VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
Figure 5.11: Spectrogram of the sequence /divis/ from "Division" (division), speaker sp126,
sentence reading task. Left cursor positioned at vowel midpoint of V1, right cursor
at vowel midpoint of V2. 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.
However, this is not the case in the sequence /sç'fçs/ from "Pazifistenstaat" (state of
pacifists; Figure 5.12), where V2 bears the stress. Both F2 and F3 expose higher values
for V2 as compared to V1, pointing to a narrower constriction for V2 as compared to V1.
These examples show that, both in /sç'fçs/ and in /divis/, a process must be at work
which changes the quality of V2 as compared to V1, and this process operates before
coarticulation connects the phonemes formed by processes. Otherwise, it cannot be ex-
plained why, in a phonetic context which demands a widening of constriction degree,
F2 and F3 of V2 rise in the case of / sç'fçs /.
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