VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

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Vowels in Standard Austrian German
opening for the “i-vowels” is smaller than 8 – 9 mm (Wood 1982: 46). The “tense” vs.
“lax” vowels, on the other hand, are grouped by constriction degree – for /i, e/ the
tongue is higher than for /ç, E/.
Unfortunately, results cannot be grouped as nicely for the back rounded vowels.
First of all, degree of jaw opening does not group the “o-vowels” against the “u-
vowels”. /u/ has nearly the same degree of openness as /o/, and, consequently, both /u,
o/ are closer than /ï/, which again is closer than /O/. The front rounded vowels do not
differ too much with respect to degree of jaw opening, but the tendency is the same as
for the back rounded vowels (Valaczkai 1998). This renders the following pattern:
Close Open
Front unrounded i, ç e, E
Back rounded u, o ï, O
The lip configuration of the “tense” back rounded vowels is more protruded than for
their “lax” cognates (Wood 1982 :145). Consequently, the degree of opening is
narrower for /u, o/ than for /ï, O/. For the front rounded vowels, only a moderate lip
protrusion is favourable in order to ensure F3 and F2 at close quarters (Wood 1986).
The moderate lip protrusion in front rounded vowels explains the fact that there are
hardly any differences with respect to jaw opening between the tense and the lax front
rounded vowels.
Lip protrusion is accompanied by larynx depression, in order to adjust the
distance from the glottal source to the constriction (Wood 1979: 33). Therefore, the
degree of larynx lowering depends on the degree of lip protrusion; i.e. for the more
protruded “tense” vowels, the larynx is lowered by approximately 10 mm, whereas it is
only lowered by approximately 5 mm for the “lax” vowels, which expose a minor
protrusion (Wood 1979).