Cross-linguistic vowel variation in Saterland: Saterland Frisian, Low German and High German

This study investigates the vowel space of trilingual speakers of Saterland Frisian, Low German, and High German. The three vowel systems show differences in the number of distinct categories but share the majority of vowel qualities. The speakers were instructed to read vowels of all three languages in a /hVt/ frame. We examine whether the dispersion and size of the vowel space as well as interlanguage variability of individual vowels correlate with the number of vowel categories. Additionally, systematic cross-linguistic differences were measured regarding duration and mid-vowel F1 and F2. High German monophthongs were found to be produced with longer and more variable duration. Moreover, High German monophthongs were produced with smaller F1 and larger F2 values than the respective Saterland Frisian and Low German categories. These results suggest that the subjects may use the same base-of-articulation for Saterland Frisian and Low German but not for High German.