VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
does F2 rise. However, a comparison of F2 at vowel onset (the first frame) with frame
20 (approximately vowel midpoint, depending on the total length of the vowel) of the
vowel shows that F2 still drops after vowel onset (see Table 5.6).
F2 /u, o/ frame 1 frame 20 t p
sp180 1063 777 3.28 0.00
sp129 786 626 2.88 0.00
sp082 1106 763 4.94 0.00
sp012 934 620 3.53 0.00
sp126 1040 693 6.22 0.00
sp127 1097 649 8.67 0.00
Table 5.6: Frame 1 and frame 20 F2 values for /u, o/ preceded by a bilabial, an alveolar or a
velar plosive, sentence reading task. t value and p from one-tailed t-Test.
The results on /Cu/ - and /Co/ sequences, where C is either a bilabial, an alveolar, or a
velar plosive are summarized as follows:
� F2 values are lower, when the back, protruded vowel is preceded by a
bilabial or velar plosive.
� Two patterns can be observed: tongue body and lip protrusion have either
been accomplished at release, or the tongue body is positioned after
release. In the latter case, lip protrusion is pulled into the vowel.
� Lip protrusion causes F2 to drop approximately about 300 Hz.
� When preceded by an alveolar plosive, F2 is higher, indicating that tongue
5.4. Conclusion
body retraction has not yet been accomplished at vowel onset. Therefore,
both lip protrusion and tongue body positioning is pulled into the vowel.
It has been argued in the previous chapter that the way from phoneme to phonetic
output is mediated by phonological processes, phonetic processes and coarticulation.
Processes, in any case, are planned and processed before coarticulation is performed.
This restricts the notion of coarticulation to the very last step on the way from one
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