Vowel and Consonant Sequences in three Bavarian Dialects of Austria

In 1913, Anton Pfalz described a specific relation of vowel and consonant sequences for East Middle Bavarian dialects, located in the eastern parts of Austria. According to his observations, a long vowel is always followed by a lenis consonant, and a short vowel is always followed by a fortis consonant. Consequently, vowel duration depends on the quality of the following consonant. Phonetic examinations of what became to be known as the Pfalz’s Law yielded different results. Specifically, the occurrence of a third category, namely a long vowel followed by a fortis consonant, seems to be firmly embedded in East Middle Bavarian. Up till now, phonetic examinations concentrated on CVCV sequences. The analysis of monosyllables and of sequences including consonant clusters has been largely neglected so far. In the present contribution, we analyse the impact of initial and final consonant clusters in monosyllables on the assumed relationship of vowel + consonant sequences. Thus, we included 18 speakers from three Bavarian varieties. The results show that in all examined varieties long vowel + fortis consonants occur and that the cluster complexity has no influence on the absolute vowel duration, contradicting Pfalz’s Law.