VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
Results of own data may add to the discussion. Standard German, as well as Standard
Austrian German, differentiate vowels for lip protrusion. This might put some constraint
on anticipatory lip protrusion in order to avoid mixing of the front protruded and
unprotruded vowels (see Farnetani 1999, but see Lubker & Gay 1982, Vaxelaire et al.
2003, and Roy et al. 2003 for contradictory results, who observed earlier lip protrusion
in their Swedish and French subjects respectively). Lip protrusion, consequently, should
not start earlier than the consonant preceding the protruded vowel, but rather at the
earliest point in time after consonant release. This has been tested for CV sequences for
stressed vowels, sentence reading task 90 , where C is either a lenis or fortis alveolar
plosive and V a back protruded vowel /o/ or /u/. The acoustics of a CV sequence where
C is an alveolar plosive and V a back protruded vowel demand a steep F2 transition
starting (theoretically) at approximately 1800 Hz at consonant release and falling to
approximately 800 Hz to 600 Hz for the vowel when lip protrusion has been
accomplished 91 . Therefore the point in time at which lip protrusion finishes can be
tested from F2 at vowel onset and the following transition into the vowel 92 . In the case
where F2 is low at vowel onset and shows no more movement, lip protrusion has taken
place already during the time from consonant release until vowel onset (VOT). Where
F2 is high at vowel onset, however, lip protrusion starts at vowel onset and F2 shows a
gradual fall into the vowel.
90 Stressed vowels from reading sentences tasks have been chosen, because Standard
Austrian German shows some tendencies towards neutralization of the fortis/lenis
opposition for front plosives (see Moosmüller & Ringen 2004, Moosmüller 1991, 1987).
Therefore, hardly any fortis plosives with sufficient VOT duration (> 40 ms) can be
found in spontaneous speech or in unstressed positions.
91 For the back protruded vowels, there is not much difference in the formant frequencies of
F1 and F2 for female and male speakers due to compensatory strategies and the fact that
the main differences between a male and a female vocal tract appear in the pharynx (see
Fant 2004).
92 In /du/ or /do/ sequences, F2 is the result of the backwards movement of the tongue body
and lip protrusion. F2 values are lower for protruded than for less protruded back vowels,
which shows that lip protrusion adds quite substantially to the value of F2, a drop of
approximately 200 Hz to 400 Hz, depending on constriction location.
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