The diglossic situation in German-speaking Switzerland entails that both an Alemannic dialect and a Swiss standard variety of German are spoken. One phonological property of both Alemannic and Swiss Standard German (SSG) is contrastive quantity not only in vowels but also in consonants, namely lenis and fortis. This study aims to compare vowel and plosive closure durations as well as articulation rate (AR) between Alemannic and SSG in the varieties spoken in a rural area of the canton of Lucerne (LU) and an urban area of the canton of Zurich (ZH). In addition to the segment durations, an additional measure of vowel-to-vowel + consonant duration (V/(V + C)) ratios is calculated in order to account for possible compensation between vowel and closure durations. Stimuli consisted of words containing different vowel-consonant (VC) combinations. The main differences found are longer segment durations in Alemannic compared to SSG, three phonetic vowel categories in Alemannic that differ between LU and ZH, three stable V/(V + C) ratio categories, and three phonetic consonant categories lenis, fortis, and extrafortis in both Alemannic and SSG. Most importantly, younger ZH speakers produced overall shorter closure durations, calling into question a possible reduction of consonant categories due to a contact to German Standard German (GSG).

German-speaking Switzerland classifies as diglossia, meaning that the Swiss German public speak both an Alemannic dialect and a respective variety of Swiss Standard German (SSG). Both varieties have a quantitative contrast in obstruent consonants, resulting in different durational categories. One aim of this study is to investigate these categories, focusing on plosives, in both Alemannic and SSG. Furthermore, articulation rate (AR) and its influence on these categories are examined. 20 speakers of two age groups, i.e. younger and older adults, from the canton of Lucerne (LU) were recorded. They read words containing different vowel consonant combinations (VC combinations) within carrier sentences in two conditions, i.e. normal and fast speech tempo. Results show that older speakers have a slower AR in SSG while they behave similar to younger speakers in Alemannic. Most importantly, this investigation confirms a three-way distinction in consonant durations, namely lenis, fortis, and extrafortis in both Alemannic and SSG. In addition, older speakers produce longer consonant durations in the extrafortis category than younger speakers. Despite these age-related differences, durational consonant categories are stable across both tempo and age.

No abstract