VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
Stevens (1995) could show that the fall of F2 is not caused by a change in the consonant
constriction, i.e. by an opening of the closure; this increase of area at the point of
closure location has hardly any effect on F2 110 . They conclude that the drop in F2 must
be due to the tongue body moving back (Manuel & Stevens 1995: 439). However, the
steep fall of F3 at consonant release until vowel onset and the rise of F3 from about
vowel midpoint till vowel offset seems to be caused by the change in area at the point of
consonant closure. Therefore, it seems to be possible to tease apart the components
involved in a CV sequence where the plosive has an alveolar place of articulation and
the vowel a constriction in the pharyngeal region: F2 seems to be associated with
tongue body backing and fronting, F3 with change in constriction area.
Most of the work of tongue body backing is performed from the point of closure
release until the onset of the vowel. However, at vowel onset, the tongue body is not yet
in position. Therefore, some movement still has to be performed during the vowel.
As a closure in the velar region is formed, natural frequencies of the front and the
back cavity come close together, very often resulting in convergence of F2 and F3. Such
a convergence of F2 and F3 can be seen in the burst of the velar plosive /g/ in Figure
5.18, which shows the sequencs [g5Ast] from "Gasthaus" (restaurant). After the burst, F2
and F3 drift apart again. F3 shows a slight rise and F2 drops slowly but continuously for
about one third of the vowel, indicating tongue body retraction. This demonstrates that
the tongue body does not take a back tongue body position in anticipation of the
pharyngeal vowel (this would show up in a lower F2 spectral peak), but forms a closure
in the velar region and retracts as the closure is released.
To date it is not clarified which factors are ultimately responsible for the forward
positioning of the tongue in the production of velar plosives flanked by back vowels
(called ‘looping patterns’). The explanation put forward by Houde (1968, cited in Fuchs
& Perrier 2005) that aerodynamics would cause the forward movement of the tongue
110 This result of Manuel & Stevens (1995) is corroborated by the movement over time of F2
in Figure 5.17: F2 does not rise in preparation of the following alveolar plosive /t/.
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