VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
syllable/vowel determines the ultimate shape of that vowel to a high degree. In German
word formation, up to four stress levels can be distinguished (Wurzel 1980) 138 ).
However, whereas in Standard German the main acoustic correlates for primary stress
are duration (Goldbeck & Sendlmeier 1988, Jessen et al. 1995, Mengel 1997, Dogil &
Williams 1999) and spectral tilt (especially skewness, Claßen et al. 1998), acoustic
correlates of secondary stress could not be proved 139 (Mengel 2000, Kleber &
Klipphahn 2006 140 ). It has therefore been suggested that secondary stress is solely a
perceptual phenomenon (Mengel 2000), with the listener expecting a secondary stress at
time intervals of approximately 300 ms (Schreuder 2006).
However, since vowels change their shape due to stress, secondary stress might
also be indicated by a specific vowel quality which differs from both primary-stress
vowels and unstressed vowels. It can be assumed that secondary-stress vowels stand
between primary stressed vowels and unstressed vowels, differing in the degree of lip
opening, the degree of constriction, the length of constriction, and the degree of lip
protrusion. This hypothesis has been tested on words bearing secondary stress, for
example “Aussaat” (sowing) or “Finanzminister” (finance minister), in both speaking
tasks. For each speaker, one-tailed t-tests have been performed. Only those vowels were
analysed for which enough items could be observed to make a statistical analysis
meaningful.
138 See Zonneveld et al. (1999) for word stress assignment in German (subchapter by Jessen)
and Doleschal (1988) for a discussion of stress assignment in German compounds.
139 Jessen (1993) deduces a secondary stress from the fact that the “tense – lax” opposition is
preserved to a higher degree in pre-stress 2 (i.e. two positions before primary stress)
positions as compared to the pre-stress 1 (one position before primary stress) positions,
but to a lower degree in pre-stress 2 positions as compared to stressed positions. This
approach rests on a different problem formulation (do “tense” and “lax” vowels neutralize
under certain stress conditions?) and can therefore be compared neither with Kleber &
Klipphahn (2006) nor with the current investigation.
140 For secondary stress, Kleber & Klipphahn (2006) only analysed syllables in pre-stress 2
positions, as for example in: “Mediziner” (physician, the analysed pre-stress 2 vowel is
underlined), whereas in the current investigation, secondary stresses resulting from
composition, for example in “’Neben,fach” (minor field of study), or from stress
preservation in morphologically complex words, for example in “’aufge,wachsen” (grow
up: PP), were analysed.