VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
Figure 5.4: Spectrogram of the sequence /di#'hu/ from "die Hupe" (the horn), speaker sp082,
sentence reading task. Left cursor positioned at vowel offset of /i/, right cursor at
vowel onset of /u/. Respective formant frequency values 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.
It can be concluded from these observations of the acoustic signal that, in Standard
Austrian German, lip protrusion starts at plosive release and takes some time until it is
accomplished 94 . Whether protrusion is accomplished at vowel onset or not, depends on
the time between the release of the plosive and the onset of the vowel (VOT). Lower F2
values for transconsonantal /i/ (V1) have to be attributed to the spectral shape (and
therefore articulatory configuration) of the intervocalic plosive, which differs according
to the quality of V2. V2, in any of the discussed cases, bears the stress. Therefore, what
has been observed in Standard Austrian German, is a sequencing of movements from
94 In sequencies not separated by a word boundary, V1 of only one speaker (sp129) was
affected by lip protrusion (see Moosmüller 2007a).