Chemnitz German phonology

This article is about the phonology of the Upper Saxon German dialect of Chemnitz.

Consonants

 * Stops and fricatives are voiceless, whereas nasals and approximants are voiced. The rhotic may be either voiced or voiceless, see below.
 * are bilabial, whereas are labiodental.  -  do not constitute a voiceless-voiced pair.
 * are velar, are uvular, and  is palatal.  -  do not constitute a voiceless-voiced pair.
 * occurs only in onsets, and it has few possible pronunciations, which are in free variation with one another:
 * Voiced uvular approximant ;
 * Voiced or voiceless  lenis uvular fricative;
 * Voiceless uvular trill ;
 * Unaspirated voiceless uvular stop.
 * may be voiced between sonorants, either partially or fully.
 * occurs in complementary distribution with ; the latter can only occur syllable-initially in stressed syllables and word-initially, whereas occurs in all other positions.

Vowels
The pharyngealized vowels correspond to the sequences of vowel + in the standard language.

Monophthongs

 * Notes about plain vowels:
 * is close front unrounded.
 * is somewhat retracted close central rounded.
 * is close-mid near-front unrounded.
 * is somewhat retracted close-mid front unrounded.
 * are slightly retracted close-mid central rounded . The only difference between them is that is very slightly more back and very slightly lower.
 * is mid central rounded.
 * are open-mid retracted front unrounded . is more back than.
 * are open-mid central unrounded . The only difference between them is that is very slightly more back.


 * Notes about pharyngealized vowels:
 * is near-close somewhat retracted near-back rounded.
 * is mid near-back unrounded.
 * are mid near-back rounded.
 * Phonemically, the short can be analyzed as short pharyngealized monophthong  or, a sequence  or , or a syllabic rhotic.
 * is open-mid near-back rounded.
 * is somewhat raised near-open near-front unrounded.

Allophones
Unstressed may all be reduced to.

is often fronted when utterance-final.

Monophthongs are allophonically pharyngealized if a vowel in the following syllable is pharyngealized. In Dresden, this also applies to consonants, as well as consonants and vowels in the syllable after the one with a pharyngealized vowel.

Furthermore, monophthongs are somewhat retracted when they precede dorsals, except. The retraction is strongest before. A weaker retraction occurs when monophthongs follow a dorsal (except ) with, again, the strongest retraction after uvulars.

are often diphthongal in careful speech. Monophthongal realizations are common before consonant clusters in syllable coda, where they are optionally shortened.

Front rounded vowels
In cognates of some Standard German words, speakers fluent in Standard German occasionally produce, which contrast with as well as , for instance Brüder  'brothers'. In other cases, they are pronounced the same as.

Diphthongs

 * Notes about diphthongs:
 * is phonetically . It begins mid somewhat advanced central rounded, ends near-close near-front rounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins near-open near-front unrounded, ends lowered close-mid front unrounded.
 * is phonetically . It begins near-open near-front unrounded, ends slightly lowered close-mid central rounded.

Sample
The sample text is a reading of The North Wind and the Sun.

Orthographic version (standard German)
Eines Tages haben sich der Nordwind und die Sonne gezankt, wer von den beiden denn nun der Stärkere ist, als ein Wanderer mit einem warmen Mantel an, vorbeikam. Der Nordwind und die Sonne waren sich einig, dass der Stärkere von den beiden den Mantel vom Wanderer kriegen soll. Der Nordwind pustete was das Zeug hielt, aber je mehr er pustete, um so mehr verkriechte sich der Wanderer in seinen Mantel. Der Nordwind gab auf. Dann hat es die Sonne auch versucht mit ihren warmen Sonnenstrahlen. Und im Nu schmiss der Wanderer seinen Mantel weg. Da musste der Nordwind zugeben, dass die Sonne die Stärkere von den beiden ist.