Word-final T-deletion in Southern German

An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The recordings of 20 native German speakers were analysed to identify the strongest factors affecting the rates of word-final t-deletion. Deletion rates were shown to be higher for /t/s in semiweak verbs, when preceded or followed by sibilants, and in a conversational speaking style. In addition to this, frequent words showed higher deletion rates. English and German t-deletion were comparable to some extent in this study. However, deletion rates by morphological complexity showed differences between the languages: monomorphemic words, in particular, had lower deletion rates in German than in English. It was also shown that reading aloud reduces the deletion rates significantly which is in line with previous research.