VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

� Speaker sp127: Student, male, 20 years
19
Vowels in Standard Austrian German
Open interviews were carried out with the speakers in a sound proofed room (labeled
‘spontaneous speech’). The interview contains data about social and educational
background, the region the speakers and their parents were brought up, and a conver-
sation on topics which arose in the course of talking. The interview comprises
approximately 20 minutes of speech. After that, the speakers were asked to read a list of
72 sentences, twice (see Appendix).
It is generally agreed that speech behaviour changes with respect to the speech
situation. However, in the current investigation, the speech situation stayed the same,
i.e. speakers were recorded in the same sound proofed room. Therefore, it was decided
not to refer to different “speech situations”, but rather to different “speaking tasks” in
connection with the current data. If appropriate, when general statements or remarks are
made, the term “speech situation” is used as well.
In a separate session, two speakers (sp012 and sp180) were also asked to read a
list of bisyllabic logatomes in a carrier sentence (“Er hat sich PVPe 30 genannt.” – “He
called himself bebe.”). The first (stressed) syllable of each logatome changed with
respect to vowel and consonantal environment. 14 phonological vowels were assumed:
/i, ç, y, Y, e, E, ë, ê, u, ï, o, O, A, a/. Plosives were chosen as consonantal environment:
/b, p, d, t, g, k/. For each vowel pair ([+constricted] and [–constricted]), 12 different
consonantal environments were produced, according to the following pattern:
“Er hat sich bebe genannt” 31
“Er hat sich bepe genannt“
“Er hat sich bebbe genannt”
“Er hat sich beppe genannt”
This list, presented on index cards in randomised order, was read twice.
30 P = plosive, V = vowel.
31 The first two items (“bebe” and “bepe”) are supposed to yield the [+constricted] vowel
/e/, the second two items (“bebbe” and “beppe”) the [–constricted] vowel /E/.