Two palatovelar fricatives?! the case of the ich-Laut in German

Abstract

Abstract This study concentrates on the alternation between two dorsal fricatives: [x] and [ç] in Modern Standard German. The primary source of data for the analysis include both native German words and loanwords. Moreover, the discussion encompasses some strictly related processes such as g-spirantization [g] > [x]/[ç], e.g. Ber[ç] ‘mountain’ and Ta[x] ‘day’, and coronalization [ç] > [ʃ], e.g. mi[ʃ] ‘me’ found in various German dialects and colloquial variants. Finally, since it is responsible for the appearance of both alternants in an identical context, e.g. Frau[ç]en ‘woman, dim’ and rau[x]en ‘to smoke’, a brief look is taken at the historical development of the diminutive suffix chen. It is argued here that in contemporary German there are two palatovelar fricatives [ç] which differ in their internal organization of the melodic content. In loanwords and in the diminutive suffix -chen, [ç] is lexically specified for palatality, while after front vowels and coronal sonorants the same fricative shares the palatality element with the preceding segment. The analysis is couched in a recent version of Element Theory and it proceeds on two assumptions: a) front vowels and coronal sonorants [l ʁ n] in German are defined by the resonance element |I| and b) [ç] is a complex segment containing two resonants |I| and |U|.