VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
together (Stevens 1999). The terms “front” or “back” are, however, misleading if used
for the /a/ – vowels, since these terms usually refer to constriction location. It has been
already pointed out (Chapter 4.3.1), that the degree of constriction is higher for the
“back” /A/ as compared to “front” /a/. Therefore, it is more accurate to distinguish the
two vowels, if necessary, by the feature [±constricted]. Moreover, degree of lip aperture
is greater for the [+constricted] vowel /A/ (Valaczkai 1998). According to these
articulatory configurations the [–constricted] vowel /a/ should expose a lower F1, a
higher F2, and a lower F3 than its [+constricted] cognate.
However, in Standard Austrian German, hardly any differences could be found for
the two /a/ – vowels with respect to constriction degree, even in the most formal
speaking task – the reading of logatomes. Therefore, the spectra in Figures 4.27 and
4.28 are nearly identical, although they are assumed to represent the vowels /a/ (Figure
4.27) and /A/ (Figure 4.28) respectively. There are some differences in bandwidth and
amplitude of F3, which might be a consequence of increased acoustic losses due to a
lower jaw position for the vowel /A/. But these differences are not consistent, i.e. both
/a/ and /A/ can exhibit greater bandwidths for F3.
Figure 4.27: Average spectrum of the vowel /a/ taken from the logatome “pabbe”, speaker
sp012.