VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Spontaneous speech Long vowel + lenis
plosive
61
Vowels in Standard Austrian German
Short vowel + fortis
plosive
n t p
Total duration (ms) 123.7 187.1 33 4.62 0.00
Plosive duration (ms) 36.0 111.5 33 12.89 0.00
Table 4.1: Mean durations of the total duration of vowel + plosive and of the duration of the
plosives alone, and the statistical results. Speaker182, Central Bavarian, spontaneous
speech.
Table 4.1 reveals that the duration of the plosive is responsible for the difference
between the two vowel + plosive combinations. Long and short vowels do not differ to
a statistically significant degree. Consequently, absolutely no correlation can be found
between vowel duration and plosive duration (r = 0.16, p = 0.32): see Figure 4.3.
plosive duration (ms)
120
80
40
0
30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170
vowel duration (ms)
Figure 4.3: Plosive duration against consonant duration, speaker sp182, Central Bavarian,
spontaneous speech.
Isochrony, for this speaker, is restricted to the very formal task of reading sentences. In
spontaneous speech, durational aspects are reserved for other – overall timing –
functions, and no longer serve to discriminate vowels or vowel + consonant
combinations.
It has to be emphasized that these few measurements are not meant to reflect the
situation of temporal organization of Central Bavarian vowels and consonants. Rather,
they are meant to indicate that the existence of isochrony is not as secure as assumed,