VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
Two speakers (sp082 and sp012) do not differentiate primary from secondary stress.
The speakers sp180 and sp129 differentiate primary from secondary stress by F1 and
secondary stress from unstressed by F2 and F3. Speaker sp126 differentiates all three
stresses by F2, primary stress from secondary stress by F1 and F3, and speaker sp127
differentiates primary stress from secondary stress by F1 and secondary stress from
unstressed position by F2. I.e., four speakers indicate secondary stress by changing the
formant frequencies of the vowel.
In spontaneous speech, only two speakers realized sufficient items to make a
statistical analysis meaningful. Speaker sp126 differentiates primary from secondary
stress by F1 (F1 is lower for primary stress) and secondary stress from unstressed
position by a higher F2 and a higher F3 for the secondary stressed vowels. Speaker
sp127 does not differentiate secondary stressed vowels from unstressed vowels. Again,
a number of speaker-specific peculiarities can be observed in how stress is indicated.
6.6.3.3. The vowel /ç/
In the same way as for the vowel /i/, it can be expected that for the vowel /ç/ F1
increases, whereas F2 and F3 decrease as stress decreases. Therefore, the idealized
change in formant pattern is the same as for the vowel /i/:
F1 primary stress < F1 secondary stress < F1 unstressed
F2 primary stress > F2 secondary stress > F2 unstressed
F3 primary stress > F3 secondary stress > F3 unstressed
Figure 6.15 summarizes the results of the t-tests. The results for the vowel /ç/ are
difficult to interpret. First of all, for those speakers who differentiate stress by means of
F1 (sp126, sp127, sp129), the secondary stressed vowels expose a higher F1 than both
the primary stressed vowels and the unstressed vowels. In the same way the primary
stressed vowels and the unstressed vowels of the speakers sp129, sp012, and sp126 have
either a lower (speaker sp129) or a higher (speakers sp012 and sp126) position than the
secondary stressed vowels. These four speakers indicate secondary stress, however, in a