VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
vowels, the upper-pharyngeal from the velar vowels, and the pre-palatal and velar
vowels from the lower-pharyngeal vowels in the most formal speaking tasks.
4.4.7. Evaluation of the results
The acoustic analysis clearly corroborates the assumption of five constriction locations
for Standard Austrian German. Therefore, the features [± front], [± pre-palatal], [±
velar], and [± lower pharyngeal] can be maintained. Lip protrusion was also verfied,
thus justifying the feature [± round]. As concerns the vowel pairs on each location, the
discriminatory power of F1 is higher than that of F2 or F3. In case a vowel pair shows
some tendency towards neutralization, F1 is usually the last discriminatory parameter to
be discarded. An exception to this rule are the /u/ – vowels, which, for two speakers,
maintain an opposition with respect to F3, in this case, as argued in 4.4.3, shifting the
opposition to the degree of lip protrusion. Therefore, as far as can be evaluated from the
acoustic data, constriction degree plays a minor role and is outmatched by degree of lip
aperture, i.e., at each location, the vowel traditionally termed “lax” exposes a higer
degree of lip opening 82 . Constriction degree is only relevant in stressed positions. In
unstressed positions, this opposition is easily neutralized. The degree of lip opening,
however, is often maintained over all prosodic positions. Therefore, the feature [±open]
is added. Differences between the /A/ – vowels only appear sporadically, most of the
time, this opposition is given up. Therefore, only one /A/ – vowel is assumed to be of
relevance in Standard Austrian German. The tendency to neutralize the /i/ – vowels, the
/y/ – vowels, and the /u/ – vowels is not yet that advanced to justify discarding the
respective feature. It is, however, of relevance to note that in case neutralization occurs,
the [+open, –constricted] vowel assimilates to the [–open, +constricted] one. This
challenges assumptions that sound changes have anything to do with ease of articulation
82 This result is not in contradiction with the observation that the /e/ – vowels have a higher
degree of lip opening than the /i/ – vowels.
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