VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
comprises both phonology and phonetics. Since both the phoneme and the final product
of the phoneme are intended, the target has often been confused with the phoneme (see
6.1). The difficulty keeping phonetics and phonology apart has occupied phonological
theory ever since Baudouin de Courtenay disunited phonetics into “Anthropophonik”
and “Psychophonetik” (see Häusler 1976), and still tempts linguists to give up the
distinction between phonetics and phonology (e.g. Port to appear). I will show in 6.3
that a phonological analysis is indispensible for a thorough understanding by which
principles the final appearance of an utterance is lead (see also Moosmüller 2007a).
In order to avoid confusion, both a phonetic and a phonological analysis have to
be performed. An output realization is, in any case, the result of the application of
postlexical processes which more or less modify the phoneme. Where the output
realization is identical with the phoneme 19 , no process is applied. Therefore, the
application of no process is included in the plan (one could also speak of a zero
process). Our knowledge about processes allows us to backtrace a phonetic output to its
phoneme.
What then, is a phoneme? According to the most cited definition of Baudouin de
Courteney, it is
“eine einheitliche 20 , der phonetischen Welt angehörende Vorstellung, welche mittelst
psychischer Verschmelzung der durch die Aussprache eines und desselben Lautes erhaltenen
Eindrücke in der Seele entsteht = psychischer Äquivalent des Sprachlautes. Mit der
einheitlichen Vorstellung des Phonems verknüpft sich (associiert sich) eine gewisse Summe
einzelner anthropophonischer Vorstellungen, welche einerseits Articulations-Vorstellungen,
andererseits aber akustische Vorstellungen, d. h. Vorstellungen gehörter oder im Gehörtwerden
begriffener Resultate jener physiologischen Arbeiten, sind.“ (Baudouin de Courtenay
1895/1984: 65)
Whereas talking is impermanent, the phoneme is not. According to this definition, the
phoneme is a mental imprint (“Eindrücke in der Seele”) which is altered according to
our phonetic habits:
19
For example in sustained vowel production tasks.
20
Later on, Baudouin de Courtenay replaces “einheitlich” (uniform) with “ständig”
(permanent) (Häusler 1976: 61).
12