This paper compares formant transitions in English, French and German
monophthongs after labial and lingual (namely, tip, front and back) consonants. The monophthongs were extracted from words, sentences and texts read
by female speakers. The formant values were measured in 9 points within each
vowel. The line graphs representing formant transitions were plotted. The derivatives of the resulting functions at 9 points were calculated to compare the
slopes of different formant trajectories. The formant values were converted
from Hertz to Bark in order to evaluate the variability of the formant structure.
The results indicated that the formant transitions in English and German vowels were similar after tip and front consonants. In labial consonantal context,
the dynamics of formant transitions did not show any clear tendencies. After
back lingual consonants, the formant transitions were similar for all the three
languages. The region in which the greatest slope occurred was the same for
French and German monophthongs, but different for English vowels. The variability of formant structure was lower in the back monophthongs compared
to the front vowels in English and German data. However, in French monophthongs, the transition from one critical bandwidth to another became more frequent with backness.