VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
drugs, motor speech disorders), however, the result is in any case unsatisfactory both for
the speaker and the listener.
6.5. Another look at invariance
Invariance depends on the linguistic and extralinguistic context. This approach differs
from Keating (1990) and Guenther 127 (1995, 2003) insofar as the phoneme is
conceptualized as invariant, whereas the target (goal) can take different shapes. The
phoneme is modeled via phonological and phonetic processes, which are applied or
suppressed according to surrounding segments, and prosodic, sociolinguistic, and
psycholinguistic circumstances.
The target is variant insofar, as it might change its appearance depending on context 128 .
Variance of the target is guided by processes which, in any case, are phonetically
motivated and planned. It is the process which makes the target invariant. Instead of
conceptualizing wide and narrow windows which introduce some arbitrariness exactly
because they contain all phonetic information, the way from phoneme to target is
mediated by processes which are applied or not 129 , in dependence on linguistic and
extralinguistic factors.
This means, the clearer the context is defined, the less variability will appear. In
the following section, variability of the three vowels 130 /i, e, A/ under two conditions
was compared. In the first condition (Condition 1), speakers were asked to repeat one
and the same sentence until they were told to stop (after the tenth time). In this
127 Guenther, similar to Keating, defines targets as ranges: “These targets are defined in a
planning space made up of auditory and orosensory dimensions. For example, the target
for vowel sounds specifies a range of acceptable values of formant ratios.” Guenther
2003: 214)
128 Context is defined here in a wide sense, comprising both linguistic and extralinguistic
factors.
129 The variability of application vs. suppression of processes is not included in Keating’s
model.
130 This repeating sentences task was originally designed within another project for another
purpose, therefore, not all vowels could be tested.
194