VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
left upper panel: waveform zoom window, right upper panel: amplitude spectrum
window.
The burst spectrum of the velar plosive in "gieß" (to water: IMP) shows two prominant
peaks at approximately 1895 Hz and 2756 Hz. This points to a rather fronted
constriction location with a front cavity of approximately 4.5 cm 100 . In the time after the
burst, the tongue is further fronted to form the constriction for the vowel /i/: at vowel
onset the cavity in front of the constriction is approximately 2.8 cm and at the onset of
the second period (= 3 ms from vowel onset), the target position is reached, with a front
cavity of approximately 2.5 cm.
A similar picture emerges in comparing the acoustic output in VC vs. CV
sequences when C is a bilabial plosive. The sequence /ib/ from "Liebe" (love; Figure
5.5) shows a downward drift of F3 in the third part of the vowel (approximately 74 ms
from vowel onset; total vowel duration 107 ms), indicating the change in cavity
affiliation and preparing the bilabial closure. The downward drift of F2 starts some 10
ms later and is less pronounced.
In the sequence /bi/ from "Bier" (beer; Figure 5.10), formant frequencies have
reached their target values for /i/ at the third period from vowel onset, therefore, in the
same way as in the /ig/ vs. /gi/ sequences, the transition movement is accomplished
quicker and affects the vowel to a less degree in the CV condition as compared to the
VC condition.
100 According to Wada et al. (1970, cited after Recasens 1999), velars present as many places
of articulation as there are constriction locations for the adjacent vowel. Dembowski et al.
(1998) could show that the distribution of the constriction location of the velar plosive “is
made up of clusters of smaller distributions corresponding to the individual /k/ allophones”
(1998: 37), but see also the discussion on loops in 5.3. Typically, the length of
the cavity in front of the constriction is 5 cm to 6 cm (Stevens 1999: 365).
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