Acoustic analysis of vowels in Czech disyllabic words produced by L1-German speakers

Abstract

T his study presents the results of an acoustic analysis of vowels produced by L1-German speakers learning Czech as a foreign language and provides a brief overview of vowel behaviour in Czech and German. The analysed vowels are /a aː ɪ iː u uː/ in Czech disyllabic words, and the speakers are eight women with varying levels of proficiency. Vocalic formants F1 and F2 were analysed, and the differences in formant values between long and short vowels were calculated. Furthermore, vowel duration was measured, and differences between the durations of long and short vowels were assessed. The results are compared with reference values for female native speakers of Czech and German and indicate that speakers in the present study do not sufficiently distinguish between short and long vowels in Czech. Additionally, the absolute vowel durations observed in this study are longer than the reference values for Czech speakers.