Transcript alpenmilch - uni

Native vs. Non-native ‘th‘
A short comparison
By
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
alveolar
plosive
fortis
German
/d/
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
Adults mostly have
Children:
an analytical
Because of play
approach
instinct 
easiness about
imitating foreign
language.
Caused by
Psychological and
Physical factors
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