VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
the following consonant (in English, for example, “im+possible”, Italian
“im+possibile”, or German “un+möglich” (impossible) etc.). These sequences are
caused by morphology. The “difficulty”, which has arisen through a prelexically
excluded combination of phonemes (alveolar + bilabial), is eliminated by a prelexical
process in English and Italian 6 , and by a postlexical process in German. A similar
treatment can be observed for /s#S/ sequences in German, e.g. /hAOs#SuE/ “Hausschuhe”
(slippers). These processes aim at restoring a “pronounceable” sequence in the given
language, whereby “pronounceability” is defined by the prelexical processes of a given
language. These processes, which repair the sequential order of a language, are not
restricted to informal speech situations.
The situation where the nasal and the preceding consonant are separated by a
vowel, as in /tragEn/ “tragen” (to carry) etc., is slightly different. In order to meet the
same condition as above, the vowel has to be deleted first. In Standard Austrian
German, vowel deletion is restricted to less formal speech situations. Consequently,
nasal assimilation experiences the same situational restrictions 7 . But as soon as the
vowel is deleted, the nasal has to be assimilated.
Casual speech processes therefore have to be kept apart from processes which
repair disallowed phoneme combinations. The latter are independent of the speech
situation and cannot be classified as casual speech processes. Casual speech processes
serve other principles. In Austrian German, a typical process often seen as ease of
articulation is the spirantization of lenis plosives in the intervocalic position. In the
intervocalic position, /b, d, g/ can become /B, D, V/, as in [A:Ba] “aber” (but), [laEDa]
“leider” (unfortunately), or [he:Ve] “hege: 1 st P.” (to take care). Since the air can flow
6 Italian also has postlexical processes for sequences, e.g. “un bacio” (a kiss), which might
even further assimilate to “um masu” in Sicilian (Hyman 2001). The same process might
occur in English “non#basic”.
7 In the Bavarian variants of German, including Standard Austrian German, vowel deletion
between two nasal consonants (e.g. /SvçmEn/ “schwimmen” (to swim)) is supressed. This
corroborates the assumption that process application is not primarily lead by ease of
articulation.
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