• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2016

This study examined the deletion of onset consonant in the word-internal structure in spontaneous Seoul Korean speech. It used the dataset of speakers in their 20s extracted from the Korean Corpus of Spontaneous Speech (Yun et al., 2015). The proportion of deletion of word-internal onset consonants was analyzed using the linear mixed-effects regression model. The factors that promoted the deletion of onsets were primarily the types of consonants and their phonetic contexts. The results showed that onset deletion was more likely to occur for a lenis velar stop [k] than the other consonants, and in the phonetic contexts, when the preceding vowel was a low central vowel [a]. Moreover, some speakers tended to more frequently delete onset consonants (e.g., [k] and [n]) than other speakers, which reflected individual differences. This study implies that word-internal onsets undergo a process of gradient reduction within individuals' articulatory strategies.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.45-53
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• 2015

The current study investigated CVCC syllables in spontaneous American English speech to find out whether such syllables are produced as phonological units with a string of segments, showing a hierarchical structure. Transcribed data from the Buckeye Speech Corpus was used for the analysis in this study. The result of the current study showed that the constituents within a CVCC syllable as a phonological unit may have phonetic variations (namely, the final coda may undergo deletion). First, voiceless alveolar stops were the most frequently deleted when they occurred as the second final coda consonants of a CVCC syllable; this deletion may be an intermediate process on the way from the abstract form CVCC (with the rime VCC) to the actual pronunciation CVC (with the rime VC), a production strategy employed by some individual speakers. Second, in the internal structure of the rime, the proportion of deletion of the final coda consonant depended on the frequency of the word rather than on the position of postvocalic consonants on the sonority hierarchy. Finally, the segment following the consonant cluster proved to have an effect on the reduction of that cluster; more precisely, the following contrast was observed between obstruents and non-obstruents, reflecting the effect of sonority: when the segment following the consonant cluster was an obstruent, the proportion of deletion of the final coda consonant was increased. Among these results, the effect of word frequency played a critical role for promoting the deletion of the second coda consonant for clusters in CVCC syllables in spontaneous speech. The current study implies that the structure of syllables as phonological units can vary depending on individual speakers' lexical representation.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.80-84
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• 2006

Motivated by the fact that cluster reduction strategies such as inserting a vowel or deleting a consonant in resolving English complex clusters differ depending on studies, this paper investigates the repair strategies employed by Korean EFL students. A total of 60 college students participated in the present study and the participants' production of English voiceless word-initial and word-final clusters was measured using the materials designed for this study. It has been shown that prosodic positions such as onset and coda and the number of cluster sequences influenced cluster reduction strategies. The error rates of both insertion and deletion were noticeably higher in the coda position than in the onset position and both insertion and deletion error rates were higher in triconsonatal cluster than in biconsonantal cluster sequences. Overall, the insertion rate was higher than the deletion rate. However, the deletion rate was significantly higher than the insertion rate in triconsonantal coda cluster sequences. Because of this, the deletion rate was higher than the insertion rate for triconsonantal cluster sequences across onset and coda. Also, the high deletion rate of triconsonantal coda clusters contributed to the high deletion rate for the coda clusters in general.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to analyze vowel lengthening triggered by resyllabification. In general, short vowels become long when a following consonant is deleted, as shown in stehli 'steel' > st$\bar{e}$li and *fimf 'five' > five. We can account for the phenomenon in a straightforward way within the framework of CV phonology (Clements & Keyser, 1983) : deletion of a coda consonant C slot and then the preceding vowel spreads onto it, resulting in a long vowel. The analysis, however, cannot hold for words like ealhes 'temple', where deletion of an onset segment eventually triggers vowel lengthening in the preceding syllable. In order to account for this, I propose resyllabification. That is, ealhes first becomes eales by /h/-deletion. Next, the /l/ in coda is resyllabified as the onset of the following syllable, leaving its C slot unoccupied. Finally, the vowel spreads onto the empty slot, producing a long vowel.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.81-85
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• 2002

We present a statistical analysis of Korean phonological variations using automatic generation of phonetic transcription. We have constructed the automatic generation system of Korean pronunciation variants by applying rules modeling obligatory and optional phonemic changes and allophonic changes. These rules are derived from knowledge-based morphophonological analysis and government standard pronunciation rules. This system is optimized for continuous speech recognition by generating phonetic transcriptions for training and constructing a pronunciation dictionary for recognition. In this paper, we describe Korean phonological variations by analyzing the statistics of phonemic change rule applications for the 60,000 sentences in the Samsung PBS(Phonetic Balanced Sentence) Speech DB. Our results show that the most frequently happening obligatory phonemic variations are in the order of liaison, tensification, aspirationalization, and nasalization of obstruent, and that the most frequently happening optional phonemic variations are in the order of initial consonant h-deletion, insertion of final consonant with the same place of articulation as the next consonants, and deletion of final consonant with the same place of articulation as the next consonants. These statistics can be used for improving the performance of speech recognition systems.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.9-14
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• 2016

This study investigated the patterns of coda deletion in spontaneous Seoul Korean speech. More specifically, the current study focused on three factors in promoting coda deletion, namely, word position, consonant type, and morpheme type. The results revealed that, first, coda deletion frequently occurred when affixes were attached to the ends of words, rather than in affixes in word-internal positions or in roots. Second, alveolar consonants [n] and [l] in the coda positions of high-frequency affixes [nɨn] and [lɨl] were most likely to be deleted. Additionally, regarding affix reduction in the word-final position, all subjects seemed to depend on this articulatory strategy to a similar degree. In sum, the current study found that affixes without primary semantic content in spontaneous speech tend to undergo the process of reduction, favoring the occurrence of specific pronunciation variants.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.65-73
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• 2010

No systematic study has examined the relationship between acoustic variability and /w/-deletion in Korean. Most previous studies on /w/-deletion have described /w/-variants in categorical terms, i.e., /w/-deletion or a full glide (Silva 1991; Kang 1997; Yun 2005). These studies are based either on impressionistic judgements without a systematic acoustic analysis or on an exclusive examination of internal acoustic variability of /w/ such as F2, without examining the availability of external acoustic cues such as voice onset time (VOT) of a consonant. However, given the important influence of the adjacent sounds for segmental realizations, it is necessary to examine possible acoustic variability in the differentiation of /w/-variants. The present study aims to address this issue by evaluating the acoustic properties of /CwV/, including VOT and formant transitions. In the analysis, 432 tokens in word-initial position (216 /CwV/ words and 216 /CV/ words) were examined. The results indicated that /w/ exhibits four different variants. Firstly, /w/ is realized as a full glide. Such a variant is characterized by a VOT difference and significant differences in F1 and F2 at voicing onset compared with /CwV/ and /CV/. Secondly, /w/ can be maintained but coarticulated with the following vowel. Such a variant is demonstrated by differences in VOT and F2. Thirdly, /w/ is categorically deleted, which is indicated by the absence of any differences in VOT, F1, and F2. Fourthly, /w/ overlaps a consonant. The F2 difference without VOT difference is manifested in the variant. In contrast to VOT, F1, and F2 differences, pitch plays little role in determining /w/-variants in Korean. These findings suggest that allophones can be produced along a gradient continuum of acoustic cues, exhibiting sounds intermediate between the full realization of a given category and its deletion. Furthermore, each variant can be cued by a set of internal and external acoustic cues.

• Korean Linguistics
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• v.72
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• pp.257-282
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• 2016

The aim of this paper is to research phonological and morphological features in Korean Voices from Berlin. The Korean Voices from Berlin was recorded in 1917 at Berlin by 5 Korean prisoners engaged in World War I, some of them came from North Hamgyeong Province, the others came from Pyeongan Province, therefore these data show a North Korean regional dialect. The data are composed of three materials, counting numbers, reciting scriptures and singing folksongs. The results of this research are as follows. 1) The consonant system of Korean voices is similar to standard Korean. The 19 consonants are classified according to 5 manners of articulations and 5 points of articulations. 2) The liquid /l/ has three allophones, [ɾ] appeared in an onset position, [l] in a word medial coda position or preceded by [l], [ɹ] in a word final coda position. 3) The vowel system of Korean voices is similar to early 20th Korean's. It has 8 monophthongs, /a, ʌ, o, u, ɯ, i, e, ${\varepsilon}$/. 4) The 1 to 10 numbers in Korean voices are similar to Middle-Korean numerals. 5) The genitive particle '/ɯi/의' is pronounced [i], [ɯ], [${\varepsilon}$], especially [ɯ] is appeared in Sino Korean. 6) The /l/-deletion of conjugations are similar to Middle-Korean, /l/ deletion always occurred, if [+cor] consonants are followed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.41-54
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors concerning preschoolers' ability to read words, in terms of their sub-skills of alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and phonological processing. Fourteen literacy sub-tests and three types of reading tasks were administered to 289 kindergartners aged 4 to 6 in Busan. The main results are as follows. Sub-skills that predicted reading ability varied with children's age. Irrespective of children's age groups, knowledge of consonant names and digit naming speed commonly explained the reading of real words. In contrast, skills of syllable deletion and phoneme substitution and knowledge of alphabet composition principles were related to only 4-year-olds' reading skills. Exclusively included was digit memory in predicting 5-year-olds' reading abilities, and knowledge of vowel sounds in 6-year-olds' reading skills. The type of reading task also influenced reading ability. A few common variables such as knowledge of consonant names and vowel sounds, digit naming speed, and phoneme substitution skill explained all types of word reading. Syllable counting skills, however, had predictive value only for the reading of real words. Phoneme insertion skills and digit memory had predictive value for the reading of pseudo words and low frequency letters. Likewise, knowledge of consonant sounds and vowel stroke-adding principles were significant only for the reading of low frequency letters.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.73-95
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• 2007

Causal relationships of kindergarteners' phonological awareness and processing to their ability to read words was investigated with the participation of 289 4- to 6-year-old children attending three kindergartens in Busan. Results showed gradual growth in reading ability with age. Children performed best in reading words and poorest in reading low frequency letters. They showed continuous development in skills of syllable deletion, phoneme substitution, phoneme insertion, phonological memory and naming. Discontinuous development was found in counting syllables. Longer syllables were difficult to count, and middle syllables of 3 syllable words were hard to delete. Children had poor perception of final consonants of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant syllables. Children's phonological awareness and processing were latent variables strongly related to ability to read words written in Hangul.