BERNESE GERMAN PHONOLOGY

'Bernese German phonology' describes the phonology of Bernese German, the dialect spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) portion of the canton of Bern.

Contents

Vowels

Monophthongs

Vowel length

Diphthongs

Consonants

Consonant length

Vocalization of /l/

Velarization of /nt/

Reduction of

Stress

Literature

Vowels

Monophthongs

	front		central	back
	unrounded	rounded
close
near-open
mid
open-mid
open

The vowel occurs only in weak unstressed syllables.
In northern Bernese German, /a/ is rounded to or even merged with .

Vowel length

There is a distinctive length opposition in all vowels except . Unlike in standard German, there is no interdependence of vowel length and vowel quantity.

Diphthongs

Bernese German has seven diphthong phonemes:

★ Three closing diphthongs:

★ Three opening diphthongs:

★ One long diphthong:
The number of phonetic diphthongs and triphthongs is significantly higher, since all monophthongs (except for short ) and all opening diphthongs may be followed by a (from vocalized ), for instance → 'stable', → 'steel', → 'feeling'.
Additionally, there are certain combinations with , for instance 'toil' or 'turns' (from 'to turn').
In southern Bernese German (not in the city of Bern), there are no closing diphthongs, but instead, for instance instead of 'cloth'.
In northern Bernese German, a following triggers rounding of the preceding vowel, for instance instead of 'because'.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
'Fortis-Plosive'
'Lenis-Plosive'
'Affricates'
'Nasal'
'Fricative'
'Approximant'
'Rhotic'
'Lateral'

In the old upper-class dialect of the patricians, is used instead of .

Consonant length

Like in other Alemannic dialects, there is a length opposition in all the obstruents (plosives, nasals and fricatives) except if the obstruents is surrounded by voiced sounds. If there is another adjacent voiceless sound (except ), then the opposition is neutralized. Likewise, there is no length opposition in the affricates since they consist of two adjacent voiceless sounds.
In northern dialects, there are no long consonants at the beginning of a word, whereas in the other dialects, long plosives can occur—like in other Alemannic dialects—at the beginning of a word, for instance 'to bake' vs. 'baked (past participle)' (though in order for this opposition not to be neutralized, there must be a preceding voiced sound, for instance 'they wanted to bake this' vs. 'they wanted to have this baked').
Like in other Alemannic dialects, but unlike other Germanic languages, there is no interdependence of the length of a consonant with the length of the preceding vowel:

	short	long
short	'bowl'	'the honest ones'
long	'apes'	'to sleep'

Vocalization of /l/

Long is pronounced , for instance → 'ball'; at the end of a syllable , for instance → 'cold'.
This feature is absent in the old upper-class dialect of the patricians.

Velarization of /nt/

/nt/ is pronounced as , for instance → 'dog'.
This feature is absent in the old upper-class dialect of the patricians.
In the southwestern dialects of the Schwarzenburg area, it is pronounced .

Reduction of

In the western and southern dialects (not in the city of Bern), is pronounced , for instance → 'to think'.

Stress

In native word, the word stem is stressed, except verbs with a separable prefix where that prefix is stressed.
In loan words, there is—in comparison to standard German—a preference of initial stress, for instance Bernese German 'casino' vs. standard German .

Literature

★ Werner Marti (1985): Berndeusch-Grammatik, Bern: Francke. ISBN 3-7720-1587-5