Voice and Aspiration in Austrian German Plosives

It is well-known that so-called "voiced" plosives in German, including Austrian German, are voiceless except between vowels where they are (sometimes) voiced (ie, have vocal fold vibration during closure). Nonetheless, in the phonological literature, the contrast is often treated as one of [voice]. This leaves a rather substantial mismatch between the phonological description & the phonetic facts. Jessen & Ringen (2002) have recently presented experimental evidence in support of the position that the contrast in northern Standard German (NG) is one of [spread glottis]. It is often suggested that in Austrian German there is a two-way contrast of plosives, but no aspiration. This raises a question about whether the contrast in Austrian Standard German (AG) can possibly be one of [spread glottis] vs non-[spread glottis]. This paper investigates this question. We present experimental results & argue that for AG, like NG, the appropriate feature of contrast is [spread glottis]. 3 Tables, 10 Figures, 29 References. Adapted from the source document