L2 stressed vowel production by Bulgarian learners of German

This study investigates the production of German vowels by three groups of Bulgarian speakers. Two groups have been living in Germany for approx. 5 and 10 years, respectively. The third group has not lived in Germany but has received on average 8.6 years of German tuition in Bulgaria. The acoustic analyses of quality (F1, F2) and quantity (duration in ms.) compare the Bulgarian L2 vowels both with the L1 vowels of a German control group and with the Bulgarian speakers’ own L1 vowels. The results show that Bulgarian L2 speakers have difficulties in realizing several German-vowel quality contrasts and that they differ from native speakers in the degree to which they employ duration to realize these contrasts.