Vowel tensity in Standard Austrian and Standard German
Final Report Abstract
The physiological studies showed differences in vowel quality primarily to the vertical dimension of the tongue movement, such that lax /ɪ, ʏ, ʊ, a/ were less more peripheral in SG than in SAG. In the latter variety, lax vowels were closer to the tense counterparts, resulting in a vertical expansion of the lax vowel space in SAG compared with SG. Whereas the close proximity of tense and lax vowels in a velar context was caused by coarticulation in SG, the greater overlap in all other contexts (bilabial, alveolar, and velar) in SAG showed that tense/lax vowel pairs were phonetically much closer in this variety in a way that could not be explained by coarticulation. Quantity in SAG, but quality in SG were the main cues for distinguishing between tense/lax vowels. The distinction between tense and lax high rounded vowels was found to be less marked in the young than in older SAG speakers. Both SG and SAG speakers differentiate the high vowel pairs by quantity. However, the quantity distinction was less pronounced in SAG than in SG and even less so in the young speakers of SAG than in the old speakers: high tense vowels of young SAG speakers were found to be shorter in duration than their tense counterparts. Perception experiments showed that SAG listeners rely more on quantity and SG listeners more on quality in distinguishing tense/lax vowel pairs: this result is consistent with the idea that SAG is based on the Middle Bavarian variety. However, speaker-specific differences indicate more complex relationships in the production of the high vowel pairs which may be due to socio-phonetic variation. Therefore, SAG is best modelled as a variety that stands between Middle Bavarian and SG, i.e. as a contact-induced variety. The project contributions have been in understanding the relationship between speech physiology and perception in producing the distinction between tense and lax pairs and in explaining the speaker-specific ways in which the tense/lax vowel contrast is produced. Other new findings are that the merging of the tense/lax contrasts in SG may be a sound change in progress. The project has also made new contributions towards explaining how the tense/lax vowel contrast is differently produced and perceived in SAG compared with SG.
Publications
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2012. A physiological analysis of high front, tense-lax vowel pairs in Standard Austrian and Standard German. Italian Journal of Linguistics, 24,158-183
Harrington, J. Hoole, P., and Reubold, U.
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(2013). A physiological analysis of the tense/lax vowel contrast in two varieties of German, Proceedings of Interspeech 2013. Lyon, France, 325– 328
Cunha, C., Harrington, J. and Hoole, P.
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(2014). Phonotatic information in the temporal organization of Standard Austrian German and the Viennese dialect, Language Sciences 46, 84-95
Moosmüller, S., Brandstätter, J.
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(2014). The perception of the tensity contrast in two German varieties. LabPhon14. Tokio, Japan
Cunha, C. and Reubold, U.
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2014. Vokale und Diphthonge der österreichischen Standardsprache. “Germmanistik in der Ukraine”,9, 146-155
Moosmüller, S.
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(2015). Methodisches zur Bestimmung einer Standardaussprache in Österreich. In Lenz, A., Glauninger, M. (eds.) Standarddeutsch im 21. Jahrhundert. Wien: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 163-182
Moosmüller, S.
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(2015). Neutralisierung der hohen ungerundeten Vokale in der Wiener Standardsprache. In Lenz, A., Glauninger, M. (eds.) Standarddeutsch im 21 Jahrhundert. Wien: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 183-203
Brandstätter, J., Moosmüller, S.
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(2015). Quality and Quantity in high vowels in Standard Austrian German. In: Leemann, A., M.-J. Kolly, S. Schmid, V. Dellwo (eds.), Trends in Phonetics and Phonology. Studies from German speaking Europe. Frankfurt am Main / Bern: Lang. 79-92
Brandstätter, J., Kasess, C., Moosmüller, S.
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(2015). Standard Austrian German, JIPA 45, 339-248
Moosmüller, S., Schmid, C., Brandstätter, J.
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(2015). The influence of consonantal context on the tense-lax contrast in two standard varieties of German. In: Leemann, A., M.-J. Kolly, S. Schmid, V. Dellwo (eds.), Trends in Phonetics and Phonology. Studies from German speaking Europe. Frankfurt am Main / Bern: Lang. 65-77
Cunha, C., Harrington, J., Moosmüller, S. and Brandstätter, J.
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(2017). An apparent-time study on vowel contrast in Standard Austrian German. In Moosmüller, S., C. Schmid und Sellner, M. (eds.) Phonetik in und über Österreich. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 61-80
Cunha, C. and Hoole, P.
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(2017). Die Distinktion von standardsprachlichen /e:/ und /E/ im Lichte der mittelbairischen E-Verwirrung. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik, 163-17
Brandstätter, J., Moosmüller, S.
