VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
behaviour is, however, largely determined by the interactional situation, and the
speakers are not interested in economizing their speech, but in carrying out a
successful 11 interaction.
To ensure a successful interaction, speech behaviour is listener-oriented, and the
phoneme is, therefore, to be conceptualized as a perceptual entity (Dressler 1979: 267).
The speaker adjusts his or her articulatory configurations in such a way that the desired
acoustic output is ensured. This implies that the speech chain is planned 12 (see also
Perkell 1997, Donegan 2002), and that none of our output realizations are left to chance.
1.2. The phonological system
In Natural Phonology, the phonological system of a language consists of 1) prelexical
processes, which constrain the number and combination of phonemes, 2) the phonemes,
defined as sound intentions, and 3) postlexical phonological processes, which transfer
the phoneme into the final phonetic output (Dressler 1984). The processes are
“mental substitutions which systematically but subconsciously adapt our phonological
intentions to our phonetic capacities, and which, conversely, enable us to perceive in others’
speech the intentions underlying these superficial phonetic adaptions.” (Donegan & Stampe
1979: 126)
Processes are defined as responses to phonetic difficulties (Donegan & Stampe 1979:
136). However, only a minority of the processes existing in a language result from an
irreconcilability of the phonological intention and the capability of the articulators. As
concerns the prelexical processes, which are responsible for the phoneme inventory and
the possible combinations of the phonemes in a given language, the selection of
11 From a phonetic and phonological point of view, an interaction is successful, when the
intended sequence of phonemes and their phonological processes are conveyed in a way
that the listener is able to decode the perceived sequence and their processes. It does not
include that, from a relationship-oriented point of view, the interaction is successful as
well.
12 According to Schütz (1962), any plan includes empty slots. These are responsible for
psychological variables, e.g. attention or stress, which lie outside social and phonological
intentions, but co-determine phonetic performance (Dressler & Moosmüller 1991: 136).
The same holds for the consumption of drugs (Künzel et al. 1992).