VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
F3 L L Rs Rs Rus Rus. Ss Ss Sus Sus
Sp012 2095 2061 2052 2038 2174 2111 2024 2014 2067 2180
Sp180 2417 2412 2450 2505 2783 2592 2511 2602 2662 2614
Sp082 – – 2402 2421 2544 2448 2508 2536 2520 2513
Sp129 – – 2457 2391 2538 2519 2390 2328 2473 2433
Sp126 – – 2095 2055 2206 2214 2129 2164 2189 2263
Sp127 – – 2407 2305 2590 2511 2463 2327 2506 2462
Table 4.35: Mean F3 values of /A/ and /a/ over all speaking tasks. Within each task, the value to
the left represents the vowel /A/, the value to the right the vowel /a/. Statistically
significant differences within each pair (p < 0.05) are marked in bold. Where the tvalue
is negative, the pair is additionally in italics. Legend as in Table 4.12.
As can be read from Tables 4.33 – 4.35, there are hardly any differences between /a/
and /A/. F1 is discerned in the most formal speaking task of reading logatomes and in
the stressed position by two speakers, whilst F2 is not discerned at all. F3 is only
discerned by two speakers in unstressed positions in the sentence reading task, and by
one speaker in the stressed position in reading sentences and spontaneous speech. As
concerns constriction location, the two /a/ – vowels are not discerned at all. They are,
however, sometimes discerned by either degree of lip opening or degree of constriction.
4.4.6. The role of F0
It is generally regarded as a phonetic universal that F0 correlates with vowel height
(Maddieson 1997, Fischer-Jørgensen 1990, Peterson & Barney 1952, Lehiste &
Peterson 1961, Neweklowsky 1975, Whalen & Levitt 1995, Whalen et al. 1999), i.e.
high vowels expose a higher F0 than low vowels. These results strongly suggest a
physiological mechanism which leads to a higher F0 in dependence on the degree of
constriction. Numerous studies have been carried out in order to investigate
physiological reasons for intrinsic F0 (see Connell 2002 for a concise overview), with
the result that still too little is known about the complex mechanism of laryngeal control
(Connell 2002: 121). However, several investigations provide evidence for a
phonological basis of F0 (e.g. Honda & Fujimura 1991, Kingston & Diehl 1994,