Aspiration of fortis plosives in multiethnolectal Zurich German

Abstract

In the last decades, new ways of speaking have emerged in urban areas of German-speaking Switzerland (so-called multiethnolects), which are distinct from more traditional Swiss German dialects (i.e., Zurich German) on various linguistic levels. In this study, we analyze aspiration patterns of word-initial fortis plosives in read and spontaneous speech of Zurich German speaking adolescents. Speakers who were perceived as more multiethnolectal show a smaller difference of normalized VOT values between phonologically unaspirated and aspirated plosives in read speech. This difference even disappears completely for bilabial plosives. For alveolar plosives, the difference is bigger for speakers who were perceived as more traditional. These results are mostly confirmed by the spontaneous speech data. Future research may show whether this VOTmerging of traditionally unaspirated and aspirated fortis plosives is a sign of an emerging sound change and to what extent these findings affect the plosive system of Zurich German in general