VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
Table of Contents
VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN ..................................................................................1
An Acoustic-Phonetic and Phonological Analysis .......................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................................................4
Table of Contents .........................................................................................................................................6
1. Introduction: Setting the Theoretical Framework.....................................................................................1
1.1. The socio-pragmatic foundation of phonology and phonetics...........................................................3
1.2. The phonological system...................................................................................................................9
1.3 Standard Austrian German ...............................................................................................................15
2. Methods and Data...................................................................................................................................18
2.1. Speakers and Material .....................................................................................................................18
2.2. Measurements..................................................................................................................................20
3. Interpretation of formant measurements.................................................................................................29
3.1. The traditional F1/F2 representation ...............................................................................................29
3.2. Constriction locations for vowels: discrete or gradual?...................................................................39
3.3. The acoustic-articulatory relationship .............................................................................................43
4. Vowel inventory and features.................................................................................................................51
4.1. The feature [±tense]: brief historical outline ...................................................................................54
4.2. Temporal Analysis...........................................................................................................................56
4.2.1. Isochrony in Standard German .................................................................................................56
4.2.2. Isochrony in Central Bavarian..................................................................................................59
4.2.3. Isochrony in Standard Austrian German ..................................................................................62
4.2.4. Vowel duration in Standard Austrian German..........................................................................66
4.2.5. Duration and Laxness ...............................................................................................................72
4.3. Articulatory investigations on vowels .............................................................................................75
4.3.1 Articulatory settings for the opposition traditionally termed [± tense]......................................75
4.3.2 The features [± front] and [± high] ............................................................................................82
4.4. Acoustic analysis of the vowels of Standard Austrian German.......................................................85
4.4.1. The pre-palatal vowels..............................................................................................................86
4.4.2. The mid-palatal vowels ............................................................................................................96
4.4.3. The velar vowels.....................................................................................................................106
4.4.4. The upper pharyngeal vowels.................................................................................................109
4.4.5. The lower pharyngeal vowels.................................................................................................112
4.4.6. The role of F0 .........................................................................................................................115
4.4.7. Evaluation of the results .........................................................................................................120
5. Coarticulation .......................................................................................................................................122
5.1. What is coarticulation? ..................................................................................................................122
5.2. Articulatory vs. acoustic observations...........................................................................................136
5.3. Processes vs. Coarticulation ..........................................................................................................147
5.3.1. The vowel /i/...........................................................................................................................150
5.3.2. The vowel /A/..........................................................................................................................159
5.3.3. The vowels /u, o/ ....................................................................................................................166
5.4. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................170
6. Vowel and Vowel Variability...............................................................................................................172
6.1. Target, invariance, and target undershoot......................................................................................174
6.2. Undershoot vs. Processes ..............................................................................................................179
6.3. Phoneme, allophone, target, and processes ...................................................................................185
6.4. Missed targets................................................................................................................................187
6.2.1 Speech errors ...........................................................................................................................187
6.4.2 Articulatory avoidance ............................................................................................................188