Laryngeal features in German

TLDR

German stops are typically voiceless initially and finally, voiced intervocally, and this distribution has been explained either by a voice contrast or by a spread‑glottis contrast, with passive voicing accounting for intervocalic voiced stops. The study aims to present experimental results that support the hypothesis that German underlying stops are characterized by spread glottis rather than voice contrast. The experimental results confirm that German underlying stops are indeed characterized by spread glottis, not by a voice contrast.

Abstract

It is well known that initially and when preceded by a word that ends with a voiceless sound, German so-called ‘voiced’ stops are usually voiceless, that intervocalically both voiced and voiceless stops occur and that syllable-final (obstruent) stops are voiceless. Such a distribution is consistent with an analysis in which the contrast is one of [voice] and syllable-final stops are devoiced. It is also consistent with the view that in German the contrast is between stops that are [spread glottis] and those that are not. On such a view, the intervocalic voiced stops arise because of passive voicing of the non-[spread glottis] stops. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental results that support the view that German has underlying [spread glottis] stops, not [voice] stops.