A PHONOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF TERMS IN GERMAN AND ENGLISH MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TEXTBOOKS

Vesna Cigan

Abstract


Both phonology and phonetics contribute to a better understanding of how a language makes up syllables and words to serve as a means of communication. This paper aims at analysing and contrasting the terms in German and English mechanical engineering texts regarding their phonological features, similarities, and differences. In this analysis, a lexical unit serves as a point of departure, but the syllable as a phonological unit has been used as a prime. Syllables exhibit a varying degree of complexity, ranging from a simple V syllable to a CCCVC syllable template. The prevailing syllable template in the analysed technical vocabulary was CVC, followed by the CV syllable template, as an absolute universal in world languages. Applying the notion of sonority to analyse consonantal sequences in onsets and codas, several language-specific violations of the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) were found. Furthermore, special attention was given to the vowel and diphthong features that pointed to differences between the two languages. The findings of the sample analysis gave rise to the observation that language-specific phonological constraints are attested in the sample features.

 

Keywords


phonology, LSP, syllable, syllable template, consonantal sequences, phonological constraints

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