pronounced as /notice/Bernese German, like other High Alemannic varieties, has a two-way contrast in plosives and fricatives that is not based on voicing, but on length. The absence of voice in plosives and fricatives is typical for all High German varieties, but many of them have no two-way contrast due to general lenition.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Near-close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
There is a distinctive length opposition in all vowels except pronounced as /[ə]/. Unlike in standard German, there is no interdependence of vowel length and vowel quality.
Bernese German has seven diphthong phonemes:
The number of phonetic diphthongs and triphthongs is significantly higher, since all monophthongs (except for short pronounced as /[i]/, pronounced as /[y]/, pronounced as /[u]/, pronounced as /[ə]/) and all opening diphthongs may be followed by a pronounced as /[w]/ (from vocalized pronounced as //l//), for instance pronounced as //ˈʃtalː// → pronounced as /[ˈʃtawː]/ ('stable'), pronounced as //ˈʃtaːl// → pronounced as /[ˈʃtaːw]/ ('steel'), pronounced as //ˈkfyə̯l// → pronounced as /[ˈkfyə̯w]/ ('feeling').
Additionally, there are certain combinations with pronounced as /[j]/, for instance pronounced as /[ˈmyə̯j]/ ('toil') or pronounced as /[ˈd̥ræːjt]/ ('turns' from pronounced as /[ˈd̥ræːjə]/ 'to turn').
In southern Bernese German (not in the city of Bern), the closing diphthongs pronounced as //ɛi̯, œi̯, ɔu̯// merge with the near-close monophthongs pronounced as //ɪː, ʏː, ʊː// to pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɪː}}, {{IPAplink|ʏː}}, {{IPAplink|ʊː}}]/, for instance pronounced as /[ˈɣ̊lɪːd̥]/ instead of pronounced as /[ˈɣ̊lɛi̯d̥]/ ('cloth'). This phenomenon is also found in the neighbouring Bernese Highlands and Sense District dialects.
In northern Bernese German, a following pronounced as /[w]/ triggers rounding of the preceding vowel, for instance pronounced as /[ʋʏw]/ instead of pronounced as /[ʋɪw]/ ('because'). This phenomenon is also found in the neighbouring Solothurn and Lucerne dialects.
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ – pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Trill | pronounced as /r/ |
Bernese German obstruents occur in pairs, as in other Alemannic varieties. These pairs are usually called fortis and lenis. They are not distinguished by voicedness, but they differ in length. A difference in tenseness is also discussed. It has not been established whether length or tenseness is the primary feature that distinguishes these pairs. Likewise, there are different possibilities of transcription. They are often transcribed with the IPA-signs for pairs of voiceless and voiced obstruents (for instance pronounced as /[p – b]/, pronounced as /[f – v]/). In order to explicate that no voicedness is involved in the contrast, the diacritic for voicelessness may be used (for instance pronounced as /[p – b̥]/, pronounced as /[s – z̥]/). Another possibility of transcription is the notation of the length, either with the IPA length sign (for instance pronounced as /[pː – p]/, pronounced as /[sː – s]/) or with doubling (for instance pronounced as /[pp – p]/, pronounced as /[ss – s]/). The opposition is only possible if the obstruents are surrounded by voiced sounds. If there is another adjacent voiceless sound (except pronounced as /[h]/), then there is no opposition.
With the fricatives, the opposition does not occur at the beginning of a syllable. This is similar to the length opposition that occurs in the continuants pronounced as /[m n l]/. With the stops, however, the opposition is not restricted with respect to syllable structure and also occurs in the syllable onset, for instance pronounced as /[ˈb̥axə]/ ('to bake') vs. pronounced as /[ˈpaxə]/ ('baked, past participle'); in order for this opposition not to be neutralized, there must be a preceding voiced sound, for instance pronounced as /[ɪ ˈʋɔt ə ˈɣ̊uəɣ̊ə ˈb̥axə]/ ('I want to bake a cake') vs. pronounced as /[ɪ ˈhan ə ˈɣ̊uəɣ̊ə ˈpaxə]/ ('I have baked a cake'). In the Northern Bernese German, however, only lenis plosives may occur at the syllable onset, so 'to bake' and 'baked (past participle)' are homophonous as pronounced as /[ˈb̥axə]/.
As in other Alemannic dialects, but unlike other Germanic languages, there is no interdependence of the length of a consonant with the length of the preceding vowel. Fortis consonants may occur after either long or short vowels, and lenis consonants as well:
| short vowel | long vowel | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lenis consonant | pronounced as /[ˈɡ̊rad̥]/ | 'just now' | pronounced as /[ˈɡ̊raːd̥]/ | 'straight' |
| pronounced as /[ˈɔv̥ə]/ | 'oven' | pronounced as /[ˈɡ̊ɔːv̥ə]/ | 'kids' | |
| fortis consonant | pronounced as /[ˈʃtat]/ | 'city' | pronounced as /[ˈʃtaːt]/ | 'state' |
| pronounced as /[ˈafə]/ | 'apes' | pronounced as /[ˈʒ̊laːfə]/ | 'to sleep' | |
Long pronounced as //lː// is pronounced pronounced as /[wː]/, for instance pronounced as //ˈb̥alːə// → pronounced as /[ˈb̥awːə]/ ('ball'); pronounced as //l// at the end of a syllable pronounced as /[w]/, for instance pronounced as //ˈɣ̊alt// → pronounced as /[ɣ̊awt]/ ('cold').
This feature is absent in the old upper-class dialect of the patricians.
pronounced as //nd̥// is pronounced pronounced as /[ŋː]/ in most cases, for instance pronounced as //hʊnd̥// → pronounced as /[hʊŋː]/ ('dog') or pronounced as //ɣ̊ɪnd̥// → pronounced as /[ɣ̊ɪŋː]/ ('child'). However, there are some words like pronounced as /[ʋɪnd̥]/ ('wind') or pronounced as /[v̥rʏnd̥]/ ('friend') in which pronounced as //nd̥// is not velarized.
This feature is absent in the old upper-class dialect of the patricians.
In the southwestern dialects of the Schwarzenburg area, it is pronounced pronounced as /[nː]/.
In the western and southern dialects (not in the city of Bern), pronounced as //ŋk͡x// is pronounced pronounced as /[jɣ̊]/, for instance pronounced as //ˈd̥æŋk͡xə// → pronounced as /[ˈd̥æjɣ̊ə]/ ('to think').
In native words, the word stem is stressed, except verbs with a separable prefix where that prefix is stressed.
In loan words, there is – in comparison to standard German – a preference for initial stress, for instance Bernese German pronounced as /[ˈkaz̥inɔ]/ ('casino'), pronounced as /[ˈʒ̊alɛ(ː)]/ ('chalet') vs. standard German pronounced as /[kaˈziːno]/, pronounced as /[ʃaˈleː]/.
Like other High Alemannic varieties, Bernese German shows monosyllabic lengthening in comparison to Middle High German, in words such as pronounced as /[ˈb̥aːd̥]/ ('bath'), pronounced as /[ˈrɛːd̥]/ ('speech'). However, there is normally no open syllable lengthening, so the corresponding disyllabic words have a short vowel, such as pronounced as /[ˈb̥ad̥ə]/ ('to bathe'), pronounced as /[ˈrɛd̥ə]/ ('to speak'). Open syllable lengthening occurs only in a few cases, mainly before pronounced as /[l]/ and pronounced as /[r]/, for example pronounced as /[ˈv̥aːrə]/ ('to drive') or pronounced as /[ˈtæːlər]/ ('valleys').
A distinctive trait of Bernese German that sets it apart from other High Alemannic varieties is the occurrence of vowel shortening in comparison to Middle High German. This shortening applies most generally before [t] in words such as pronounced as /[ˈtsit]/ ('time') or pronounced as /[ˈlut]/ ('loud'). Before other consonants, it may be restricted to disyllabic words, for instance pronounced as /[ˈv̥inər]/ ('finer'), pronounced as /[ˈv̥ulə]/ ('to foul') as opposed to monosyllabic pronounced as /[v̥iːn]/ ('fine'), pronounced as /[v̥uː]/ ('foul') with an unshortened vowel.
In the close vowels, the shortened and lengthened vowels remain distinct from originally short and long vowels. This is why the distinction between close and near-close vowels is phonemic, even though the contrast has a low functional load, with only very few actual minimal pairs such as pronounced as /[ˈritər]/ ('rider', shortened vowel) vs. pronounced as /[ˈrɪtər]/ ('knight', originally short vowel) or pronounced as /[ˈtʏːrə]/ ('door', lengthened vowel) vs. pronounced as /[ˈtyːrə]/ ('to increase in price', originally long vowel).