VOWELS IN STANDARD AUSTRIAN GERMAN - Acoustics ...

Sylvia Moosmüller
minima around Xc.g 74 = 5 cm and Xc.g = 11 cm (1992: 36). For German, Hoole &
Mooshammer (2002) describe the vowel /ê/ as a front vowel. Pouplier et al. (2004) do
not present results on tongue-palate distances for /ë/, whilst for /ê/, tongue-palate
distance difference of /E/ vs. /ê/ exceeds 1 mm. Although the greater tongue-palate
distance for the front rounded vowels has an important acoustic function (Wood 1986),
it is nevertheless not useful for discriminating the front rounded vowels from their
unrounded cognates by tongue height, because the respective primary discriminatory
features are [± round] and [± constricted] 75 . The feature [± high] can, therefore, be
discarded. The feature [± front] is, however, useful for giving a rough classification of
vowels with a constriction location approximately < 4 cm from the lower incisors, and
for vowels with a constriction location approximately > 6 cm from the lower incisors.
However, the feature [± front] is not able to discern the pre-palatal vowels and the
mid-palatal vowels on the one hand, the lower pharyngeal vowels, the upper pharyngeal
vowels, and the velar vowels on the other hand. This can be achieved by introducing
three further features referring to constriction location: [± lower pharyngeal], [± velar],
and [± pre-palatal]. [± lower pharyngeal] sets the velar and upper pharyngeal vowels
apart from the lower pharyngeal vowels, and the [± pre-palatal] sets the pre-palatal and
mid-palatal vowels apart.
From an articulatory point of view, the following features can be set up for
Standard Austrian German:
• [±constricted] discerns /i, y, e, ë, o, u, A/ from /ç, Y, E, ê, O, ï, a/
• [±round] discerns /y, Y, ë, ê, o, O, u, ï/ from /i, ç, e, E, A, a/
• [±front] discerns /i, ç, y, Y, e, E, ë, ê/ from /u, ï, o, O, a, A/
• [±lower pharyngeal] discerns /A, a/ from /i, ç, y, Y, e, E, ë, ê, u, ï, o, O/
• [±velar] discerns /u, ï/ from /i, ç, y, Y, e, E, ë, ê, o, O, A, a/
• [±pre-palatal] discerns /i, ç, y, Y/ from /e, E, ë, ê, o, O, u, ï, A, a/
74 Xc.g = constriction coordinate from the glottis.
75 [±constricted] is, of course, a tongue height parameter as well. However, this feature
keeps vowel pairs apart. Tongue height, on the other hand, traditionally discerns the /a/ –
vowels ([– high]), the /e, o/ – vowels ([+ high, – high]), and the /i, u/ – vowels ([+ high]).
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