Weak tone

Weak form and strong form ( english weak form ) and Starktonform ( English strong form ) are terms from phonology .

In the so-called "stress-timed" languages ("accent-counting languages") such as German , Dutch , Danish and English , clitization regularly occurs, i.e. a phonetic weakening, whereby a weakly stressed or unstressed word is important the preceding word (enclise) or based on the following word (proclise).

Thus, in the phrase "are you from?" [ Kɔmsd̥u ] in German, also in a sophisticated vernacular , the auslautende [⁠ t ⁠] "come" of and anlautende [⁠ d ⁠] of "you" to a unvoiced alveolar plosive fused. In addition, the syllable "du" is quantitatively weakened, but the original quality of the vowel ("u") is retained. In normal colloquial language, the weakening goes so far that the vowel is weakened to a Schwa or omitted entirely ( Come ? [ ˈKɔmstə ], come '?). There is thus both a quantitative and a qualitative weakening. An example is the following phonological sentence: "Samma Mamma sommakomm", in standard German: "Say Mamma, she should come sometime". Likewise the completely common slang phrase "Sommamagehn?" = "Shall we go?"

German dialects

All the more so than the standard German language, German dialects are “more perfect” accent counting languages. Clitization of secondary functional words is therefore the rule there:

Bavarian : wiss mà (we know), gib màs ( give me it ), håbs scho ( I already have it )
Kölsch : isch hannet schonn ( I already have it )
Palatinate : isch habbschunn ( I already have it ), kummo hää ( come over here ), gebbs mer ( give it to me )
Missingsch : what 'that? ( what is that? ), you know? ( do you want to? )

Weak tone and strong tone forms in English

English is one of the languages with the most pronounced system of weak and strong tone forms. Appropriate use of weak tone forms is characteristic of natural sounding English.

Pronounced weak tone forms, i.e. word forms that are qualitatively weakened and quantitatively shortened depending on the rules of the English language rhythm, are not a characteristic of a distinctive colloquial language in the English language, but in contrast to German also a typical characteristic of the cultivated colloquial language. The strong forms of the functional words ( articles , prepositions , conjunctions , pronouns and auxiliary verbs ) in the English language are only used for emphatic reasons, at the beginning and at the end of the speech act.

In British Received Pronunciation , the following words have the following strong and weak tones:

word	Starktonform	Weak tone (s)
a	[ eɪ ]	[⁠ ə ⁠]
at the	[ æm ]	[ əm, m ]
on	[ æn ]	[ ən ]
other	[ ænd ]	[ (ə) nd, ən, n̩ ]
are	[ ɑː (r) ]	[⁠ ə (r) ⁠]
as	[ æz ]	[ əz ]
at	[ æt ]	[ ət ]
be	[ biː ]	[ bi, bɪ ]
because	[ bɪˈkɔz ]	[ bɪkɘz, kɘz ]
be	[ biː ]	[ bɪ, bi ]
been	[ biːn ]	[ bɪn ]
but	[ bʌt ]	[ bət ]
can	[ kæn ]	[ kən, kŋ ]
could	[ kʊd ]	[ kəd, kd ]
do	[ youː ]	[ you, də, d ]
does	[ dʌz ]	[ dəz, z, s ]
for	[ for (r) ]	[ f (r), fr ]
from	[ fɹɒm ]	[ fɹ (ə) m ]
had	[ hæd ]	[ həd, əd, d ]
has	[ hæz ]	[ həz, əz ]
have	[ hæv ]	[ həv, əv ]
hey	[ hiː ]	[ (h) ɪ, iː ]
here	[ hɜː (r) ]	[ (hə) (r), ɜː (r) ]
him	[ hɪm ]	[ ɪm ]
his	[ hɪz ]	[ ɪz ]
just	[ dʒʌst ]	[ dʒəst, dʒ (ə) s ]

word	Starktonform	Weak tone (s)
madam	[ mædəm, mæm ]	[ məm, m ]
me	[ miː ]	[ mi, mɪ ]
must	[ must ]	[ must, must ]
not	[ nɒt ]	[ n (t) ]
of	[ ɒv ]	[ əv, v, f, ə ]
or	[ ɔː (r) ]	[ ə (r) ]
Saint	[ seɪnt ]	[ sɘn (t), sɪn (t), sn (t) ]
shall	[ ʃæl ]	[ ʃ (ə) l ]
she	[ ʃiː ]	[ ʃɪ ]
should	[ ʃʊd ]	[ ʃəd ]
sir sir	[ sɜː (r) ]	[ sə (r) ]
some	[ sʌm ]	[ səm ]
than	[ ðæn ]	[ ð (ə) n ]
that	[ ðæt ]	[ ðət ]
the	[ ðiː ]	[ ðə ]
there	[ ðɛɘ (r) ]	[ ðə (r) ]
them	[ ðɛm ]	[ ðəm, ðm, m ]
to	[ doː ]	[ tu, tʊ, tə ]
us	[ ʌs ]	[ əs, s ]
What	[ wɒz ]	[ wəz ]
we	[ wiː ]	[ wi, wɪ ]
were	[ wɜː (r) ]	[ wə (r) ]
want	[ wɪl ]	[ əl, l̩, l ]
would	[ wʊd ]	[ wəd, əd, d ]
you	[ juː ]	[ jʊ, jə ]

Remarks

↑ some is used in the weak tone when it means "something, a few". It is in the unstressed Starktonform [ sʌm ] speaking, if it points back to a previous noun: Want some [ səm ] tea? - No, had some [ sʌm ]. (Eng .: Do you want tea? - No, I already had. ) It is also spoken in the emphasized strong tones when it means “some, certain”: Some [ sʌm ] people are that way. ( German : Some people are like that! )

[some-1] some is used in the weak tone when it means "something, a few". It is in the unstressed Starktonform [ sʌm ] speaking, if it points back to a previous noun: Want some [ səm ] tea? - No, had some [ sʌm ]. (Eng .: Do you want tea? - No, I already had. ) It is also spoken in the emphasized strong tones when it means “some, certain”: Some [ sʌm ] people are that way. ( German : Some people are like that! )