On the role of asymmetry in prosodic change of consonant duration: Results from an agent-based model with two German varieties

This study investigates how an asymmetric conversational situation between two standard varieties of German can influence the speakers’ consonant quantity in /V : C : / sequences, i.e. a prosodic feature. Asymmetric conversations between German and Austrian speakers, i.e. scenarios in which one of the varieties provided the majority of speech input, were simulated using an agent-based model which adhered to principles from Exemplar Theory and the mechanistic view on sound change. The results showed that Austrian agents were more prone to prosodic change than Germans due to a higher variability and bias towards shortened consonants in their acoustic representation of /V : C : /. The findings are discussed in light of the interactive-phonetic model of sound change.

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