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Abstract –Speakers can often be allocated to a region based on regionally marked features. One of these phonetic features, which is often mentioned by subjects in perception experiments (cf. Anders 2010, 281), is the regionally different pronunciation of Standard German /g/. A frequently studied phenomenon is /g/ in initial position which is often spirantized to [j]. For example, /g/ in Standard German gut /ɡuːt/ (cf. Mangold 2005: 382) (ʻgood/wellʼ) is pronounced [j] in the Brandenburg language area (cf. NOSA 2015: 237, map 5.1 and 239, map 5.2; WDU 1978, map 115). On the other hand, in Bavaria /g/ in initial position is often unvoiced pronounced as can be seen in gleich /ɡla͜iç/ (cf. Mangold 2005: 366) (ʻsame/soonʼ) (cf. AADG 2011ff., map Gipfel).
Even if the phenomenon of /g/-variation is well researched in the German dialect areas (see various language atlases, for example SBS 2001, map 115ak geflochten; MRhSA 1999, map 386 Wagen), there are no cross-space analyses available in the near-standard registers for all of Germany. Recent studies mainly deal with sub-regions of Germany (cf. NOSA 2015 for North Germany) or specific contexts of /g/ (cf. AADG 2011ff. for /g/ in initial position or between two voiced sounds).
Our study is based on audio recordings collected as part of the research project Regionalsprache.de (REDE), funded by the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz. The recordings differ in the recording situation (interview, translating, reading aloud etc.). For our purposes, we selected two standard-oriented recording situations in order to examine the g-variation in the regional accents in Germany. By regional accent we mean the near-standard speech style as part of the so-called ‘regiolect’, ranging between dialect and Standard German (Kehrein 2019, 122). The regional accent is characterised by its comprehensibility across the German language area and its relatively young age (cf. Schmidt/Herrgen 2011, 66).
For this purpose, recordings of 100 male speakers were phonetically notated and analysed, distributed over two generations as well as two recording situations/communicative contexts: 50 speakers of the older generation (over 65 years old, mainly manually employed) and 50 speakers of the middle generations (45 to 55 years old, police officers) were asked to pronounce Standard German sentences to the best of their abilities (i.e. in translating 40 so-called ‘Wenker Sätze’ and reading a text aloud). The survey locations are spread over nine regions throughout Germany (according to Lameli 2013) with between three to eight locations per region. Per survey location, one informant from the old and one from the middle generation of speakers were analysed.
Our aim is to provide an overview of /g/-variation in the German regional accents all over Germany. In doing so, we want to answer the following research questions: Which variations of /g/ are realised in the different regions? Do spatial differences reveal themselves in maps? On the one hand, we will look at different contexts in which /g/ occurs (initial, inlaut, final ), as well as other factors (age, script-induced/non-script-induced, etc.) that could be influential.