Complementary length in vowel–consonant sequences: Acoustic and perceptual evidence for a sound change in progress in Bavarian German

This study is concerned with the Bavarian German dialect feature of complementary length in vowel plus consonant sequences according to which tense (long) vowels always precede lenis stops (short closure) and lax (short) vowels always precede fortis stops (long closure). The study investigates whether a vowel length contrast is developing before fortis stops due to dialect leveling. We measured vowel and consonant duration in trochaic words differing only in vowel length which were read by 40 older and younger Bavarian and Saxon (control group) German speakers. Older Bavarians distinguished tense and lax vowels by means of vowel to vowel plus consonant ratios that indicate an inverse timing pattern. Saxons and younger Bavarians signal the tense–lax distinction independently of the following stop length. A perception test showed that this sound change in progress also affects perception. We argue for a contact-induced change which is triggered by external as opposed to internal factors.

[1]  K. Kohler.  Phonetic Explanation in Phonology: The Feature Fortis/Lenis , 1984, Phonetica.

[2]  L. Milroy.  Introduction: Mobility, contact and language change - Working with contemporary speech communities , 2002 .

[3]  F. Mitleb.  Voicing effect on vowel duration is not an absolute universal , 1982 .

[4]  Paul Boersma,et al.  Praat: doing phonetics by computer , 2003 .

[5]  P. Perrier,et al.  Speech Planning and Dynamics , 2012 .

[6]  Jonathan Harrington,et al.  The implications for speech perception of incomplete neutralization of final devoicing in German , 2010, J. Phonetics.

[7]  F. Hinskens.  Dialect Levelling: A Two-dimensional Process , 1998 .

[8]  P. Boersma.  Praat : doing phonetics by computer (version 5.1.05) , 2009 .

[9]  William J. Hardcastle,et al.  A Re-Evaluation of the Nature of Speech Errors in Normal and Disordered Speakers , 2005, Phonetica.

[10]  Sarah Hawkins,et al.  Formant frequencies of RP monophthongs in four age groups of speakers , 2005, Journal of the International Phonetic Association.

[11]  Karl Heinz Ramers,et al.  Vokalquantität und -qualität im Deutschen , 1988 .

[12]  P. Kerswill.  Dialect levelling and geographical diffusion in British English , 2003 .

[13]  Jonathan Harrington,et al.  The effect of prosodic weakening on the production and perception of trans-consonantal vowel coarticulation in German. , 2013, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[14]  A. Marchal,et al.  Speech production and speech modelling , 1990 .

[15]  B. Kortmann,et al.  New Zealand English: phonology , 2008 .

[16]  Jonathan Harrington,et al.  Phonetic Analysis of Speech Corpora , 2010 .

[17]  Lisa Davidson,et al.  Schwa Elision in Fast Speech: Segmental Deletion or Gestural Overlap? , 2006, Phonetica.

[18]  Nikolas Coupland,et al.  Dialects in Contact , 1988 .

[19]  Carol A. Fowler,et al.  Vowel duration and closure duration in voiced and unvoiced stops: there are no contrast effects here , 1992 .

[20]  German Dialects in Real-Time Change , 2002, Journal of Germanic Linguistics.

[21]  R. Diehl,et al.  Vowel-length differences before voiced and voiceless consonants: an auditory explanation , 1988 .

[22]  Vowel length and closure duration in word‐medial VC sequences , 1989 .

[23]  Christoph Draxler,et al.  SpeechRecorder - a Universal Platform Independent Multi-Channel Audio Recording Software , 2004, LREC.

[24]  Wolfgang Bethge.  Beziehungen der Generation zur Quantität in den deutschen Mundarten , 1963 .

[25]  Björn Lindblom,et al.  Explaining Phonetic Variation: A Sketch of the H&H Theory , 1990 .

[26]  W Strange,et al.  Dynamic specification of coarticulated German vowels: perceptual and acoustical studies. , 1998, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[27]  Michael Jessen,et al.  Phonetics and Phonology of Tense and Lax Obstruents in German , 1999 .

[28]  Florian Schiel,et al.  MAUS Goes Iterative , 2004, LREC.

[29]  F. Kleber,et al.  Incomplete neutralization and maintenance of phonological contrasts in varieties of Standard German , 2011 .

[30]  J. Harrington,et al.  An analysis of post-vocalic /s-ʃ/ neutralization in Augsburg German: evidence for a gradient sound change , 2014, Front. Psychol..

[31]  Carlos Gussenhoven,et al.  Laboratory Phonology 7 , 2002 .

[32]  Norbert Braunschweiler,et al.  Integrated Cues of Voicing and Vowel Length in German: A Production Study , 1997 .

[33]  Francisco Torreira,et al.  Vowel elision in casual French: The case of vowel /e/ in the word c'était , 2011, J. Phonetics.

[34]  G S. Seiler.  On the development of the Bavarian quantity system. , 2005 .

[35]  No Value.  Proceedings of the 14th international congress of phonetic sciences , 2000 .

[36]  Rajend Mesthrie,et al.  A Handbook of Varieties of English , 2004 .

[37]  P. Ladefoged,et al.  Phonetic linguistics : essays in honor of Peter Ladefoged , 1987 .

[38]  Rudolf Weiss.  The perception of vowel length and quality in German: An experimental-phonetic investigation , 1976 .

[39]  Laurie Bauer.  Lenition revisited1 , 2008, Journal of Linguistics.

[40]  P. Ladefoged,et al.  The sounds of the world's languages , 1996 .

[41]  J. Scobbie,et al.  Covert contrast as a stage in the acquisition of phonetics and phonology. , 2000 .

[42]  Christine Mooshammer,et al.  Acoustic and articulatory manifestations of vowel reduction in German , 2008, Journal of the International Phonetic Association.

[43]  K. Kohler,et al.  Dimensions in the Perception of Fortis and Lenis Plosives , 1979, Phonetica.

[44]  Matthew Y. Chen.  Vowel Length Variation as a Function of the Voicing of the Consonant Environment , 1970 .

[45]  W. Labov.  Principles Of Linguistic Change , 1994 .

[46]  Robert Bannert,et al.  Mittelbairische Phonologie auf akustischer und perzeptorischer Grundlage , 1976 .

[47]  Scott Myers,et al.  The origin of vowel-length neutralisation in vocoid sequences: evidence from Finnish speakers , 2005, Phonology.

[48]  D. Britain,et al.  Social dialectology : in honour of Peter Trudgill , 2003 .

[49]  Felix Schaeffler.  Phonological quantity in Swedish dialects : typological aspects, phonetic variation and diachronic change , 2005 .

[50]  J. Harrington,et al.  The Relationship between the Perception and Production of Coarticulation during a Sound Change in Progress , 2012, Language and speech.