Phonetic and Phonological Aspects of Geminate Timing

CHAPTER 3

Bernese

 

3.1 Introduction

The majority of Swiss German dialects are notable for the lack of contrastive aspiration and voicing in their stop inventories (Kohler 1984, Fulop 1994, Willi 1996; see also Goblirsch 1994a for an overview). A common thread throughout the descriptive literature on Swiss German is the characterization of the contrast in the stops as one involving a lenis-fortis distinction, realized as a difference in closure duration: Lenis stops are shorter than fortis stops, which themselves are longer following short vowels than following long vowels (Winteler 1876, Fischer 1960, Bossard 1962, Baur 1969, Marti 1985a, Fulop 1994, Willi 1996). This three-way surface distinction in closure duration typically extends to a portion ...