Lexikalischer Schwund der 〈ä〉-[æ]-Korrespondenz im Standarddeutschen
Lexical Fading of the 〈ä〉-[æ] Correspondence in Standard German

Summary/Abstract: The German pronunciation of 〈ä〉 as [a] shows great variation and is one of the main theoretical challenges inGerman vocalism. This situation points to a case of sound change in progress. According to Dressler’s (1972) theory of lexical fading, fluctuation occurs when a phoneme is disappearing. The recessive phoneme fades away slowly and gradually, not only from the lexicon, but also from individuals. Accordingly, [a] is disappearing from the lexicon. To illustrate the fading path of the [a] pronunciation a reading aloud test was developed, containing lexemes with lexically (Kase ‘cheese’), phonologically (Baren ‘Bears’ vs. Beeren ‘berries’) and morphologically (Ballchen ‘little ball’ or Vater ‘fathers’) motivated 〈ä〉 graphemes. 33 subjects, all L1-German speakers with a DaF background, were recorded reading aloud and their 〈ä〉-productions were analyzed auditorily. The main finding was that the [a]- pronunciation is more resistant to fading when it fulfills either a semantic function, as in the case of minimal pairs, or a morphological function, for instance, when it serves as a signal of a morphological category, as in Ballchen, or is itself the main signal, as in Vater.

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