VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...
VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...
VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...
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Sylvia Moosmüller<br />
Son 1993 115 ). Gay (1978) showed that when the vowel is shortened, it is predominantly<br />
the onset that is changed, whereas the vowel midpoint stays invariant. For the vowel /i/,<br />
Gay states:<br />
“For all subjects, the onset frequency of the second formant transition is higher for the fast<br />
rate condition, while the F2 midpoint frequencies and F2 rates of change remain essentially<br />
unaffected across the two rates.” (Gay 1978: 226)<br />
However, the acoustic invariance is not accompanied by articulatory invariance:<br />
“The present acoustic data are also inconsistent with earlier EMG data (Gay et al., 1974, Gay<br />
and Ushijama, 1975) that showed a change in the level of muscle activity for vowels in<br />
response to a change in speaking rate. The EMG data showed that the activity levels of the<br />
genioglossus muscle for the vowel /i/ decreased with an increase of speaking rate”. (Gay<br />
1978: 228).<br />
Compensatory articulatory strategies for guaranteeing a desired acoustic output are very<br />
well documented. Perturbation experiments (Savariaux et al. 1995, 1999, Hoole 1987,<br />
Jones & Munhall 2003) show that subjects try to compensate the perturbation in order<br />
to ensure an improvement of the acoustic output 116 . Men and women use different<br />
strategies in the production of back rounded vowels, which, in both cases, guarantee a<br />
sufficiently low F2 (Fant 2004). Furthermore, speakers adjust their articulation accor-<br />
ding to individual vocal tract shapes. Perkell (1997) could show that tongue height in<br />
the production of the vowels /i, ç, E/ differed according to the individual shapes of the<br />
palate.<br />
“The speaker with the shallowest palate vault (1) uses the smallest adjustments of tongue<br />
height to create the area function differences required for the vowels, and the speaker with<br />
one of the steepest vaults (3) uses the largest adjustments.” (Perkell 1997: 350)<br />
Similar results were obtained by Pouplier et al. (2004) in their study on the tense – lax<br />
distinction in German:<br />
“There is considerable inter- and intrasubject variability as to the palatal distance within a<br />
tense and lax pair.” (Pouplier et al. 2004: 24)<br />
115 van Son (1993) concluded that target-undershoot is most probably planned.<br />
116 Löfqvist (1997) argues that the fact that speakers needed several trials to obtain the<br />
desired acoustic output, speaks against acoustically-based targets, whereas for Perkell<br />
(1997) several trials are no counterargument against acoustically-based targets and are<br />
compatible with this concept, because, in bite-block experiments, subjects acquired an<br />
alternative set of motor command-to-acoustic mappings and retained this set for later<br />
recall (1997: 364)<br />
176