VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
followed by a back vowel, the tongue body has to move back after release to form a
constriction in the pharyngeal region. This backward movement results in a decrease in
F2 and a constant increase in F1 (see Figure 5.17).
Figure 5.17: Spectrogram of the sequence /StAt/ from "Stadt" (city), speaker sp127, sentence
reading task. Left cursor positioned during the burst of /t/, right cursor at vowel
onset. 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 estimated from Figure 5.17, which shows the sequence [Sd5At] "Stadt" (city),
that the closure for the alveolar plosive is formed at about 2,5 cm posterior to the lip
opening 109 . Therefore, as the tongue is withdrawn from this rather frontal position, a
rapid and steep fall in F2 can be observed before vowel onset, followed by a
monotonous fall from vowel onset till about vowel midpoint. Then the tongue body has
to be fronted again for the following /t/. From modeling the sequence /da/, Manuel &
109 From the spectral peak associated with F4.