Blurb:

German is a cousin of English in the family of Germanic languages; hence the many notable similarities in vocabulary, grammar and phonology. At the level of word phonology, the similarity includes a set of plosives with matching nasals, a relatively large set of fricatives but nevertheless with marked differences, the sonorants /l, r/ but with a variation in phonetic features, a rich vowel system with short and long vowels, and marking of word stress in the first syllable of the foot. These are features common to most Germanic languages. German word phonology distinguishes itself from English principally by the more restricted distribution of voiced obstruents in syllable/wordfinal position, the addition of rounded front vowels and a much smaller system of diphthongs; also there is a strong preference for keeping word stress stable in extended word forms, which allows us to attempt to handle both mono- and poly-morphemic words together.