Vowel and Consonant Sequences in three Bavarian Dialects of Austria

Abstract

In 1913, Anton Pfalz described a specific relation of vowel and consonant sequences for East Middle Bavarian dialects, located in the eastern parts of Austria. According to his observations, a long vowel is always followed by a lenis consonant, and a short vowel is always followed by a fortis consonant. Consequently, vowel duration depends on the quality of the following consonant. Phonetic examinations of what became to be known as the Pfalz's Law yielded different results. Specifically, the occurrence of a third category, namely a long vowel followed by a fortis consonant, seems to be firmly embedded in East Middle Bavarian.Up till now, phonetic examinations concentrated on CVCV sequences. The analysis of monosyllables and of sequences including consonant clusters has been largely neglected so far. In the present contribution, we analyse the impact of initial and final consonant clusters in monosyllables on the assumed relationship of vowel + consonant sequences. Thus, we included 18 speakers from three Bavarian varieties. The results show that in all examined varieties long vowel + fortis consonants occur and that the cluster complexity has no influence on the absolute vowel duration, contradicting Pfalz's Law.

Fast-Speech-Induced Hypoarticulation Does Not Considerably Affect the Diachronic Reversal of Complementary Length in Central Bavarian

“…Our results confirm that the observations made for the ECB dialect (see Klingler et al, 2017; Moosmüller & Brandstätter, 2014) and the WCB regional accent (Kleber, 2018, 2020) (i.e., Standard German, but noticeably produced by WCB dialect speakers), also hold true for the WCB dialect: The combination long vowel plus fortis consonant (VːCː) already forms part of the older dialect speakers’ phonological system (participants of the present study born 1944–1968). Our results further confirm that the other supposedly illegal combination, short vowel plus lenis consonant (VC), does indeed not occur in the older speakers, but it does occur in the younger speakers (participants of the present study born 1987–1997).…”

“…) notes that the co-dependency can be weakened in younger speakers, although adherence to the rule is still absolutely dominant. Moosmüller and Brandstätter (2014) and Klingler et al (2017) presented acoustic evidence that a combination of long vowel plus fortis consonant does form part of ECB, in spite of traditional accounts. Two further studies presented experimental evidence for more pronounced dialectal traces in older compared with younger WCB speakers' production and perception of the Standard German vowel length (Kleber, 2020) and fortis-lenis contrast (Kleber, 2018), respectively.…”