Word-final (mor-)phonotactic consonant clusters in standard Austrian German

Morphonotactic consonant clusters originate through morphological operations and are mostly combinations of consonants across morpheme boundaries. As they are processed faster and acquired earlier than phonotactic clusters, it is hypothesised that in speech production, morphonotactic clusters are more robust and highlighted than phonotactic clusters. The present study pursues two goals: it examines a) whether word-final morphonotactic and phonotactic clusters are differentiated and b) whether within morphonotactic clusters, inflected verbs of the 2 and 3 person singular are distinguished. On a sample of 336 word-final morphonotactic and phonotactic consonant clusters of Standard Austrian German, an acoustic-phonetic analysis regarding relative duration and intensity of the cluster was performed. Additionally, duration of the preceding vowel was measured. The analyses revealed no differences between morphonotactic and phonotactic clusters. Also, the expected distinction between clusters in verb forms in the 2 and 3 person singular could not be confirmed.