VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
the burst of /t/. Values of formant frequencies can be read from the panel below.
Bottom panel: waveform window, next panel from bottom: spectrogram window,
left upper panel: waveform zoom window, right upper panel: amplitude spectrum
window.
The burst spectra of the two alveolar plosives differ considerably: In the case of /i#ti/
the tongue is already in a palatal position, causing prominent spectral peaks at approxi-
mately 2200 Hz and 3070 Hz, associated with F2 and F3. The formant frequency values
at vowel offset of the vowel preceding the plosive, accordingly, have high F2 and F3
values. In the case of /i#to/ (Figure 5.3), two prominent spectral peaks occur at approxi-
mately 1650 Hz and 2250 Hz, associated with F2 and F3 respectively. F2 and F3 values
at vowel offset are lower than for V1 in /i#ti/, but still reflect a clear /i/-quality for /i/ in
unstressed positions. These lower values point to a smaller contact area of the tongue
blade in the case of /ito/ rather than to anticipated lip protrusion. Lip protrusion starts at
plosive release and, with a VOT of only 24 ms, the transition is pulled substantially into
V2.
Transconsonantal anticipatory lip protrusion would trigger much lower F2 and F3
values at vowel offset of V1 as the ones observed in the /i#to/ sequence discussed for
Figure 5.3 or in the other /i#CV2/ sequences with C being an alveolar plosive and V2 a
back, protruded vowel. Figure 5.4 exposes an example for transconsonantal anticipatory
lip protrusion and tongue body retraction in the sequence /i#hu/ from "die Hupe" (the
horn). /h/, being a neutral consonant from an articulatory point of view, would allow a
diphthongal movement from /i/ to /u/. It can be seen from Figure 5.4 that F2 and F3
show lower values (1840 Hz and 2250 Hz respectively) at vowel offset, which in turn is
already substantially affected by breathiness associated with /h/. However, most of the
tongue body retraction and lip protrusion takes place during /h/ 93 .
93 V1CV2 sequences, where V1 and C are not separated by a word boundary, have been
investigated in Moosmüller (2007b). Only for one speaker (sp129) transconsonental lip
protrusion could be proved.
130