VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
Figure 5.12: Spectrogram of the sequence /sç'fçs/ from "Pazifistenstaat" (state of pacifists),
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.
Where, then, is coarticulation in the examples of Figure 5.11 and Figure 5.12? In Figure
5.12 /sç'fçs/, it can be seen that at the very last period of V2, a steep fall of F2 from 2070
Hz to 1830 Hz takes place, i.e. a widening of constriction degree attributable to the
following alveolar fricative /s/. This fall is hardly noticeable in Figure 5.11, since the
frequency of F2 is already 1860 Hz at vowel midpoint, i.e., constriction is wide enough
already for the following /s/. This pattern is consistent for all subjects of this
investigation. I.e., the quality of the vowel varies according to a previous process of – in
this case – stress assignment, which affects the degree of constriction. The
coarticulation towards the following alveolar fricative, however, varies according to the