Abstract

The following paper examines the graphematic representation of long vowels in German and focusses on the mute , which is analysed more thoroughly from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The main aim ofthis paper is to show that phonological and graphematic representations involve several tiers, including the segmental and suprasegmental tier. Both the phonological and the graphematic suprasegmental tier encode the structural representation of syllables and words. Another aim is to explore the possibility of a non-functional approach to the graphematic system of German. In this kind of approach, the distribution of graphemes is analysed on the graphematic level alone, without taking their phonological function into consideration. The phonological functions of the graphematic signs under discussion will be shown to follow from their distributional properties. The main advantage of this approach is that it can explain why a particular graphematic sign may have several functions.