VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
“gugge”, gukke” (2x), “puppe”, and “kukke” 80 . T-tests render no differences with the
vowel /u/ for F1 and F2, and a slight difference for F3, the value being lower for the
phonologically [–constricted] vowel, pointing to a difference in constriction degree.
4.4.4. The upper pharyngeal vowels
A constriction in the upper pharyngeal region leads to a low F1, low F2, and a high F3.
Accompanied by lip protrusion, a low F2 value is maintained over long stretches of
constriction locations (quantal region, Stevens 1972, 1989); consequently, there is
hardly any difference in F2 between /u/ and /o/. Acoustically, the difference between /u/
and /o/ is carried out by F1 and F3, which are both higher for /o/ (see Figure 4.24 as
compared to Figure 4.22).
Figure 4.24: Average spectrum of the vowel /o/ taken from the logatome “pobe”, speaker sp012.
Both constriction degree and degree of lip opening are higher for the unconstricted
cognate /O/. Degree of lip protrusion, however, does not differ substantially (Valaczkai
1998). Pouplier et al. (2004) report higher tongue-palate distance for unconstricted /O/.
Consequently, F1 and F2 are higher for /O/, and F3 is lower than for /o/ (Figure 4.25).
80 Interestingly, Pouplier et al. (2004), who observed neutralization of tongue-palate
distance for the /u/-vowels, analyzed their vowels in velar context.