(1) struking(2), stronki(1) lauers(1), correct(1) palm(4), plm(2), plm(1), pm(1), plm(1) tune(1)

administered administered(3), correct(2), administrated(1), administrised(1) ether efforts futile bath id(1), eter(1), d(1), d(1), id(1), i(1), d(1), correct(1), d(1) fforts(1), wrongly stressed(1), ffs(1) ftil(1), fytil(1), fjutil(1), futil(1), futil(1), f(j)til(1), fjudil(1), fjutil(1), ftil(1), ftil(1) correct(3), b( ), b(1), b(1), b(1), b(1)

Lukas Tribelhorn 20

Sarah bathe wiped cloth laid confirmed diagnosis immediately remembered effective required measure medicine this course expensive either cost penicillin can't imagine lawyer cure

sr(1) b( ), b( ), b(1), b(1), b(1), b(1), beis(1), b(1), b(1) wipd(4), whispered(1) clothe(5), close(2), kl(1), kl(1) ld(1) confirmed(3) diagnosis(8), correct(1) immediatly(1) rembered(1) wrongly stressed(2) requird(1), requird(1), reqaierd(1) measure(2) medicine(5), correct(2) this(1) curs(2), ks(1) wrongly stressed(1) ither(1), either(1), correct(1), ither(1) coast(1) penizillin(3), wrongly stressed(2), pencillin(2) cn't(3), cn't(1), can't(1) wrongly stressed(2) lawer(3) cur(1)

Lukas Tribelhorn 21

7. Discussion of the Results 7.1. Different pronunciations appearing in the results This part focuses on a selection of words that are in some way interesting. These words will be looked at and discussed in detail. However, the connections between these features and the Zurich German dialect will not yet be shown. This will happen in chapter 7.2. Once more, as there is no wrong pronunciation, this term will be avoided. Instead, either the term strange, different or interesting will be used. Furthermore, as this paper focuses on the differences in pronunciation, it will not have a look at the wrongly stressed ones, although they are also listed in the results. NURSE /ns/ NURSE is one of the words which represent a standard lexical set defined by J.C. Wells (Wells 137-139). This particular set comprises those words which contain the stressed vowel // in RP which would for example be hurt, church, curve, turn, spur, occurred, burnt, murder, shirt, jerk, verb, earth, work, and so on (Wells 137-139). This vowel has no traditional name, due to the fact that it is only a few centuries old. It merged from the Middle English /i/, // an /u/ followed by the consonant /r/. These have, in two steps, merged into an, often r-coloured, open-mid central vowel. However this Nurse Merger did not, or only partially, occur in most Scottish and Irish accents (Wells 199-203). In only three of the 30 recordings did strange pronunciations occur. All three recordings with strange pronunciation were made in Zurich, which can either be a coincidence or because of the dialect of Zurich. The pronunciations /nrse/, /nrse/, /nys/ are all quite far away from the Received Pronunciation with //, which is a close-mid central rounded vowel, //, which is open-mid front rounded, and /y/ which is close front rounded (Armstrong). SUPERB /sju'pb/ SUPERB for instance is not from a standard lexical set but is interesting because it occurred in Zurich and Chur, but not in Basel. For SUPERB, several different pronunciations occurred in Zurich and Chur. However, it was mostly pronounced correctly in Basel. There are four different pronunciations in Zurich, which

Lukas Tribelhorn 22

are /supwerb/, /spb/, /superb/ and /super-b/, and six different pronunciations in Chur which are /spb/, /sjupb/, /superb/, wrongly stressed, /supperb/ and /spb/. As a matter of fact only the pronunciation /superb/ occurred twice, once in Zurich and once in Chur. AREA /er/ AREA is not a standard lexical set, yet is still interesting because of its occurrence in the different cantons. AREA occurred in different variations in the recordings from Basel and Chur, it did, however not stand out at all in the recordings from Zurich. In Basel, there are four different pronunciations which are /aria/, /iria/, /e/ and //. In this case /aria/ occurred four times. In Chur there are three different pronunciations which are /i/, /area/, // as well as one wrongly stressed, yet none of these occurred twice. As highlighted before, unusually nothing stands out in the recordings from Zurich. PORRIDGE /prd/ PORRIDGE is not one of the standard lexical sets. However, the fact that the differences occurred more often in Zurich than in Chur and Basel makes it interesting. For PORRIDGE, there are four different variations in Zurich and just two, respectively three different versions in Basel and Chur. In the recordings from Zurich, the existing variations are /porridge/, /prridge/, /prid/ and /prridge/, which all occur once. In Basel, the two variations /portidge/ and /purtidge/ were found and in Chur the three variations /prtid/, /prridge/, /pid/ occurring once each. WOMAN /wmn/ A strange pronunciation of WOMAN also occurred more often in Zurich than in Chur and Basel and it belongs to the standard lexical set of FOOT. In Zurich, three different variations occurred, which are /wman/, /woman/ and /wman/; each of these occurred once. In Basel, as well as in Chur, the variation /wman/ occurred once per canton. The variation /wman/ appeared regularly once in every canton, however Zurich provides two additional variations.

Lukas Tribelhorn 23

FOOT /ft/ FOOT again is a standard lexical set, which comprises all words with the vowel // as for example put, bush, full, butcher, pudding, bullet, good, wood, woman, should, and so on. The vowel // does not have a traditional name but sometimes short oo is used. Its origin can be found in the short /u/ and shortened /o/, which are also the origin for the STRUT vowel (Wells 132-133). The FOOT and the STRUT vowels moved away from each other in what was called the FOOTSTRUT Split. The Middle English /u/ split into two phonemes, which are the current // as in FOOT and the current // as in STRUT. However, not all accents have undergone this split. For example local accents from the north of England still have just a single phoneme / / which corresponds to the two phonemes / / and // (Wells 196-199). FOOT is mostly pronounced correctly in Zurich, yet there are many variations in Basel and Chur. In Zurich three variations occurred, which are, /fut/, /ft/and /fut/, where the latter occurred twice. In Basel and in Chur, there were four variations each. These are /fut/, /fud/, /ft/, /fud/ in Basel, where the first two occurred four, respectively two times and the last two occurred just once. In Chur, the four versions /fut/, /fud/, /fud/ and /fut(d)/ occurred, where the first two occurred four times each and the last two occurred once each. Here more variations are occurring in Basle and Chur than in Zurich, which is the opposite of the distribution in PORRIDGE and WOMAN. MOUTH /ma/ The standard lexical set MOUTH comprises all words with the vowel /a/, which actually is a diphthong. Also in this set are, for example the words house, south, loud, noun, foul, count, pronounce, mountain, allow, flower, towel, and so on. The MOUTH vowel does not have a traditional name, but its origin is usually seen in the Middle English /u/ which became /a/ during the Great Vowel Shift (Wells 151-152). The Great Vowel Shift influenced most of the long vowels of English and made the half-close, half-open and open long vowels one step closer, which means one step up in the Cardinal Vowel Chart. At the same time, the close long vowels were diphthongized, as for example /u/ became /ou/ which developed further to todays /a/ which is defining for the standard lexical set of MOUTH (Wells 184-188).

Lukas Tribelhorn 24

MOUTH is mostly pronounced correctly in Zurich, but as with FOOT, there occurred some different versions for Basel and Chur. In Basel, the most usual pronunciations are /maf/, which appeared in five recordings, /m/, which appeared in one recording and the correct pronunciation in four recordings. The variations in Chur are /maf/, which appeared in six recordings, /mas/, which occurred in one recording and the correct pronunciation in four recordings. The most common in Zurich are /mas/, appearing in two recordings, /maf/, appearing in two recordings, /mt/, appearing in one recording and four times the correct pronunciation. So overall the variation /maf/ appeared in 13 of 30 recordings, which is almost 45%. However, in twelve recordings it was pronounced correctly. However the variation is not the diphthong but the last consonant which seems hard to pronounce. This result suggests a connection with either Swiss German in general, or with all three dialects. STRUT /strt/ STRUT, as mentioned before, is also one of the standard lexical sets. It comprises the words with the vowel // as for example cup, cut, suck, hum, run, pulse, butter, study, number, mustnt, love , stomach, money, onion, southern, tongue, and so on. The // vowel, which traditionally is called short U, derives mostly from the Middle English /u/, but also sometimes from /o/. It has moved away from the FOOT vowel in the FOOT-STRUT split which was mentioned in the paragraph about the lexical set FOOT. (Wells 131-132). This word is usually pronounced correctly in all three cantons, although many different versions appear in Chur. In Basel and Zurich, three different variations appeared. For Basel, these are /strut/, /strut/ and /stt/ which all appeared once and in seven recordings the pronunciation was correct. For Zurich, the three different versions are /strud/, /strut/ and /strt/ which all appeared once and six recordings with a correct pronunciation. In Chur, the correct pronunciation appeared seven times, but there are five different variations as well. These are /strt/, /strut/, / strat/, /strud/, /strt/. The version /strut/ occurred in all of the three recordings. THOUGHT /t/ THOUGHT is again one of the standard lexical sets. This set comprises the words which have the vowel /()/. This includes for example the words taught, caught, naughty, slaughter, brought,

Lukas Tribelhorn 25

sauce, cause, autumn, laundry, hawk, law, talk, stalk, water, and so on. The THOUGHT vowel has several origins, among which there are the Middle English diphthongs /a / and // (Wells 144-146). The THOUGHT vowel, the monophthong /()/, emerged from the two Middle English diphthongs /a/ and // around the beginning of the sixteenth century during the so called THOUGHT Monophthonging (Wells 191-192). THOUGHT is mostly pronounced correctly in all three cantons, with six different variations in Zurich, five in Basel and three in Chur. The variations in Zurich are /ft/, /dt/, /thght/, /st/, /tt/ and /td/ which all occurred once. The variations in Basel are / though/, /fog the/, /f/, /fu/and /f/ which also occurred once each. Finally, these in Chur are /ft/, /through/ and /thght/. The variation /ft/ occurred once each in Zurich and Chur. LOWER /l*/ LOWER is not a standard lexical set, yet it is still interesting due to the occurrence of similar varieties in all of the three cantons. For LOWER, two different varieties appeared in Basel and Chur, and just one variety in Zurich. In Basel, the variety /lauer/ occurred five times and /lour/ once. In Chur the varieties /lauer/ and /lover/ both occurred just once. In Zurich, the variety /lauers/ occurred once and it was pronounced correctly once. The variety /lauer/ respectively /lauers/ occurred seven times in total, unevenly distributed over the three cantons. PALM /pm/ The standard lexical set PALM contains those words with the vowel // as for example calm, father, bra, hurrah, etc. but also Bach, roulade, sonata, plaza, lager, and so on. As seen in the examples, this standard lexical set includes only a few really common words; however most of the PALM words are borrowed from other languages as the second part of the examples shows. The PALM vowel derived from either the Middle English /au/ or a lengthened /a/ (Wells 142-144). There are several different varieties in all of the cantons for the PALM vowel. In both Basel and in Zurich, five varieties occurred. In Basel, these are /palm/, which occurred in six recordings, and /pallm/, /plaim/, /plm/ and /plm/ which occurred once each. In Zurich, these are /palm/,

Lukas Tribelhorn 26

which occurred in four recordings, /plm/, which occurred twice, and /plm/, /pm/and /plm/ which occurred once each. In Chur however, seven different varieties occurred, as well as one correct pronunciation. These seven varieties are /palm/, which occurred in four recordings, and /plm/, /pelm/, /plm/, /plm/, /plm/ and /plm/ which all occurred once. Over all three cantons, the variety where PALM is pronounced too explicit occurred 14 times. The /plm/ version occurred at least once per canton. ETHER /i*/ ETHER is not a standard lexical set, but it stands out because there are many different varieties in all of the three cantons. ETHER occurred in eight different variations and once correctly in Zurich, in four different variations in Basel and in eight different variations in Chur. The variations in Zurich are /id/, /eter/, /d/, /d/, /id/, /i/, /d/and /d/ which all occurred just once. The variations in Basel are /ed/, which occurred twice, and /id/, /e/and /et/ which all occurred once. Finally, the variations in Chur are /id/, which occurred in three recordings, /d/, which occurred twice, and /t/, /e/, /ed/, //, /it/, /i/ which all occurred once. All variations of all of the cantons are different, except the variation /id /, which appeared in every canton at least once, and the variation /d/ which occurred in Zurich once and in Chur twice. BATH /b/ The lexical set BATH comprises the words with the vowel //. It is only an autonomous set because in dialects other than RP, there are differences between the vowel in PALM, BATH and START. However, in RP these all contain the vowel //. The words staff, giraffe, path, glass, nasty, rascal, draught, craft, blast, past, and many more are generally being comprised in the BATH set (Wells 133-135). BATH has some different variations in all three cantons. It has been pronounced correctly in three recordings from Zurich and two recordings from Chur. The variations in Zurich are /b/, which occurred twice, as well as /b/, /b/, /b/and /b/ which all occurred once. In Chur, the variations /b/ and /b/ each occurred twice, and the variations /b/, /b/, /b/and

Lukas Tribelhorn 27

/b/ occurred once. In Basel, the variation /b/ occurred in six recordings and the variations /b/ and /b:/ each occurred twice. In conclusion, the variation /b/ occurred twice in each Zurich and Chur, the variation /b/ occurred at least once in each canton and the variation /b/ occurred once in Zurich and once in Chur. BATHE /be/ BATHE is an example for the standard lexical set FACE. This set comprises those words whose citation form has the vowel /e/. Other examples for this set are tape, late, safe, vague, wave, name, waste, bacon, lady, wait, main, day, obey and many more. The traditional name of the FACE vowel is long A and it derives in most cases via the Great Vowel shift from the Middle English vowel /a/, or in consequence of the FACE Merger from /i i/ (Wells 141-142). During the FACE Merger, the monophthongal vowel /a/ shifted to // by the beginning of the seventeenth century; simultaneously the vowels /i/ and /i/ lost their diphthongal quality and became the vowel //. By the eighteenth century, the merged vowel // took on a closer quality and became the /e/ vowel which later took on a diphthongal quality again and was now similar to todays /e/ (Wells 194-196). In Zurich, the variations /b/and /b/ were each seen twice, together with the variations /b/, /b/, /b:/, /b/, /beis/, /b/ and /b/ which all occurred once. In the recordings from Basel, the variation /b/ occurred in four instances accompanied by /be/, /b/, /b:/, /b/, /baith/ which all occurred once, and one correct pronunciation. The result in Chur shows the different variations b and ba, which both occurred in three recordings, as well as /b/, /ba:/, /b/and /b/ which occurred once each. The variation /b/ occurred in all three sets of recordings, however not many variations did appear in more than one canton. WIPED /wapt/ WIPED is not a standard lexical set, yet it is still interesting. In Zurich, the variation /wipd/ occurred in four recordings together with a variation /whispered/, where the subject has misread the word. In Basel, the variation /wipd/ occurred in three recordings, together with a correct pronunciation in one of the recordings and a misread

Lukas Tribelhorn 28

variation /piped/ in another recording. Lastly in Chur the variation /wipd/ occurred in one recording with a correct pronunciation in one of the recordings as well as the again misread variation /whispered/. Interestingly, one subject per canton has misread this word, so there are three variations due to missing concentration. Even more interesting is the fact that this word was misread similarly in two of the cantons. One subject of each Zurich and Chur has read /whispered/ instead of WIPED. The variation /wipd/ also occurred quite often in all of the three cantons. CONFIRMED /knfmd/ CONFIRMED is not comprised in any of the standard lexical sets. Yet the occurrence of similar varieties in all three cantons makes it interesting. In Chur, the explicit version /confirmed/ occurred in three recordings. Three different varieties, which are /confrmd/, /confirmed/ and /conformed/ also occurred once each. The explicit version, /confirmed/ also occurred in three recordings from Zurich and in one recording from Basel. Other varieties occurred neither in Zurich nor in Basel. DIAGNOSIS /dagnss/ DIAGNOSIS is interesting for the same reasons as the above discussed CONFIRMED. It is also not comprised in any of the standard lexical sets. In Chur, the explicit variation /diagnosis/ occurred twice, together with several different varieties, which are /diagnsis/, /diagnossi/ and /dianis/ and occurred once each, and one correct and one wrongly stressed pronunciation. In Basel, the explicit version occurred in three recordings. One other subject pronounced it correctly and in one recording the variety /diagnose/ occurred. Finally, in Zurich, the explicit version occurred in eight recordings and one subject pronounced it correctly. IMMEDIATELY /midjtl/ IMMEDIATELY is not comprised in a standard lexical set but is interesting for the same reasons as the above discussed CONFIRMED and DIAGNOSIS. In Chur, the only occurring variety is /imiatly/, which occurred once. In the other two cantons the explicit version occurred once in Zurich and four times in Basel.

Lukas Tribelhorn 29

For the last three words CONFIRMED, DIAGNOSIS and IMMEDIATELY, the explicit version occurred in all three cantons and Chur always had some additional varieties. COURSE /ks/ COURSE is comprised in the standard lexical set FORCE. This set comprises those words with the vowel // as for example board, court, resource, and so on. The FORCE vowel usually derives from the Middle English long // via the Great Vowel Shift. However, rarely it derives from the Middle English /o/ or /u/ (Wells 160-162). The different varieties /crse/, /cse/, /corse/ and /crse/ occurred once each in Chur. In Zurich, only two different varieties occurred, which are /ks/ and /curs/, whereas the latter appeared in two recordings. In Basel, the variety /ks/ occurred twice and the variety /corse/ appeared once. The varieties in Chur did not appear in any other canton, but the variety /ks/ appeared in both Zurich and Basel. TREATMENT /tritmnt/ TREATMENT is also not comprised in a standard lexical set, yet it is interesting as the results are similar to these of the COURSE set. In Chur, the two different varieties /trtmnt/ and /treating/ appeared once each. In both of the other two cantons, no word stands out concerning pronunciation. The pronunciation /treating/ is probably misread due to the speakers lack of concentration. EITHER /a*/ EITHER is not in one of the standard lexical sets; however it is regularly discussed as a unique feature whose pronunciation says nothing about the overall pronunciation of a person. It is independent from the accent a person usually has and varies from person to person. The most frequently used vowels are either /i/ or /a/ or, in some cases, something between these two vowels. In Zurich, the four different varieties, which each occurred once, are /ither/, /either/, / ither / and a correct pronunciation. The three different varieties, each occurring once, in Basel are

Lukas Tribelhorn 30

/aither/, /either/ and /d/. Finally in Chur, the variety /either/ occurred twice and the variety /eid/ occurred once. The variety /either/ occurred at least once in each of the three cantons. CURE /kj*/ CURE, again, is one of the standard lexical sets and comprises some of the words with the diphthong // as for example moor, poor, ensure, mature, gourmet, tourist, plural and several more. The origin of the // vowel is, in the most cases, the Middle English /o/, /iu/or /u/. The four different varieties in Basel are /kur/, /c/, /k/ and /k(j)/ which all occurred once. The three different varieties in Chur are /cu/, /k(u)/ and /cju/ which all occurred once. Lastly the only variation from Zurich is /cur/ which also appeared just once. None of the varieties of CURE occurred multiple times. 7.2. Possible causes for the differences in pronunciation in the recordings from Zurich In this chapter, the possible causes for the differences in pronunciation are sought, in order to determine, whether or not further research about this topic would be rewarding. This has just been done with the recordings from Zurich, as it is the only Swiss German dialect with sufficient phonetic data available. 7.2.1. Substitution of non-existent vowels and consonants Vowels which do exist in the RP but do not exist in Zurich German have to be learned or somehow substituted with other vowels which do exist. This can be seen in, for example, NURSE. As the open-mid central unrounded RP-vowel // does not exist in Zurich German, it has to be substituted with another vowel. The three vowels, which were used in the recordings are /, , y/. Interestingly the vowel / / does not exist in Zurich German but is used to substitute another non-existent vowel. Zurich German // is near but rounded and Zurich German /y/ is even further away and also rounded. The best substitution in this case, would probably be the vowel // as it is the nearest and unrounded. A very similar case can be seen in WOMAN and FOOT. Both of these feature the vowel / /, which is about to disappear in Zurich German. In WOMAN it has been substituted with /, , o/; yet the vowels /, / are both non-existent in Zurich German and the vowel /o/ is more open

Lukas Tribelhorn 31

and further away than /u/. In FOOT, however, it has been substituted with /u/, which is, on the basis of this thesis, logically correct as it is the nearest existent vowel in Zurich German. Another case, but with a non-existent consonant, can be seen in MOUTH, THOUGHT and ETHER. All these sets feature the RP-consonant // which does not exist in Zurich German. In MOUTH and also twice in THOUGHT it has been substituted with /f, s/ which are the nearest existent consonants. In ETHER, however, it has been substituted with /d, t/ by most of the speakers. This could indicate that // gets substituted with /f,s/ if the speaker knows the correct pronunciation but is not able to pronounce it, and it gets substituted with the more explicit version /d, t/, if the word is unfamiliar for the speaker. 7.2.2. Missing knowledge or concentration Words like WIPED, CONFIRMED, DIAGNOSIS, STRUT or IMMEDIATELY are pronounced very strangely by some of the speakers. For example in STRUT, there occurred a vowel /u/, or in one case //, instead of the RP-vowel // which is inexistent in Zurich German. The nearest unrounded vowel in Zurich German, which would probably be the most logical choice, is the vowel //. A possible explanation for this could be that when the speaker encounters words which are unaccustomed for him, they are usually pronounced as they are written, therefore too explicit. This can be seen in the pronunciation of many words in all three cantons, which could indicate the independence from the accent but the dependence on the language in general. This could indicate that, as soon as we feel unaccustomed because we dont know how to pronounce something, we search a way to get to a pronunciation we know. Hence we pronounce it as it is written or as we would pronounce it in our native language. Another interesting case is the word BATHE. In one recording the diphthong /e/ got substituted by /ei/ and the consonant // got substituted by /s/. Thus the speaker substituted every unknown vowel or consonant with the nearest possible. All the other variations were pronounced with a monophthong instead of the diphthong, however, not the nearest possible monophthong was used, but, in most of the cases, the same monophthong as in BATH. This indicates that either the speakers were unaware of the difference between BATH and BATHE, or they were not concentrated and misread or mispronounced BATHE as BATH. The fact that this occurred in the recordings from Basel and Chur as well, indicates, that it has nothing to

Lukas Tribelhorn 32

do with the dialect, but with another factor as for example the knowledge or concentration of the speakers.

Lukas Tribelhorn 33

8. Conclusion The standard text used for the recordings, discussed in this paper, proved to be ideal, as it features the Standard lexical sets, defined by J.C. Wells, but also many other words which could be of interest for any kind of phonetic work. The use of students of the same grade for the recordings did also prove of value, due to the facts that the students have time, the schools have rooms for the recordings and most importantly the level of English should be similar. The results of this paper are quite extensive, yet, they assert no claim for correctness or completeness, as the recordings were not analysed by a professional but by a student who worked with phonetics for the first time. The results present many differences in pronunciation between the speakers of different cantons, but also within a canton. However, as seen in the discussion, the dialect, together with some other factors, as for example the knowledge of a speaker, has an influence on the pronunciation of a word. To determine what influence exactly, the phonetic properties of the Swiss German dialects would have to be formulated first and would have to be compared to the results as done with the recordings from Zurich. This would, however, go far beyond the scope of this paper. However, the result clearly shows that further research is necessary and would be rewarding. The results did show that there are differences in pronunciation and that some of them, yet not all of them, are somehow connected to the native dialect a person speaks. Additional, more detailed research would possibly give very interesting results, which could also be valuable for teaching the English language, or rather for teaching a near-RP pronunciation. During the work on this paper, many challenges arose and had to be overcome. The first challenge was to learn how to work with phonetics and how to do phonetic transcriptions. In the course of writing the paper many other problems did arise, as for example the search of subjects to record, the very time-consuming process of analysis, the lack of phonetic information on most of the Swiss German dialects and also the not always obvious connection between the pronunciation of English and a speakers native dialect.

Lukas Tribelhorn 34

Bibliography Armstrong, Eric. Eric Armstrong's voice & speech source. 20. 11 2013 <http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/vowels.html>. Chambers, Jack und Peter Trudgill. Dialectology. 2. Edition. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Collins, Beverley und Inger Mees. Practical phonetics and phonology: a resource book for students. Oxon: Routledge, 2003. Crystal, David. The Stories of English. Penguin, 2005. Davenport, Mike und S.J. Hannahs. Introducing Phonetics & Phonology. London: Arnold, 1998. Fleischer, Jrg und Stephan Schmid. Zurich German. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2006). Gramley, Stephan und Kurt Michael Ptzold. Das moderne Englisch. Paderborn: UTB fr Wissenschaft, 1985. International Phonetic Association. Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Jones, Daniel. An English Pronouncing Dictionary. London: Dent, 1917. . Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 18 ed. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Trudgill, Peter. University College London. 12. 08 2000. 07. 10 2013 <http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/trudgill.htm>. Wells, John Christopher. Accents of English 1: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. . Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia. 16. October 2013. 17. November 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonology>. . Wikipedia. 07. March 2013. 25. November 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_German>.

Lukas Tribelhorn 35

. Wikipedia. 25. November 2013. 25. November 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German>. . Wikipedia. 04. October 2013. 25. November 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Alemannic_German>. . Wikipedia. 23. September 2013. 25. November 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Alemannic_German>. . Wikipedia. 24. November 2013. 26. November 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet>.

Lukas Tribelhorn I

Appendix Field Recording Guide

INTERNATIONAL DIALECTS OF ENGLISH ARCHIVE FIELD RECORDING GUIDE

Complete the following and use this as a guide when conducting your interview and writing up your notes. It is for your use only. Kontaktinformationen: (der Proband wird komplett anonym bleiben) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Geschlecht (M fr mnnlich, W fr weiblich): ____ Volkszugehrigkeit: ___________________ Geburtsdatum: _________________ Alter: ____________ Geburtsort: ________________________ Stadt, Kanton, Land wo aufgewachsen: ______________________________ Bildungsstufe: _____________________________ Orte mehr als 80km vom Geburtsort, lnger als 6 Monate als Wohnsitz: _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Momentane Ttigkeit: ___________________________ Muttersprache(n): ______________________________________________________ Andere Faktoren welche den Akzent/Dialekt des Probanden mglicherweise beeinflusst haben: ______________________________________________________ Datum der Aufnahme: _________________ Name des Interviewenden: __________________________________ Notizen: ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Lukas Tribelhorn II

COMMA GETS A CURE Well, heres a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on her first morning, she felt stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain yellow dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work.

When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the beautiful bird.

Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The gooses owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, Comma, Comma, which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First she tried gently stroking the gooses lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her. Finally, she administered ether.

Her efforts were not futile. In no time, the goose began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath.

Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid her on her right side. Then Sarah confirmed the vets diagnosis. Almost immediately, she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive-either five or six times the cost of penicillin. I cant imagine paying so much, but Mrs. Harrison-a millionaire lawyer-thought it was a fair price for a cure.

Lukas Tribelhorn III

Bitte drucken sie die folgenden Bedingungen aus und geben es der Versuchsperson um diese zu lesen, auszufllen, zu datieren und zu unterschreiben.

Subject Waiver and Liability Release

I hereby grant and assign to International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA), exclusive rights, including copyright, to use, license, sell, and otherwise exploit each and every recording of my voice that I have made or may make in the future. Each and every such recording is a "work made for hire" commissioned as a contribution to a collective work and I understand that I will not be the copyright owner thereof and will have no rights thereto. I understand that the recordings may be published and distributed by means of various media, including, but not limited to, the Internet. I make my voluntary, unremunerated contributions to IDEA in the interests of dialect research. I further understand that IDEA may distribute and/or offer for sale copies of my recordings, compilations, or other documents in the archive to be used for commercial purposes or to inform students, professionals, and the public about dialects of English. I understand that IDEA, its owners, publishers, employees, editors, and agents cannot warrant or guarantee that use of my sound recordings and compilations, made available on the World Wide Web or otherwise, will be subject to their supervision or control. Accordingly, I release IDEA, its owners, publishers, employees, editors, and agents from any and all liability related to dissemination of the material I have contributed and/or will contribute. I have read this document and understand its contents.

Subjects name: (please print) __________________________________ Subjects signature: ______________________________ Date: (dd/mm/yyyy) ______________

Lukas Tribelhorn IV

Declaration of Authenticity I, Lukas Tribelhorn, hereby declare that this work is originally authored and written by myself, in my own words. I hereby declare that I have referenced every citation or information used in this paper and that I have not manipulated any data.

Date: ________________ Lukas Tribelhorn, 4bW, Kantonsschule Wil

Signature: __________________________