Native vs. Non-native ‘th‘

A short comparisonBy

Finn Kristensen

Sabrina Riedel

Tim Rocktaeschel

Marco Tiedemann

Hypothesis

German English speakers substitute the sound /z/ for the sounds /θ/ and /ð/ because these sounds don’t exist in the German language, and are therefore difficult to reproduce.

Method

We used a native speaker of German and a native speaker of English who both read the same text

Didn‘t use same words; were looking only for sounds

Wav files were obtained from course cd Compared the spoken sounds using Praat

Soundfeatures

Sounds Place of articulation

Manner of articulation

Force of articulation

Voiceless /θ/

dental fricative lenis

Voiced /ð/ dental fricative fortis

German /z/

alveolar fricative lenis

German /s/

alveolar fricative fortis

German /t/ alveolar plosive lenis

German /d/

alveolar plosive fortis

The /th/: Tongue Placement

If you put your tongue right behind your teeth, you will make a /d/ or /t/ sound instead of /ð/ or /θ/ sound. If it sounds like you are making an /z/ or /s/ sound, it is because your tongue touches your alveolar ridge.

Voiced “th“= /ð/ Voiceless“th“=/θ/

Ze Tiger and ze Mous

Example of a German accent

German /z/

Compared German/English Voiceless /th/

native unvoiced /th/ German unvoiced /th/

Compared German/English Voiced /ð/

German voiced /ð/ Native voiced / ð /

Good Pronunciation: An Early Start Helps

Children:Because of play instinct easiness about imitating foreign language.

  Caused by Psychological andPhysical factors

Adults mostly have an analytical approach

Conclusion

We were unable to gather enough data to prove that all German English speakers with poor pronunciation substitute a /z/ for the voiced and voiceless th sounds, or that they do this because the sounds don‘t exist in the German language. Our example shows, however, that our hypothesis isn‘t entirely untrue.

The End