VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
more importantly, that articulatory gestures are applied in a way that compensates
articulatory differences in order to produce invariant acoustic patterns.
The most obvious differences in vocal tract shape is that between children,
women and men. These differences should lead to different formant frequency values.
However, despite the difference in vocal tract length, F1 and F2 of the vowel /u/ and F3
of the vowel /i/ of women are very similar to those of men (Fant 1980=2004). Fant
states that differences in perceptually important formants are minimized by
compensations.
“Differences in perceptually important formants may thus be minimized by compensations in
terms of place of articulation and in the extent of the area function narrowing. Such
compensations are not possible for all formants and cannot be achieved in more open
articulations. The great difference in F2 of [i] is in part conditioned by the relatively short
female pharynx but can in part be ascribed to the retracted place of articulation.” (Fant 2004:
44).
The differences in vocal tract shape between men and women are of course an extreme
example, but even here compensatory strategies can be observed. Between the sexes,
slight differences in vocal tract shapes have to be assumed, and these slight differences
may be compensated. Regions of stability ensure or facilitate such compensations. From
this perspective, it makes sense that constriction locations are less sensitive to small
displacements, whereas displacements in constriction degree yield monotonous changes
in formant frequencies.
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