An analysis of vowel productions by a female Brazilian speaker of German: analyzing vowel quality

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the development of Standard German vowels, concerning their formants, namely F1, F2 and F3, by a young-adult Brazilian female speaker of German as a third language (L3). The methodology entails an acoustic analysis on Praat. We analyze the vowel sounds regarding their relative formant structure, in order to verify whether (or how) they changed along the evaluated sessions by means of a Monte Carlo analysis. As a result of the analysis, we observe that the speaker uses a formant compensation strategy for the production of her German vowels. According to the Speech-Learning Model (SLM-(r)), the speaker altered her formant acoustic cues, i.e. instead of relying on F3 to produce some phonological distinctions in her German vowels, the speaker made use of F2 to account for these distinctions.

Keywords
German vowels; formant structure; acoustic cues; complex dynamic systems