User:Kolmiel/Ripuarian

This page describes the phonological system of contemporary Ripuarian, the northern dialect of Central Franconian.

The phonology of Moselle Franconian is very similar, though with the important difference that it lacks front-rounded vowels (and diphthongs).

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Post-alv.	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stop	p	t			k	(ʔ)
Voiced stop	b	d			g
Voiceless fricative	f	s	ʃ	(ɕ)	x	h
Voiced fricative	v	z	(ʒ)	(ʑ)	ɣ
Approximant/Trill	(ʋ)	l		(j)	ʀ
Nasal	m	n			ŋ

• All of the above consonants are dinstinguished in Wiktionary’s phonetic transcriptions, although those in brackets are not fully phonemic, at least not in native words:

• [ʋ] occurs only word-initially and after [ts], [ʃ], [k] (where [β] may also be heard). In most of Ripuarian, [v] occurs only word-internally, so it and [ʋ] may be considered allophones. However, in westernmost Ripuarian [v] does occur word-initially, while [f] occurs only word-internally. In this case [f] and [ʋ] might be considered allophones (which is less intuitive).
• [ɕ] is an allophone of /x/ after consonants and front vowels. [j] is an allophone of /ɣ/ after consonants and front vowels as well as word-initially. It is pronounced with friction ([ʝ]) before [ʀ] and [l]. However, /j/ is a full phoneme in loanwords (where it may occur after back vowels).
• [ʒ], [ʑ] are assimilative allophones of /ʃ/, /ɕ/ respectively (see hereunder). However, /ʒ/ is a full phoneme in loanwords.

• Word-final consonants:

• There is no phonemic voice distinction in word-final position. Word-final consonants are generally devoiced.
• Word-initial vowels are joined to the final consonant of the preceding word. In this, the word-final consonant undergoes assimilative voicing. [ʔ] is very little used in Ripuarian.

• Voiceless stops are traditionally unaspirated. Through standard German influence they may now be mildly aspirated, particularly in younger speakers. Full aspiration is still marked as non-native.
• /g/ occurs only word-internally, but is phonemically distinguished from both /k/ and /ɣ/.
• The liquid /l/ is a “dark” [ɫ] in all positions, though pronouncing a “clear” [l] is particularly marked in coda position.
• [ʀ] is vowelized before alveolars and word-finally, sometimes giving rise to diphthongs (see below).
• In contemporary Ripuarian the following mergers may occur:

• [ʃ], [ɕ] → /ʃ/ ([ʒ], [ʑ] → /ʒ/);
• [ɣ], [ʀ] → /ʁ/.

Vowels

Monophthongs in stressed syllables

	Unrounded short	Unrounded long	Front rounded short	Front rounded long	Back rounded short	Back rounded long
Open	a	aː
Mid-open	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ɔ	ɔː
Mid-closed	e	eː	ø	øː	o	oː
Closed	i	iː	y	yː	u	uː

• All of the above are fully phonemic (though stressed word-final vowels are always long).
• /a/, /aː/ are central: [ä], [äː].
• The mid-open vowels are slightly more open, thus tending towards [æ], [ɶ], [ɒ].

Monophthongs in unstressed syllables

• Long vowels are shortened in closed unstressed syllables. On the other hand, two additional phonemes are added: /ə/ and /ʌ/.
• In open unstressed syllables further reductions of the system occur:

	Front unrounded	Front rounded	Central	Back
Open			a	ʌ
Mid	e	ø	ə	o
Closed	(i)

• /i/ is generally distinguished in word-final position only.
• [e], [ø] may further merge with /ə/.
• In contemporary speech, [a], [ʌ] may also merge in /ɐ/.

Diphthongs

	Unrounded	Front rounded	Back rounded
Open-closing	ɛi̯	œy̯	ɔu̯
Mid-closing	ei̯	øy̯	ou̯
Open-centralising	(aə̯)
Mid-centralising	ɛə̯	œə̯	ɔə̯
Closed-centralising	iə̯	yə̯	uə̯

• In most dialects, the open-closing diphthongs occur chiefly in word-final position. In Kölsch, however, they also commonly occur word-internally.
• The mid-closing diphthongs occur chiefly word-finally in all dialects.
• Centralizing diphthongs are not fully phonemic, but arise through vowelization of coda /ʀ/.

• The mid- and open-centralising vowels occur only word-finally. [aə̯] is now typically merged with /aː/, and [ɔə̯] may also be merged with /ɔː/.
• The closed-centralising vowels occur word-finally and—except in Kölsch—before alveolars.

Tone

Ripuarian has a two-way system of phonemic tone distinction called Rheinische Schärfung (“Rhenish sharpening”). See German wikipedia for details. Tone distinctions are not represented in our transcriptions, but we do indicate homophones that may be distinguishable by tone.

In younger speakers the Schärfung is typically preserved only to limited degrees. (Many dialects of Moselle Franconian have lost it entirely.)