1. Summary

This introductory textbook provides undergraduate German students with an introduction to German phonology and, to a lesser degree, phonetics. The primary themes of the book include human communication, articula-tory phonetics, phonology, orthography, suprasegmentals (syllables, stress, and intonation), alternations, and sound change/dialectal variation. The book has nine chapters, most of which begin with a section entitled Ziele that links each chapter to the preceding one and provides an overview of what is to come. Practical questions and a large number of examples and illustrations are interspersed throughout the chapters. Each chapter ends with a summary. As it was designed as an introductory text, the chapters themselves contain very few references, all of which are included in the bibliography. An index is provided at the end of the book. Since the book was written in German for students studying linguistics at German-speaking institutions, if one makes use of it outside of Germany, it is important to make sure that students have intermediate to advanced knowledge of German. As the course progresses, students with a back-ground in linguistics may have an advantage over those without, but the coverage is basic enough that even students for whom this is the first linguistics course should be able to understand the material.

Chapter 1, the introduction, begins with a statement that the book was designed to provide a concise introduction to the questions and results of our current study of sounds. Wiese presents the notions of standard and norm, and begins to distinguish the field of phonetics from phonology. The book then moves on to focus on phonetics in chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2, Wiese discusses the process of communication: from the speaker (articulatory phonetics) through the propagating medium (acoustic phonetics) to the hearer (auditory phonetics). He then proceeds to disentangle orthography from IPA transcription, and he provides the English version of the IPA chart. Wiese presents the basics of articulatory phonetics in chapter 3. As such, he provides an overview of the general process of articulation and goes on to describe the classifi-cation and production of both consonants and vowels; important concepts, including German <r>, vowel length and diphthongs, are taken up. Figures provided in this chapter include, among others, the articula-tory tract, open and closed vocal folds, a waveform, and the vowel trapezoid. Practical exercises making use of the IPA are also incorpor-ated into the chapter.

Chapter 4 deals with the phonemic system of German, and at the outset Wiese clarifies the distinction between the fields of phonetics and phonology. Concepts including phonemes, minimal pairs, and vowel quantity and quality are covered. Diphthongs and affricates also receive special attention in the chapter. He concludes the chapter with a discussion of some of the central challenges in the classification of German phonemes including the status of foreign sounds, German <r>, the dorsal fricatives, and the glottal stop. A final discussion of natural classes and distinctive features rounds out the chapter. Wiese's discussion of segments continues in chapter 5, where the focus is on the relationship between orthography and sounds. A primary goal of the chapter is to provide the reader with evidence that letters do not stand in a one-to-one relationship with phonemes.

Chapters 6 and 7 shift the focus of the book from segmental to suprasegmental. Chapter 6 deals with syllables and accent (both word and sentence stress), and chapter 7—with intonation. Wiese points to the salience of the syllable in speech development and in poetry in chapter 6. He goes on to provide the reader with definitions and examples demon-strating the roles played by phonotactics and sonority in the organization of syllables, and he provides hierarchical models of the syllable as well as exercises that enable readers to apply the theories to create/predict syl-lable structure. The discussion of accent moves from word stress in multisyllabic words to phrasal accent. Through a discussion of the hierar-chical structure of feet, Wiese presents rules for glottal stop insertion. Practical exercises in chapter 6 require students to apply stress rules. Wiese continues his discussion of prosody in chapter 7, where he focuses on intonation. He relies on figures to show what one can glean about pro-sody from waveforms, intensity, and pitch tracks. The chapter continues with a more general discussion of tones that focuses on the phonological features of tones in Chinese. This is followed by an examination of the relationship between tone (that is, intonational contours) and meaning in German. Wiese ends the chapter by focusing on the role of intonational phrases in structures such as lists and relative clauses, and in disam-biguating globally ambiguous sentences like Maria glaubt Thomas nicht, which can be interpreted in English as ‘Maria doesn't believe Thomas’ or ‘Maria believes. Thomas doesn't’.

The foci of chapters 8 and 9 are alternations and change/variation, respectively. The alternations that Wiese covers in chapter 8 include dor-sal fricative assimilation, final devoicing, nasal assimilation, schwa realization, r-vocalization, and umlaut. As Wiese has provided an exten-sive discussion of the syllable in chapter 6, he is able to provide explanations of alternations in suprasegmental terms. Although he does not clarify the phenomena on the basis of formal rules, he does take a generative approach in his explanation of the alternations. Finally, in chapter 9, Wiese continues his coverage of fluctuation focusing on the relationship between diachronic change and phonological variation across German-speaking regions. These include vowel lengthening in open syllables, neutralization of the voicing distinction, g-spirantization, and schwa syncope.

2. Evaluation

This book provides a clear and concise introduction to German phonetics and phonology. In spite of its introductory nature, it is more theoretical and provides a clearer distinction between the fields of phonetics and phonology than Hall 2003 or Russ 2010. It differs from Wiese 2000 in that there is a discussion of phonetics. In contrast to Hall 2000 and Wiese 2000, the discussion of phonology in the book is more basic and less tied to a specific theoretical framework. The German textbook by Grassegger (2010) with an almost identical name (Phonetik, Phonologie) was written for a very different audience: speech and occupational therapists.

As Wiese's Phonetik und Phonologie was written to provide a theor-etical basis to undergraduate students who already speak German, it does not provide those learning German as a second language with exercises to practice the perception or production of German segments or prosody. Similarly, it does not provide students with in-depth theoretical discussions of phonetics or the opportunity to perform acoustic analyses of their speech or that of others. Finally, as the target audience of the book is native German speakers, there are few references to other languages and no recordings of the segments or examples. Instructors who wish to add these elements to their classes should be able to do so, however, without the concern that they will not be able to cover the content of the book. The material presented in the book is clear and concise enough to be covered over the course of one academic term.

The figures and exercises throughout the book are well placed, and provide illustrations and applications of important concepts. While a few of the exercises rely on native speaker intuitions (for instance, asking students to consider their own productions of words), most can be com-pleted by non-native speakers of German. Wiese's coverage of supra-segmental phenomena over the course of two chapters is laudable and more thorough than that provided in other introductory works (for example, Grassegger 2010, C. Hall 2003, T. A. Hall 2000, Russ 2010).

Perhaps the most striking feature of the book is its clarity. Each chapter builds on that which was previously presented, and readers are encouraged to apply what they know to understand the practical ap-plications of research in the fields. It would be an ideal book in an introductory phonetics and phonology class taught in German, regardless of whether the classroom is in a German-speaking country or whether the students are intermediate or advanced German language learners.