The Baren vowel in German is known to be subject to extensive variation, including, for some speakers, a merger with the Beeren vowel. This article investigates the behaviour of the Baren and Beeren vowels in Standard German in Switzerland and Austria. We observe an ongoing merger in Swiss Standard German but an ongoing reversal of such a merger in Austrian Standard German. Independent evidence shows that both varieties (Swiss and Austrian German) accommodate toward the prestige variety in northern Germany. This presents a kind of paradox: why should merger and reversal occur side by side? We attribute these opposite tendencies of merger and reversal to perceptual salience. In the prestige variety, much variation between these two vowels occurs, so Swiss and Austrian speakers are exposed to variable input for both vowels. This paper argues that the vowel that is different from the own variety is perceptually most salient and therefore accommodated to. As for the Swiss speakers, the merger of the Baren and the Beeren vowel is unexpected, therefore salient, hence accommodated to. As for the Austrian speakers, the distinction between the Baren and the Beeren vowel is unexpected, therefore salient, and accommodated to. This leads to the observed, opposite, patterns of change

中文翻译：

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Bären 和 Beeren 元音的合并和逆转：显着性的作用

众所周知，德语中的 Baren 元音会发生广泛的变化，包括对一些说话者来说，与 Beeren 元音合并。本文研究了瑞士和奥地利标准德语中 Baren 和 Beeren 元音的行为。我们观察到瑞士标准德语的合并正在进行，但奥地利标准德语的合并正在发生逆转。独立证据表明，这两个品种（瑞士和奥地利德国）都适应德国北部的声望品种。这就出现了一种悖论：并购和逆转为什么要同时发生？我们将这些相反的合并和逆转趋势归因于感知显着性。在声望变体中，这两个元音之间发生了很大的变化，因此瑞士和奥地利的说话者会接触到两个元音的可变输入。本文认为，不同于自身变体的元音在知觉上最为显着，因此被适应。对于讲瑞士人的人来说，Baren 和 Beeren 元音的合并是出乎意料的，因此突出，因此适应了。对于说奥地利语的人来说，巴伦元音和比伦元音之间的区别是出乎意料的，因此很突出，也很适应。这导致了观察到的相反的变化模式