VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
suppressed and which are allowed, in order to maintain the relevant oppositions 122 (see
also Donegan 2002). Therefore, it is not a segment which does or does not exert a
certain influence on contiguous segments, but the phonology of a language which
decides on the status of the phonemes and, hence, whether they are allowed to exert an
influence or not. From this follows, logically, that a certain output is not left to some
uncontrolled biomechanical circumstances, but planned and exerted via processes.
“Speakers do not simply line up a sequence of phonemic targets and allow the articulators to
get from one to another as best they can; instead, the activity of articulation is centrally
planned, so that features spread (or gestures overlap) in regular ways. This planning differs
from language to language, […]” (Donegan 2002: 69)
Therefore, the whole string from the initial planning of an utterance up to its final
output is – under the above-mentioned conditions – planned and under the control of the
speaker. In this way, phonetics is part of the grammar.
6.4. Missed targets
6.2.1 Speech errors
Cases where the target is not hit, exist of course. However, under “normal” conditions,
these cases are rare and can be subsumed under what is usually called speech errors.
Figure 6.3 gives an example of such an error, where the target vowel quality is not
reached.
In this example, the speaker intends to read the utterance „Heinz regelt das für
dich, er wird ein Lokal finden“ (Heinz will settle this for you, he will find a good place).
For some reason, the speaker does not succeed in producing the right target for the
vowel /ç/. Instead, he realizes the vowel /E/. He stops immediately after he had realized
that he had produced the wrong vowel and, after a short break, starts with a second trial
for the word “dich” (you). A comparison of the formant frequencies in the vowel /E/
122 The differences between Russian and Standard Austrian German vividly show that there
are no “default values” (Fowler 1990) which need not be modelled via processes.